Hope I haven't missed anything. I've been OOT on vacation. Seems I've missed 197 plurks. Sorryyyyy!

Trip to Virginia September 2021

A gazillion photos here:

Cave, rocks, covered bridges, food. Nothing really exciting.

But did you have fun?

Marf and Bob fun - mostly involving rocks.

There's a big dig about an hour away from home this weekend. We're debating if we need more rocks.

Seems unlikely.

Ruby I found.

Surprised I have any finger/handprints left.

Wow, that's what raw ruby looks like? I never would have spotted it.

It's not a very dark red. They come in sizes, gradations of red/pink, and flattened or columnar hexagons.

This is what I found in 4 hours of screening dirt.

You've developed a good eye for interesting rocks!

We weighed it on a kitchen scale and it might be almost 400 carats. If we got the formula right. But it would only cab and take a huge amount of polishing b/c corundum is just below diamond in hardness.

I tried polishing a small ruby and it just doesn't cooperate like agate. Maybe I should look online for advice.

Update: Bob brought the digital scale home (he had it at work - "Don't they provide one of those?" I asked. Apparently not. Anyway, weighed it and did the math: 460 carats. Like, OMG. Took it to Rock Club and our president (bless his heart) was speechless.

We went back to Mason Mountain Mine last Saturday but all we found was kyanite. They'd dug up dirt from a different part of the mine. Sort of disappointing. Grr. But Rock Club liked the kyanite as well.

Just admire it, I reckon. Too big, too hard to cab.