As you guys now know, I collected a lot of pins at the Potentates Ball (if you don't know this, its two blog posts down). As unfortunate as it sounds, I wasn't able to collect them all while I was attending the formal event.
I recieved a letter in the mail yesterday. This doesn't happen often and I was curious...who sent me this letter? Then I remembered. I ran into a woman at the Potentates ball and she was pin-laden. I asked her how she got all of them and she told me,

"just by existing."

Then she asked for my address. She said she'd send me a few pins. I thought nothing more of the interaction. But, damnit, that wonderful woman sent me two pins in the mail. I was tickled. What a nice gesture from a lovely lady. =

Sometimes I'm impressed by people's kindness.

Iowa is an acronym. People around here joke that Iowa stands for

I diots
O ut
W alking
A round

This is one of the more truthful statements I've heard about the state. But, really, people just kind of walk around and look for stuff. Bait for fishing, arrowheads, fossils, wild asparagus, wild mushrooms, wild game...its pretty impressive. Iowa has a treasure hunting culture...so, I fit in in that respect.

While I was an idiot out walking around I stumbled upon a piece of Native American pottery. I reached down to pick it up and saw a bunch of pottery chips scattered by my toes...they were probably all from the same pot. I grid walked the area and found well over 30 pieces of broken pottery in a 10 foot area.

Yup, that was my day. Not too shabby.

wow, this is a large fossil.

People who suffer from mental illness or delusions should not hunt rocks. When someone believes books, movies, inanimate objects, music, or symbols are relaying special messages to them, they're going crazy. A good example of this : Charlie Manson and the Beatles' White Album.

Another good example of this...me while I rock hunt. I went to art school for 7 years...artists are trained to yank out all of the symbolism in an image. A rose is never just a rose. Everything has a hidden messages and hidden symbols. This skill is a blessing and a curse, I can't look at anything without over analyzing it.

Which is why rock hunting brings out the crazy in me. Rocks have shapes. Its really pretty wild how varied their shapes can be. I've seen animal shapes, phallic shapes, tool shapes, people, buildings...all sorts of stuff. And when you're in a particular mood the shapes can tell you things. They didn't tell me to murder slews of people or start a cult but one rock told me to keep looking.

We were in a ditch searching for arrowheads and fossils. It was buggy but nice. The only problem was that the surrounding trees had dropped their leaves all over every sandy patch in the ditch. A tree leaf looks exactly like an arrowhead, they trick your eyes. I was getting a wee bit frustrated, every time I bent down to pick up a nice looking rock...it was a damn leaf.

I was getting ready to call it quits when I looked down and picked up a rock that looked exactly like a human eyeball. I thought,

"why not just go crazy for a minute and assume this rock is talking to me?"

So, I did. And I decided the rock was telling me to keep my eyes open. I kept them open and around the bend I saw a large orange/pink rock. I picked up the rock and it was the best fossil I've ever found. Period. Good thing I allowed myself to go schizophrenic for a brief moment or I may have walked past this bad boy.

some finds.

The Des Moines river is running low. Rocks and indian artifacts have been under water are exposed...fossils that have been hidden for millions of years finally make their way to the surface.
Yesterday, Kyle and I took the boat out and went on a fossil hunt. It was a successful hunt, we found a handful of wonderful fossils (seen above in the photo).

found: horned coral, colonial coral, brachiopods, and foraminifera! I'm in hog heaven.

And since I'm on a fossil kick I decided to post the fossils I aquired 5 years ago. I was at a gas station in rural Wyoming (wait...I think all of Wyoming is rural) and right next to their candy isle was was a fossil isle. Trilobites, Pleistocene horse teeth, shark teeth...all sorts of fancy rocks. Right next to the candy isle. Needless to say, I bought them.

We're going out to hunt on Saturday. Hopefully, I'll have some photos to post. Ta-ta.

penny time.

I went to Adventureland park over the weekend and had a damn fine time. I rode some roller coasters, drank a warm beer while eating an overpriced Phili cheese steak, screamed a lot, almost threw up on a spinney ride, and did some excellent people watching. I saw three people with one leg, two people with one arm, one woman who was covered in warts, and I observed the obesity epidemic while waiting in line.

My one beef about the park is that they didn't have a smashed penny machine. Its an old, historic park...it should have had a smashed penny machine. Well, since they didn't have one I decided to post more of my collection.

p.s. I just found a comprehensive list of all of the penny smashing machines in the united states.

http://pennycollector.com/