WK's blog: Treasure!!! Treasure... Treasure???

Saturday, June 7, 2008

Leaving Sundowner RV Village and arrived back at Old Corundum Campground to try to make a deal with Mack (the campground owner) for his rocks. I had called him in advance to let him know so he could be prepared. As you may know I tried to cut a deal with him before I left for school but he would not commit. I had decided that I would give him 5 days to make a decision. If we could not make an agreement before Wednesday then I would head to Columbus, OH where my friends Clyde and Claudia live and I thought I would hang with them for awhile. So I arrive Saturday Morning, Mack is out of town and won’t be back until that evening. I set up Cazee and prepare to stay for a couple of days.

Monday, June 9, 2008

Monday noon and still no sign of Mack. I heard he was back but I haven’t seen him but he knows I’m here and where I am, so I go looking for him. I finally found him jawing with another camper that was getting his air conditioner fixed. I semi-confronted him and told him that to show me where the rocks were and I would pull them out myself, that he would not have to do a thing. He tried to put me off till the morning when it was cooler but I insisted that it was now or never and he relented. I spent the next five hours clearing out his shed and dragging boxes and bins of rocks along with cabinets golf clubs fishing poles and God knows what else out of his shed. The cool thing was, I had fun doing it, plus it was great exercise. As I was finishing up Mack wandered by and I asked him how much he wanted for the whole lot of rocks. He refused to give me a figure so finally I made him an offer, and he said “I’ll think about it”, and walks away.

Let me take a minute here to let you know that Mack is a friendly, kind, caring and fairly generous Christian man. I like Mack a lot, as do most people who meet him. There is however, this side of him, the indecisive, inconsiderate side, which makes dealing with him on matters of personal and fairly unique decisions, very frustrating and personally offensive.

So here I am, Tuesday, all day no sign of Mack, Wednesday noon, my deadline day, no Mack. By this time I am so disgusted that I am thinking that I don’t even want the rocks anymore. Maybe I will just buy a few from him and he can do whatever he wants with the rest. So I went to his house and when he comes out he claims he has been looking for me since yesterday. Now I don’t wander too far from my camper and if he was looking for me he was looking at someone else’s camp spot. He agreed to my offer and I accepted. Be careful what you wish for, you just might get it.

Now since the decision has been made Mack is as helpful and generous as can be. He told me to load the front end of the tractor up with the boxes and bins of rocks and he would bring them down to my camp spot so that I could identify and sort them.

Thursday, June 19, 2008

One week, one day and six tractor buckets later I am busting my butt sorting cutting and identifying (as best I can) approximately 4000 pounds of rock. Now I hear you. What in the hell does he need with 4000 pounds of rock, and how will he haul that around with him throughout the USA?

Well here’s my plan. On July 23 there is another (bigger) gem, rock & mineral show here in Franklin. I have purchased a spot to sell my stuff at one of the venues. In addition I will have Jo send me her jewelry, plus I will make as much wire jewelry as I can and cut up some of the rock into slabs. (They are easier to sell that way.) Whatever rocks I don’t sell, I will try to make a deal with a wholesaler for the remaining lot minus some premium stuff for me. Things rarely go as planned, but hey, this is an adventure right?

Here is my treasure.