Topaz mountain and Dugway geodes

What a fun and interesting weekend...

Here it is the middle of June and we had CcccccOLD weather.  We were out in the west desert in the RV camping this weekend.  We first went to topaz mountain.  Grandma and Grandpa met up with us out there.  We headed out Thursday afternoon.  The weather was nice (a little on the warmer side).  We got out there and it was WINDY!  We got some sprinkling rain here and there, but we weren't prepared for the COLD weather.  John and I found a geocache.  Then he took the girls to find another one.  In the process, he found a GREAT spot to get some topaz.  He came back with the girls and I went up there with him.  We spent about a half hour hiking to the spot and then about an hour and some change digging out some beautiful amber topaz.  We got some really pretty pieces.  NOW we know what were looking for!!!  Saturday morning the weather turned worse and my grandparents pulled out to go home.  We headed over to the Dugway Geode beds.  We had got some GPS coordinates from someone that we met on our last trip to topaz.  It was a crazy drive in...we even broke off a valve for the grey water.  We got there and it was EVEN WINDIER!!!  If thats even possible.  We found lots of pretty geodes that were broken open just sitting around.  We walked to the open holes (the pit) and found lots of people digging in the sides of the pit.  We were just kind of poking around when another group showed up.  They were expert geode diggers and they taught us what to look for and what to do.  They were really helpful and nice to the girls.  John started feeling sick so he took Rachel back for a nap.  We went and got some tools and started digging too.  We found some nice geodes but before too long, the wind got the best of us and we left.  We got on the road and headed home.

What a fun trip.

There are always funny things that happen that are memorable.  One of those was while we were driving on a deserted road in between topaz and geodes.  We come upon a car that is stopped on the side of the road and there is a lady standing in the middle of the road and they have a bench grinder sitting next to the car.  There is no way we can pass them.  We stop and ask if they needed help.  The man asked if we had a jack.  He said that his wasn't tall enough and they had been driving for hours on this flat tire......that they "fixed"..........................with.......................................... *wait for it*...................................chewed up gummy bears that they made a paste to "glue" the hole shut, electrical wire (extension cord) that they wrapped around the tire and in between the spokes to reinforce it, and duct tape.  They had been driving on this for quite a while.  They could only go 10 miles per hour.  They had only seen 1 other car besides us in 4 hours.  They asked the other people for a jack but theirs wasn't tall enough either.  WHY DIDN'T ANYONE THINK TO JUST PUT A ROCK UNDER THE JACK TO MAKE IT TALL ENOUGH????  We got them our jack and they got their spare tire put on and away they went...back to Texas.  Lol!!!