3-19-09 Weekend

I was informed by my better half that we had a birthday party to go to in VA this past weekend. She saw it as an opportunity to spend some time with old friends, and I saw it as another opporuntiy to hit the beach.

I read in a thread that shark teeth glow under UV light. I just HAD to conduct this experiment!! So, I went out and bought a battery-powered UV light. I had to travel a long way to find one, but it was worth it. They didn't have a spare bulb so I bought a second one as a backup... I couldn't wait to get home. I grabbed my teeth, headed into a room with no windows, turned out the lights and witnessed an amazing color display of yellow and orange. I thought that I just figured out how to walk on the beach at night and pick up teeth without even trying. Now I know that it's not as fun as being bent over half the day looking for teeth, but it would open up a new way to hunt... I was so excited UNTIL I had a second thought... "let me see how this works on beach shells." SOOOO, I grab a handful of material that I'm sifting thru (looking for micros) and head into my windowless room. My smile quickly turned into a frown as I saw the same display of colors. I thought the Radium was what caused the glowing, but I was wrong. (Take note because I don't admit that too often ). This all leads to my story about Friday night... After working all day Thursday, we drove straight to VA. I was in the house to kiss the out-laws and out the house fully dressed for a long night on the beach with my UV light in a matter of seconds. I was determined to test this out in a real setting even though I knew what the outcome was going to be... what's the word for that??? Stupidity, I think... Anyway, it was exactly how I thought it would be... beautiful colors all over the place, but no way of telling the difference between a tooth and a shell. I poked around for a little while and decided to go home and get a good night of rest.

Friday turned out to be a WONDERFUL day for me. I got up early and hit the beach with hopes of finding my HUGE Meg. No such luck, but I did find my largest Mako so far. It's just shy of 2.5". It was just lying there completely exposed with no other shells around it. I couldn't believe it. It was up a little higher on the beach so I know that it didn't get washed in from the night's wave action... It had to be sitting there for a few days. I saw where other people have been walking around it, but for some reason they didn't see it. A part of me believes that we don't find the teeth... they find us.

Saturday was the day of the party, so I figured that I would try my luck in the morning and then go to the party for a few hours then head back to the beach. Well, I was told that I didnt' have to go to the party, but instead I could stay on the beach and come home ONLY if I found 100 teeth. (which would be a record for me). I did my best and stayed out there for 12 hours. Sometimes walking the same portion of the beach 3 or 4 times (always finding more teeth by the way...). I did run into another hunter when I first got there. He was a really nice guy, but he kind of hung out with me and walked next to me while I was looking for teeth. When it comes to beach hunting... I like to do it alone, unless I'm going to a new LARGE beach. Most of the beaches here are fairly small and before you know it you run into your neighbor's POSTED property. Anyway, he was hanging out with me. I didn't have the heart to tell him to get lost, so I made friendly conversation... UNTIL he saw a tooth on the ground right in front of me and jumped to pick it up. He knew at that point that he shouldn't have done that, but what was he to do... so he said "why don't I search high and you search low?" I said OK. I noticed that he had walked a few feet in front of me and started searching high AND low... I didn't find anything after that. It took everything I had not to grab him by the neck and shove him into a hollow tree stump. I decided to use my brain (since I didn't use it for my UV experiment), and I issued him a challenge. I told him that I would go on the far side of the beach and he could look on this side. We'd meet in the middle and compare what we found. This way I didn't have to kill him, and I could search some fresh ground. I go really slow... he covered 3 times more beach than I did and found two REALLY nice Tiger teeth. Like I said... he was a nice guy, so it all worked out in the end. I finished the day with 91 teeth. Still a personal best for me. She felt sorry for me so she decided to count the 15 teeth that he found and let me back in the house.

Sunday was another pretty day. The sun came out to play which made for warmer weather. I was out there for about 4 hours when her dad and niece came out to visit me. He's lived near the beach for YEARS and has only found 3 teeth. I showed them what to look for and let them search around for awhile. After a several minutes of being bent over he had enough. He was walking out to his Jeep and looked down then said "I found a tooth." I looked at it and it was one of the nicest Hemi's I've seen come from that beach. It was PERFECT... no cracked enamel, no root damage, no missing serrations and weighed in at 1.5" I was jealous!!! When he got home he acted like a kid in a candy store. He was smiling from ear to ear. It made it all worth it.

We had to pack in order to drive back to NC. We said our goodbyes and headed down the road. It was a great weekend, but now I'm focused on PCS and GMR this coming weekend. BRING ON THE GREAT WHITES AND THE MEGS!!!!