Another day in the sun

Today we spent a long day on our feet.  We visited some of the show tents on the frontage road along I-10.  It provided a bare bones look at this show that I didn't see the last time I came to Tucson in 2009.

These tents are set up in dirt lots so things are very dusty.  Outside the tents, there are pallets loaded with heavy loads of rough stones and huge geodes.  I was lucky enough to get Charlene and Meryl (Carol) to pose in front of this one to show the actual size.  It really was impressive.

Another method for shipping the product to Tucson is in large metal drums.  I can't even begin to fathom the cost of shipping what must be tons of stone to this show.

Here is a picture of a pallet that caught my eye.  At first I thought it was a pallet of chunks of brightly colored foam.  I walked up and tapped on one and was surprised to find that they were blocks of various stone.  I'm wondering a couple things here.  The first is how much does this pallet weigh and is that the natural color?  I wouldn't think that the stone would be dyed in this form.  I would think that it would be cut into beads before being dyed.  I'm curious, I'll have to look that up or ask someone.

This final photo illustrates the draw of the Tucson shows.  This crate came all the way from Auckland, New Zealand.  Since coming by ship had to be the least expensive method of shipping it here, I wonder how long that crate spent getting here.

Only one more day here in Tucson.  Tomorrow will be spent visiting some of the more "polished" shows.  At the end of the day, I will have dinner with an ex-coworker who retired to Tucson several years ago before driving to Phoenix where I will catch an early morning flight.  This has been a great experience and it isn't over yet!