It always amazes me how fast time flies and how easy it is to get behind on our blog. Here its been a week and we have been busy beaching, fishing, and fossilizing, ( that's hunting for sharks teeth not becoming one). So if this post seems kind of disjointed well that's the way it goes.
While we were at Zolfo Springs, we stopped at the museum and learned that there was a fossil show. It was the first show being held by the Southwest Florida Fossil Club and so of course we had to check it out. Mike, Mona, Melanie, and their granddaughter Heather all wanted to come along and so we loaded up the truck and headed south to Punta Gorda.
We wanted to be there when they opened and so we had pretty good pickings. Its a really active club with about two hundred plus members and the displays were all chock full of megladon sharks teeth and Pleistocene mammals fossils.
It didn't take long for us to find more weight for our fifth wheel and we quickly purchased three dugong ribs, (a ancestor of today's manatee). A little further we added a bison tooth, alligator scutes and teeth, and even two cave bear molars. Of course I found a heavy rock from New Mexico that we had to have and now we have a five pound chunk of green silica gel, (needed some weight for the fifth wheel;)).
It all stuff we plan on turning into jewelry, (not the rib bones), as we plan on expanding our line of fossil jewelry. We also purchased several sharks teeth and an opalized ammonite, again all new projects for us to figure out how to wire wrap.
While there we met an author of numerous fossil books, Mark Renz, who told us about a great beach to hunt for sharks teeth. As it was on our way home we decided to stop for a short try and we quickly fell in love with the place. People were everywhere, walking the surf, snorkeling, and using long handled scoops to drag up the shells and sort through the material looking for megladon remains.
Even with the large number of people we still found small teeth, they were a dark black, and so its a place where we plan on returning for a full day of fun. Mikes grand daughter Heather found the largest one and isn't that how it is supposed to happen?
Another day we decided that we hadn't had enough beach fun and so we headed to Fort Desoto. I took along my fishing pole and shortly after we got there birds started to dive bomb a school of bait fish. They were being forced to the surface by blue fish and I actually got out there and had two on, losing both. It not unusual to lose blue fish as they had extremely sharp teeth and it didn't matter as I was going to release them anyway, (haven't figured out how to cook them properly).
It would have been different if I caught a nice flounder and I did talk with several fly fisherpersons who were targeting the huge sea trout that were occasionally swimming through the pass. I never did hook up with any other fish but that was ok as it was a great day to be relaxing on a beautiful beach.
So its been a busy week and as it ended it was time to say goodbye to Mike and Mona. Mona is retired but Mike still has his business, Mike Brackin's Civil War Antiques, and were heading back to their home in North Carolina. Nothing like time with family scouring the beaches. Clear skies
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