I rearranged my schedule twice this weekend and drove back down to the secret spot early Saturday morning…they were calling for a high of 106, so Missy and I got up at 4 am and were on the road forty five minutes later. Docia wouldnt be able to make it down, she had a memorial service to go to for an aunt, so it would just be Missy and I this trip down. I hoped for a good five hours to work that pocket over some more after Tuesday evening. We arrived just after 6 am and got started on the north end of the pocket…..

…within a few minutes, I hit a shallow pocket, that contained a few single chips with a black center, and then a twin with black colored centers popped out as well….

..the pocket stayed shallow and didn`t go very far, trapped between two larger pockets as it were….

…and produced these guys…..

…after a few minutes, it didnt appear to me that the pocket was going anywhere on the north end, so I switched to the south end and began digging once again and pretty soon it appeared that I had chosen the right path….

…pretty soon I started seeing crystals and holes again started appearing…this time I decided I wasnt going to get my hopes up…if a hole led to something bigger and better, so be it, but if now, oh well….

…one thing was for sure, I was finding some plates and chunks of a pretty orange colored bubbly druse…..

…and within a few minutes, the pocket was expanding and filled with poker chip crystals nestled in the clay mix of dirt and mud, just like the day before….

…I was pulling them out of the pockets right and left, until all that was left were bigger ones, some attached to the side walls and some loose but in the sticky clay mud…..

…after a few more minutes of digging out the crystals and chipping out a few of the larger ones attached to the sidewalls, I found a large chunk right in the middle of two pockets…it had some chips attached to the base of it, but I wasnt sure if it was going to lead to something else or was an end to the pocket….

…I grabbed ahold of it and found it to be a bit loose, so I dug around the back side of it, which was no easy task let me tell you…that dirt on top attached at the back was like concrete, due to the dry heat we have been experiencing lately. After ripping it back and away though, it was looking like I might be able to move this huge chunk out of there soon…..

…I grabbed it again and this time it came right out…I turned it over and was like….HOLIE COW !!!!!

…a very happy guy….and was beginning to think it was Christmas in June, lol….removing this druse combo opened up another nice pocket of crystals behind it….

…which at first appeared to me as an endwall of the pocket, but the next plate I pulled out, changed my mind again…..

…and closer up….

…and then I took a short break, got some water, and chipped this twin with a base to it out…..

…pretty soon though, it was apparent that I was nearing the end of the pocket, plus I was getting tired, and the heat level was rising. I took another short break and got another bottle of water, and put Missy in the truck and turned the ac on…it wasnt going to be long before I would be joining her so I wanted it nice and cool when I got in there.

I came back and dug a little more and finally hit the end wall and removed what I could…I was fast running out of steam and the humidity just kept climbing….it was sapping my strength quickly…

…I returned to my truck and retrieved another two bags full of cloth wraps and returned and wrapped as many of the nicer ones and then filled two bags full of poker chip single crystals alone….here is what the pocket looked like after I finished digging…from three feet long at the start to now over nine feet long….

…and after wrapping up the goodies, I took one last look around and saw this spot, with a big weedy looking shrub growing up out of it and dug down a little ways…wanted to see how deep the roots went for one thing, not very far I found out but did find some signs of calcite down below…so maybe a good spot to explore further the next time….…sure hope its cooler by then…luckily we did get a spotty shower this evening and about twenty minutes of rainfall, but it didnt rain many other places….hope everyone is staying cool and hydrated out there this summer. As soon as I get some cleaned up from yesterday`s dig, I`ll post some more photos.

I hadnt been down to the secret spot for a few weeks, so Tuesday evening,  Missy and I loaded up and headed that way at 4 pm…this was before the record heat levels set in, so the evening temps were cooling down instead of heating up. By the next day, everything reversed and that all went out the window.

We arrived a little after 5 pm and the pocket I was intending to expand, was out in the direct sunlight, so I opted to check out other areas instead. I briefly walked around the pile of rocks to see if any new disturbances showed signs of life, but I moved over to a shady area, that I had previously worked before all the blasting occurred, and decided to try some of the areas where vegetation was showing….

…I`m not sure why we never checked these strips of vegetation before, but I sure plan on doing more of it now….

…we have found alot of pockets going where the vegetation is at and there were rows of vegetation in this area between slabs of rocks…if there is one thing we have learned, its that the floor here appears to be chock full of pockets in various areas….

…and while sometimes it takes a bit of time to find a pocket, today it didnt take long at all before I found some promising signs of a good pocket nearby…..

…I kept on digging down and pretty soon was seeing poker chips all over the place popping up in the clay dirt below…in fact, I found the clay dirt so tightly packed around these crystals, it reminded me of the way the clay dirt protects Arkansas quartz crystals too….

…and in some ways, this pocket was completely different than others I have found nearby…each time a hole would open up like the one below, I got a bit excited and anticipated a pocket or cavern opening up below….

…so I would back off and widen out the pocket area, thinking maybe I would get some indication of whether or not there really was a cavern of crystals below that hole…..

…and while I would pull a nice variety of poker chip crystals out of that widening detail….

…and while it gave me good indications of which way the pocket was going to move in and how wide it would go…..

…and how deep it might extend…..

….despite all that, and the fact that even more holes opened up throughout all this effort, as shown below, there were no caverns or cavities or pockets down below at all…..

…but I was never disappointed the whole time in as far as what I found during the three hours I was there…lots of bubbly druse plates, some with crystals attached, and some beautiful poker chips in singles, twins and triples….

…and within a few minutes, yet another hole opened up…which basically turned out to be a hollow spot under this cluster of poker chips that was attached to the side of the pocket, but since it was hollow underneath, I had high hopes of chipping it out later….

…and as it was…I was able to chip it out and it turned out to be a nice cluster, although it doesnt look like it here. I kept digging and the pocket kept on expanding in a seam like fashion…..

I stopped to take a water break, and returned with my four pound hammer and chisels, and was able to chip out a few nice clusters….

…as well as a few nice plates of druse and chips combined….

…and so the pile continues to grow….

…and pretty soon I had a pile of clusters big and small sitting nearby as well….some days you can chip them out and some days you only tear them up it seems like…today was producing some nice ones….

…and I was even able to chip out a nice druse plate with a chip or two attached…I gave this one to my friend Kaye…she wanted to come with me but had to go to a memorial service instead this evening….

..and below are some of my finds after cleaning them up a bit with soap and water….

this next little guy was kind of unique…it looks like another poker chip attached to a plate of druse from this side….

…but when you turn it over, here is the backside, which I normally dont get to see…..

…and this next one was actually laying loose below a huge chunk of bubble druse…I had reached under the chunk and tried to wiggle it back and forth and bring it out by itself…but it wouldnt budge, and not wanting to risk damaging it, I left it alone. Instead I took my hammer and chisel and knocked the back end of that chunk loose and then was able to retrieve this beauty afterwards….

…after taking a closer look at it, one might say it has damage, and maybe it does, maybe it happened with that chunk came down, maybe it happened before when it possibly fell off on its own…doesn`t matter to me, I still like it….even if they don`t.

…and between these beauties and this twin below…I was convinced that I needed to return and see if that pocket would expand and produce more than it did today….

…so I decided to come back a few days later…..stay tuned….

I meant to have this story posted by Sunday night, but a bee interrupted my plans and stung me instead….I didnt feel the sting, which is unusual for me as bees and wasps normally get me pretty good, but I hadnt sat down at my computer to work on the story for ten minutes til I def felt the symptoms coming on…at first I figured I was imagining things, since I hadnt felt any sting nor had I been stung in about ten years….so when my hands started tingling and the light itching sensations came on, I started thinking maybe I had ate something that I was allergic to…but no, I hadnt ate anything for hours, so knew it couldnt be that….then when my throat started swelling and my airway tightening up, I knew it had to be an insect sting….and started looking for one, and found one shortly thereafter on my chest. It didnt have the telltale signs of a major sting, so I grabbed one of my allergy pills and within a few minutes, my throat muscles started relaxing and the itching started to ease up as well. I called Dr. Mom as well and she suggested I put some rubbing alchol on the sting wound and then take a zyrtec….this was around 9 pm Sunday evening and by 9:30 pm, the zrytec was making me sooooo drowsy that all I wanted to do was climb into bed and go to sleep…so thats what I did folks and it was 8 am Monday morning before I woke back up. All day Monday, I was groggy from the sting effects so I just basically rested up and didnt do much til it was time to go to work that evening.

Missy and I got up early, 3:30 am and got on the road by 4 am, headed south to Eminence to meet up with Docia and her grandson, David, who I hadnt seen for a couple of years, as he lives in Alabama and only comes up to visit with them occasionally. David enjoys rockhunting though so we were looking forward to seeing him once again. We took our normal route, down Hwy 19 and 49 to Viburnum, and then down Hwy KK and TT, 72, and then B to 106 and back west to Eminence. These roads are all well maintained and lots straighter and less hilly than Hwy 19, and actually twenty miles less traveling than if I took the traditional route through Rolla and Salem.  We were about twenty miles down Hwy B, when I came around a corner and a full size deer jumped out in front of me, luckily I wasnt going real fast and was able to slow down enough to let her get on across in front of me in about three leaps…she sure was pretty, her color a reddish brown, and we continued on down the road. We arrived at the quarry about ten minutes ahead of David and Docia, and I went ahead and changed to my boots and then started digging in the hillside where I had dug the previous pockets out…

…some stuff had been pushed down from above to the ground floor on the other side, so we would have another pile to check out for goodies later on…..

…as it was, Docia spotted a pocket of poker chips near that pile and told me about it later on, and so I checked it out when the pockets on the hillside played out. On their arrival, I gave Docia the gift that Steven and April Gibbs, of MAGS in Memphis, had given to me at Marion, Kentucky, a few weeks back and asked me to convey to her. She opened it up and found a beautiful wire wrapped druse quartz necklace that they had made special for her. She was very happy let me tell ya.

She and David started digging near me on the hillside and quickly began finding pockets of dolomite druse as I had been finding just prior to their arrival. We found several of those pockets, but only very shallow pockets of the poker chips, even though we pretty much covered that entire hillside and twenty feet in both directions as well.

Docia took a walk around the walls and came back about an hour later with some bags of goodies, but was having problems with her blood pressure and so they left soon after about mid morning. Prior to leaving she told me about a section of the wall that looked like an apparent pocket of poker chips. I worked the wall for pockets  near the hillside for another thirty minutes and then drove over to check out this possible wall pocket. I parked in the shade of the wall and left Missy inside with the ac on full blast, since by now the temps outside were about 92 degrees and still warming up.

I grabbed a couple of bags and my mini mattox and walked over to the short wall and after scanning it a few minutes, noticed several poker chips attached to a matrix and began working a few loose from the matrix with the mattox tool. I had some white cloths in the bags and pulled them out and laid these poker chips on the cloths. Pretty soon I had a bag full of chips and some nice dolomite druse plates as well, and it looked like a pocket was opening up to the right of the main pocket I was working on, and behind one of the large chunks I was working on, so I took a break, and went back to get another bag and my four pound hammer and chisels, as it looked like I was going to have to pop a few of the bigger chunks out. After taking a big drink of water, I came back and popped a couple of the larger chunks of poker chips in matrix out of the wall…. 

then chiseled one out to the right, and sure enough, it looked like another pocket of chips was located behind the chunk of matrix to the right of the first pocket, as seen below……

…and closer up as seen below…..

..its kinda funny when I think back now to what I had first found in the first pocket, compared to what I was about to find in this second pocket and then the next pocket behind it as well…there was no comparison…the photo below shows some of the first material from the first pocket, and it doesnt even compare to the photo above….

…and below is one of the chunks I popped from the wall, to get to this second pocket, and you can see it is chock full of gray colored and some green colored, poker chips….very nice after washed off….

and a side view of it as well…..

…and while there was some dolomite druse in this pocket with the poker chips. alot of the poker chips I pulled out were in a brown dolomite matrix mainly, but still quite pretty.  I worked this pocket and then a third pocket opened up behind the second one, and I started pullign crystal clusters out right and left…..until utter exhaustion set in and I just couldnt do anymore. I took a short break, got some more water, and then I spent thirty minutes to wrap and bag all the clusters and chunks,  and we were soon on the way home by a little after noon.

All in all, I filled five bags alone from this one pocket and had about fifteen bigger chunks from it as well as some found on the floor below the pocket that had rolled loose from the wall in colors of green, gray, and black, and a few chocolate browns. I`ll get some extra photos of them posted tomorrow. Here is what the pocket looked like after I ran out of steam…..

On the way home, on the short stretch of Hwy 72, we spotted a beautiful eagle gliding toward us about a hundred feet up or less. I dont always get to see eagles….we seem to see alot of buzzards and chickenhawks….. he sure was pretty and a sight to behold….. they just look so majestic to me when I see them gliding along like that. I still wish I had stopped and tried to get the camera on him.  I know where he roosted, so maybe the next time I`m down that way I can spot him again, and photograph him.

Here are a few more photos of the nice poker chips I found nestled in matrix or dolomite druse down there….

Last weekend I planned to take off Sunday and return to MFQ to look for more poker chips, but some of my co-workers needed my day off instead, so I re-arranged my schedule and came home late Saturday night, then got up early and drove to MFQ and dug for two hours instead. Missy and I arrived about 9:30 am and found it to be a little overcast, even misted on us for about ten minutes on the way down there,  but it was cooler so I didnt mind at all…this is how it looked when we arrived…..

…wound up working the end of the bank on the left in the photo above…which is where I had been digging at on Memorial Day when Mike and Chrissy were here…and was trying to find a pocket of poker chips nestled in the dolomite druse so Mike could work it and take some nice specimens home with him.  As luck would have it, I hit a pocket of them today and was only about ten inches from where I had been digging that day….I walked up to the bank after we arrived and I changed into my work boots, and found chunks and pieces of clusters of poker chips and dolomite druse, that had rolled down to the bottom of that pile….

…so I knew they had to be rolling down from a pocket up above somewhere…so I started digging to the left side of my pocket on Monday, and sure enough, within about ten minutes, I located a pocket of chips and dolomite druse….

…not knowing how big this pocket would be, compared to the pocket I found there in the same bank back in the late fall last year…and knowing I had only a few hours to dig there…I didnt waste any time getting the pocket opened up to see what all was inside….

…when I was there early December last fall, Ashley and I had found a few pockets of the dolomite druse on the bluff at a higher level up…but back then, there was a dirt bank sloping up to the higher level and this time there was no sloping dirt bank up the bluff at all. In fact, as I stood there and looked on down the bluff where that pocket had been located in December, I was a good ten to twelve feet below it and probably thirty feet to the right of it, good evidence that these pockets can be found anywhere in this bluff wall. That pocket in December, also took a few hours to clean out and filled four of my bags and probable four of Ashley`s bags, too.

I decided to expand this opening so I could reach in and pull out crystals without too much trouble, and the first big piece I removed in so doing, was this one….

…a nice chunk laced with pockets of dolomite druse, that resembles chalcopyrite when held in the sunlight, it just glitters and speckles…and this chunk had two nice poker chips perched on one corner of it. The next one I chipped out, was even bigger and had a double poker chip of a chocolate brown color, nestled in a patch of dolomite crystals, on one end of it….

…and seen closer up here….

…and then I reached into the now expanded pocket and began pulling loose crystals out of it…the first one I pulled out loose was this gray colored poker chip on matrix….

…followed by this nice little round dark gray colored poker chip, the center of which was almost black in color….

…I had to do some more expanding and pretty soon, I came up to the back of the pocket, which was the bluff wall, and the pocket turned to the right and then went down into the rock more, but there was evidence that there were more gray colored poker chips in matrix as well….

…I was just going to have to chip them out of the matrix to free them.

I began hearing some bird noise and I turned around to see buzzards circling above the big wall…and then they all landed in this lone tree at the top of the wall….

…thinking there were more buzzards down here than at the secret spot…last time I was there, I saw three circling and sitting on the top of the bluff wall there.

I went back to chipping out the matrix pieces and this was the next one that came off in my hands…

…and then I pulled a few more loose ones out with color like this….

…by this time, I had two bags full of poker chips and two full of dolomite druse. I pulled one more chunk out of the pocket….

…before the pocket seemed to drop into the ground below…I didnt have the energy to follow it so I concentrated on another pocket opening that I had found earlier. After removing a few big chunks, this is what I saw….

…and up close, this is what it looked like….

…and turned out to be mainly a smaller pocket that ended too soon, of dolomite druse…there were one or two pieces with small poker chips on them, but that was all…so now I had yet another bag full of druse.

I moved up the bank a little higher and discovered even more pockets of druse along the underside of a ledge of rock….

…by this time though, I was out of time and decided to head back so I could get a good nap in before heading to work. I got my nap in and unloaded the crystals and then shot this beautiful sunset before heading to supper…..

I drove home from work and picked up Missy and then headed MFQ, to meet up with Docia, Floyd, Mike, and Chrissy at the quarry there to rock hunt on my day off.  We arrived around 9:30 am and found everyone busily digging into the small bluff on the south side of the quarry.

…the appearance of this bluff had really changed from when I was there last in December with Ashley, when we found the neat pockets of dolomite druse covering poker chip crystals in matrix…so I had to look things over and decide where to start digging in. I opted to start down near the end and see if I could climb up to the last level I had been at.

…I started down on the right side end of the bluff and worked my way up to the midway point and dug in after finding some small crystals in matrix near the bottom, thinking maybe they had rolled down from a pocket up above. Chrissy found some crystals loose in the dirt over to the right below me and she settled in to dig where you see the umbrella in the photo above. There was a lot of loose dirt covering the bluff and pockets so I had to rake that off and then dig in when I found the pockets….

…there were pockets all over the place under that loose fill dirt and most were full of dolomite crystals in different colors….

We withstood the heat, temps got up to somewhere in the 90`s and it was very hot out there folks…cant remember how hot but we were digging hard and heavy, pulling out goodies galore for a few hours at least….I finally took a break around 11 am…Floyd and Docia took off somewhere in there to return home and put some baby back ribs on for Mike and Chrissy…I was invited too but had told my parents I would be home to eat with them later…Chrissy was finding alot of material over to my right and Mike was still prying around on pockets to my left….I decided to  go up to the upper bench and see what I could find up there…

I got up there and walked into the main collecting area, and was looking down to see what was there…and looked up and to my right for a second and spotted this KILLER piece….

…just sitting there on the ground below the bluff…man I could not believe my luck !!!  its a beautiful chocolate brown blending into green and honey yellow poker chip, and its actually like two large poker chips merged into one large one….I went over and picked it up and then started looking around and spotted several smaller poker chip crystals all over in the same colors….I looked up and spotted a pocket of them about ten feet up on the wall and about twenty feet higher, was a twin to this large one, still attached to the wall, and believe me, it was gonna stay there !!!

I also spotted this chunk of calcite that was weirdly shaped, reminded me of the many large chunks of weird shaped calcite that Virgil and his friend Floyd found when they were visiting last year from Tulsa…..

…and here are a few matrix pieces I found up there not far from the pocket in the wall of the chocolate colored poker chips….

and…

and here is a selection of the dolomite crystals that I found and cleaned up later….

…I filled four bags full of goodies up there, this time I didnt find any wall pockets full of poker chips, just more dolomite crystals and since I already had five bags full of them from down below, I didnt feel like collecting even more. I took the bags and two large poker chips back to the truck and rejoined Mike and Chrissy, who by that time, were wrapping up specimens they planned to take back home with them. I showed them the killer piece of chocolate colored poker chip I found up above and Mike showed me a nice cluster of poker chips he cobbed down from a boulder Chrissy had uncovered. I was feeling light headed and while leaning on the bed of my truck, I grabbed two bottles of water and drank them down, waited a few minutes and then headed for the ac in the truck, and headed home after bidding them further safe adventures and a safe trip home.

As usual, I was going to have to work Memorial Day Weekend this year in dispatch…not sure who makes up the calendar every year, but it never seems to fall on my weekend off. Docia had emailed to let me know that Mike and Chrissy Streeter, and Opal, were driving over to Oklahoma and planned to stop and visit with us a couple of days over the weekend. I was able to move my work schedule around and take advantage of some comp time to do some collecting with them, and Floyd was home as well. It was slated to be a very hot weekend though, weather wise, so I allotted some extra recoup time as well. High temps and over exertion work against me all the time, specially when I get around good pockets of poker chips.

I comped out of work early Sunday morning and was able to get a few hours rest before Missy and I drove down to the secret spot. For some reason I thought it started getting light about 6:30 am, but as it turned out, it was light around 5:30 am. We got on the road a little earlier and driving down through the Huzzah valley I snapped this sunrise photo….

…we arrived to a beautiful cool morning and the light clouds in the sky indicated a nice day ahead with temps in the mid eighties….a perfect day to collect and dig for crystals….

Docia, Floyd, Mike, Chrissy, and Opal, werent due to arrive til about 8 am, so I had a couple of hours to expand the waterhole pocket and see if I could find another way into the hollow dome of rock before they got there. I started by draining the big waterhole again and then bailed water from the pocket too….

…looking into the bottom of the hole, I could see more crystals around the edge and the top side in the photo above…I hadnt noticed those a few days before, probably because my light was fading fast when I worked it then….

…so I started working the pocket to the top side and to the right side and started pulling crystal after crystal out of the muck…I pulled this beautiful combo plate out soon after….

…I tried to work back toward where I was sitting as well, having found alot of calcite potential, and a few crystals in the loose muck under my feet, but the water from the waterhole started trying to rush in and I couldnt dam it up fast enough, so I mainly concentrated on expanding the original pocket as much as I could.

At 8 o`clock sharp, Docia and Floyd came driving down the hillside, followed by Mike, Chrissy, and Opal, and pretty soon Missy had a companion to visit with as well….

…within a few minutes, they all split up and went in different directions, Chrissy and Docia exploring pockets along the walls, Mike started checking out some of our older pockets in the floor….

…and Floyd went up above to look for druse plates….

…after a couple of hours went by, it started heating up, for those of us out in the sun, and I looked over and saw that Mike and Chrissy came prepared, bringing their beach umbrella with them….

…the heat really took its toll on Opal and Missy though…they got to where they wanted to stand in the waterholes and stay there. Floyd and the gals found some great plates of druse soda straws up on the hill, filling several bags full of them, Docia showed me a few that were rainbow colored even. Mike found some new pockets in the old pockets we had worked earlier in the year there….

and liberated this beautiful poker chip twin in one of the pockets, it even had dogtooth points in each chip….

..in the meantime, I was wearing down after digging out several areas looking for more pockets…I hadnt found any and the effort combined with the heat was wearing me down fast, plus I still had to get a nap in and return to work that evening again….I was just about to wrap it up when I found a pocket in the top of the dome of rock near my truck….

…I looked down and could see crystals inside, so I retrieved my four pound hammer and chisels from the truck and started hammering with what strength I had left, which was very little by now, and liberated a few crystals and plates, including this dusty twin and a few singles…

…one of the first things I pulled out was a crystal with a small wasp nest attached to it, and I no sooner set it down in the gravel than a wasp came crawling out of the hole looking for his nest I guess…since I`m highly allergic to their stings, I wasted no time in picking up the hammer and smushing him….figured he might be a bit upset with me robbing him of his home.  Soon afterward, I picked up and wrapped up and then packed up and headed home to get some rest before work that evening.  We made plans to meet up at Eminence Quarry the next morning, on Memorial Day, my day off.

Here are photos of the twin crystal and the nice combo plate all cleaned up.

Saturday I loaded up the truck and headed down to the secret spot Saturday last week, to meet up with Docia and a friend of hers. I wanted to get some more druse plates from the clay embankment and Docia`s friend was looking for anything pretty, so like Docia said, this would be a perfect spot for finding pretty stuff. Her friend was running late so I arrived about twenty minutes ahead of them. I no sooner pulled up and walked over to the edge to see if anything had changed when something big took off flying from the ledge about fifty feet from me…

…turned out to be a large buzzard…I was a little disappointed, as Docia has been seeing eagles and I was hoping it would be an eagle….but as it turned out, after shooting about twenty photos of it, they turned out well as you can see….

…and was quite pretty with his plumage in flight as he glided back and forth checking me out….

…and flew around quite gracefully….

…after he finally gained some elevation right over the druse area, he was shortly joined by four other buzzards and they flew up the hill to look for something to do I guess….I parked above the druse area and walked down into the pit to see what I could find…

…and started seeing druse plates all over the place…within feet of the truck…

…and some very pretty plates at that….

…I looked around and finally found the source of some beautiful smokey colored quartz plates of druse with soda straw fingers in a clay embankment and started digging down….

…and pretty soon, plate after plate came out of the pocket….

…but most of the plates were dirt covered and yet one could still make out smokey colored straws and fingers on the plates…

..and bubbles like these….

..including large bubbles….

…about this time, I heard Docia coming down the road and she and her friend soon joined me looking for druse plates. I started walking around the area I was digging in and found yet another spot where plates were just laying all around….…so as Docia and her friend were walking all over picking up plates, I filled two more bags full of plates and druse bubbles, including this nice large plates of bubbles covered in limonite that I found on top….

..and then I drove down to the lower area to see if I could find another pocket…I had it in mind to go over closer to the backside of the pile and look, but didn`t get far from where I parked when I looked down and saw poker chip crystals laying all over the place in the gravels…which is normally a good sign that there is a pocket nearby, so I sat down and started raking through the gravel with my mini mattox…

…and after about twenty minutes, I had found a small shallow trench, and after a few more minutes of scratching around, a hole opened up at one end of the trench….

..I raked back the other way just to clear the area back and make sure this wasnt the only entrance to a potential pocket…sometimes a hole on one end is accompanied by another entrance…and soon enough I had my answer…...I started finding signs about a foot away from the hole and soon enough I had exposed a small rock wall and under the wall, more crystals appeared….

…and after a little more careful digging, a pocket opened up at the bottom of this rock wall to the left….…I reached into the pocket and after pulling some ugly pieces of dolomite out, the next two were plates of pretty druse with tiny needles of druse on them and a few poker chips attached as well…

…about this time, Docia and her friend rejoined me down at the lower level and they walked over to the Tulsa pocket to see if they could pull anymore crystals out of it. I continued to work this pocket and it expanded in a circle counterclockwise to the side of the pocket I was sitting on…

….and pretty soon it became deeper as well with some pockets located inside behind a cluster of large poker chips attached to the top plate….

…I cleaned it out as well as I could and attempted to remove the top plate with the cluster of crystals on top, but the layer of rock on top was way too thick and heavy, and by this time in the day, I was too pooped to pop. Docia and her friend had left by this time with a load of druse and her friend was very happy.  I left soon after with a load of druse and two bags of poker chips and a few plates as well.