Updated Feb.12 , 2006 at 6:30 p.m. Eastern time from  Atlanta , Georgia !    I'll be adding new pix later today , be sure to hit your "refresh" button to make sure you are viewing todays most current pictures . Welcome to another exciting edition of the 2006 tucson gem & Mineral show report brought to you by Dixie Euhedrals , that world reknown purveyor of Jackson's Crossroads amethyst .  I am back and have updated the breaking news page , so be sure to check it out .  When in Tucson , be sure to eat at "The old pueblo " on Alvernon next to the Clarion hotel gem show. Also good is " El Charro" on Speedway  , and " El Paso barbeque company " on Broadway for great steaks . I ate Chinese food 3 times and at every different place it was not as good as here in the ATL .  "La Salsa " on corner of Speedway and Wilmot was so good that I ate there maybe 5 times .Tips and tricks :  Be careful , because I had a guy tell me I gave him a five instead of a ten dollar bill .  When he opened up the drawer , there wasn't even any 5's in the till !     At the Inn Suites ,  I asked a price on a fossil plate and was told $150 .  I usually dress like a bum , with old clothes and a t-shirt , but this day  i was wearing a decent shirt and " ROCKING THE TOOTH" ( which means : wearing a blue tooth ear piece ).  My friend came along and asked a price and was told $35 !  That's a heck of a drop in price and the only difference was that my friend was just wearing a t-shirt . I met a lot of nice and neat folks ! I was especially impressed with the Collectors edge folks that worked the ballroom at the Smuggler's , and with Foster Hallman and " D" . I met another person that I thought was pretty cool , but I am betting he doesn't want his name on the internet ( you know who you are and thanks for the side view truck mirror ) .   More rants and raves to come soon !My friend Mike , and  also Michelle and Monte , both flew in to see the sights and help out .   I hired a limo for the day to celebrate the sale of one of the museum pieces . Here's a pic of Mike and I in front of our ride for the day  One of the cool things we saw was a dark room with fluorescent minerals under blacklight ( minerals from Sterling Hill  , N.J. )In front of the River Park Inn was a section of a huge peice of wallrock out of a vug . The crystals are taller than me !Today the temperature was a high of 80 degrees with a skin withering humidity of only 6 % ! While back home in Georgia saw ice , rain , and cloudy and windy skies , the sunset here saw very mild conditions We go to the main show today , so check back soon for another report !Yesterday was slow except for selling the museum specimen  and today was a total wash . I snuck out early to see what I could see.  One hot deal is the morroco fossils . I can get killer big sharkd teeth in matrix and I will sell these for $8 each . If you want one email me right away so that I will know how many to get . They are super !   Here's the view heading West on Speedway blvd in downtown area . The view of the irregular mountain peaks are markedly different from what I am used to .I am pleased to present this picture of the hybrid amethyst from the  Jan. 14th "Insane Clown Posse " machine dig . This specimen has been named " The Royal Crown " ( SOLD ! ) . My specialty is providing museum quality specimens wholesale to the trade  in the ten to twenty thousand dollar range .A fellow came by the shop today wearing a cool t-shirt  and when I asked he said he made it his self ( Nik Nikiforou  with the ebay id : GLOBEMINERALS ). He said that---- yesterday, with a different shirt -- when he went into one of the shops , that he asked a price on a wulfenite and the chinese lady said  $200 . The guy passed on the deal . The lady kept doing sign language that she wanted his shirt ( off his back ! ) . He kept indicating "no " , so she went to the closet and came back with a nice new sheepskin jacket and motioned that she wanted to swap . He said no and then , with a flash of inspiration , grabbed the $200 wulfenite and sign languaged a trade . She said yes , so , he took the shirt off his back and they traded !  ( He had a jacket  with him  that he put on ) .   Business was so poor here today that I said to heck with it and decided to go check out the Inn Suites . I spent 3 hours there and only checked out 25 % of what was there . Oh Man ! The is some killer stuff there , and I mean  , those " hold on a minute , I can't believe this " kind of specimens. I saw some killer new amazonite and some killer old amazonite.The amazonite cluster pictured was snapped up on the spot by Kevin Ward  and he says this will be on sale at www.themineralgallery.com for $9500.00 .    The new amazonite that I saw is being carried Joseph & Susan Dorris of  GLACIER PEAK MINES ( Inn Suites rm 182 ) and their  website at www.frii.com/~glacier   These guy have a similar operation as i have  . Their website has very interesting dig pictures and the " pocket excavation " page is great .  I have some minor small amazonites from this area for sale . I also have some small amazonite from an old 1993 dig for sale too. The various cultures are a trip , just ask Mohammed from Morroco ! I was looking for small rose quartz to sell and encountered this killer huge rose quartz sphere . It weighed a thousand pounds and when you turn the big water pump on , YES ! , the sphere does swirl around !  In the lobby was an artist and he had some awesome shirts  ( Frederick Wilda and his website is www.naturesfinestcreations.com  ) . I saw nice opal from a pay to dig place : Rainbow ridge opal mines www.nevadaopal.com    another place is  www.juniperridgeopal.com .  Here in sunny Tucson the orange trees have nice looking oranges on them this time of year . I have bought some really cool amethyst and quartz crystals , these are very cool and most are skeletal with mud and enhydro inclusions. Some are even sceptered .These come from the wa wa mountains in Utah , about 5 miles from the red beryl location. These came from the collector's edge ballroom display. These are the coolest thing and I bought a flat yesterday and one yesterday  and today I bought out what is supposed  the last of the flats except for the really expensive specimens.  The skeletal faces are superb , here's a closer view :The amethyst is neat and the included water channells are incredible and some are even enhydro with a movable air bubble in the trapped fluid inclusion .The folks at collector's edge are very nice friendly folks.      Mickey Cecil and Gary Maddox , who are selling fossil clams at the Executive inn  www.thefossilgeode.com , stopped by to see me today.  Be sure to read the warning about the flourites below.  .The very best Tucson show report  is being done by Jim Flora of the georgia mineral society , and you can see the report  at the following link   just click here : http://gamineral.org/tucson_update.html   Here's some pictures of  the good green flourites out of China ~~ I have a few of these for sale for $20 to $30 each.  I don't think the specimens I bought have been oiled , but I noticed a wet sot under one of the specimens in a different room.  A good ole greasy wet spot and a sniff on one of these flourites smelled like mineral oil , where some dealers coat the crystal with mineral oil to make it appear shinier and conceals any dings or damage.   Here's  a picture of two chinese ladies  , one of which who is named  " Yuan Ye  Xiang " . Welcome , to the 2006 Tucson rock , gem , mineral and fossil show report , brought to you courtesy of that shining star of the South : Dixie Euhedrals , that pearl of bright white light in a sea of darkness .Here is a picture of epidote on a quartz cluster. The quartz has a purpley color which may be truly amethystine or perhaps just due to the included hematite. This material hails from China and is available at several of the shops here at the resort.Special thanks to the fellow who wandered into my shop and allowed me to photo it Look for new pictures every day , but it will be a slow start until next week when I get some help so I can get out on the town and take pix at all the venues , until then , you’ll have to settle for what the customers bring into my selling room at the Smuggler’s Inn and Resort . Yesterday was a slow day as far as sales goes . I guess the competition is going to kill me one way or the other . So far , I have met some very interesting people and heard very interesting tales . One guy told me that I have entered a cut throat and nasty world of mineral dealing . It’s not bad in the lower levels of the hobby and trade , but the real diggers , those that run jackhammers , drills , and excavators , are a wily and slippery bunch , but not near as bad as the financiers and and big time dealers. I have been interested in rocks and crystals since I was 8 years old and really got into the hobby when I was 18 . Having read all the hobby and trade magazines such as Rock & Gem , Rocks and Minerals , Lapidary Journal , and The Mineralogical Record , from an early age , I had an impression of the way things were and worked . Being a mine owner , machine operator , & mineral dealer , I now have been enlightened as to how things really are . This is a long way around to saying that things are not always how they outwardly appear and that there are a LOT of things that go on beyond what you would imagine . A lot of this has to do with money and to a lessor degree , ego . I , personally , am a polarizing individual , which means folks either tend to really like me or really dislike me . If your in the group that likes me , well , I think that is really cool . If your in the group that dislikes me , ………uhhh , that’s cool too , and I bet the feeling is mutual .The word on the street is there is nothing new  here at the show ( except for me ) .There is , however , a mind boggling amount of great stuff to look at . Trouble with that is I am trapped here in my selling room and unable to get out to look untill my friend Mike comes a week from now to help me . One of the customers that visited my room was holding a flat of stibnites so I talked him into letting me take a picture for this website. So without further fanfare , here is a picture of stibnite.I have learned to speak a little chinese today !  To say "hello" in chinese , you make a sound like a donkey . It is pronounced a certain way : "knee - Haw "  and there is a certain way to make a proper greeting . It must be said with emphasis and gusto -- of which I am full of ! So , i bust off into the room and shout nee-haw , as if I were trying to scare my cat out from underneath my jeep . This always gets a positive reply of nee-haw back , and a peculiar look . I have made my hello's with quite a few chinese today , and purchased for re-sale quite a few nice quartz crystals with orsange garnet attached .I have this one for sale for $40 and some for sale as low as $12 each .Here's my first buy on my trip here : A picture of chinese realgar on dogtooth calcite. Realgar is extremely rare , and a gemmy red translucent realgar crystal on calcite is a real treat . For sale for $140.00.                       Here's a slightly better pic of my display case . Notice the fiber optic lights that are adjustable. The case is designed so that you can project light into the crystal from underneath to make the crystal glow. It is a stunning effect. The case cost $3500.00 and i am renting it for the show for $800. The rent on the other cases is $500.00 each . The average cost for a domestic citizen to set up here at Tucson is $5000.00 !  Folks from overseas have even more costs. I have another case too , but it suddenly got half empty last night . Even though the show does not start for 2 more days , the" Ballerz and Shot Callerz " are out and about , looking for that hot deal or a significant " beat them to the punch" purchase.  I sold one of my best musuem pieces to an undisclosed power hitter today , for an undisclosed but very significant price. This is a real kick in the arse , becuase I offered to loan the specimen to a GEORGIA MUSEUM , but my bad-ass attitiude doesn't mix well with their similiar attitude   ~ ( holler if you hear me ) . I would rather do without the money and  share the specimen with everyone instead of the specimen ending up ~ after changing hands several times ~~ in one very wealthy dudes private collection. Look for more and better pix tomorrow .I rode thru Texas and captured this image of the turbine windmills that generate electricity.   This scene near Stink Creek was kinda spooky , though I can't put my finger on why .  I stayed last night in Van Horn, Texas and my laptop's vodafone would not connect to the internet . The flea bag hotel left a lot to desire , so I left at 4 a.m. and shortly after sunrise i captured this image in New Mexico  These pix were taken on the hwy with me going about 80 mph ! I finally arrived in Tucson with the desert sun blazing down and a mild wind in the palm trees. Here is a shot of the hotel parking lot ( look close to see mtns in the distance )   More pix to come tomorrow  ! Don Aldridge is supposed to send pix to add to the breaking news page , this will be interesting ! Welcome to the first part of this page which begins Monday Jan. 23 as a " Blog " of my upcoming Tucson road trip & then morphs into a daily Tucson show report on my arrival at the Big Party .