jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Aug 10, 2014 16:23:39 GMT -5
We had a BLAST!!!! James is a awesome host/guide! Mark and I ended up with around 400lbs or so of great Coral! A LOT of hollows and some great colors. I have never seen so much Coral the river is covered with it! You have a hard time deciding what to keep. We are HOOKED! James, Ann and Tina were GREAT digging partners and put up with us pretty well I think! Going to build us a river boat already send a email about a Mud Motor! THANKS AGAIN James for hooking us up! Keith ( And yes that GOOD looking bald guy is me! Mark is behind me Ann is on the left and Tina is beside her. ) Tour guide only as good as guests. Never felt much like a guide, you guys obviously have been on a lot of ventures. Great company and filled the valley with entertainment. I think the gators were smiling too. Ann and Tina are gritty partners. And no one complained or whined the whole time except me. And that is a cool spot that all seem to enjoy. Hope you get a boat going Keith. Those are handy in mountain areas too. We got Mark to join RTH, now work is needed for Tina to join. Welcome to RTH Mark. Thanks for you guys helping. I finally got a chance to snorkel the deeper sections of that river having people around. Ann does have more photos. Am still laughing about her voice triggered phone camera. Worked like a charm. The girls would rather shop for rocks than shop at the mall ha. Gotta save the hubbies some money.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Aug 10, 2014 16:43:16 GMT -5
John and Ken from the Fossil Forum along with Ken's wife Tammy also came along. Ken and Tammy stepped up on the clearcut field above the river and found a couple of arrowheads. One was a coral Hernando form, a classic named after coral rich Hernando County Florida about 200 miles south of our spot. Ken a reef diver, was surprised at the monoculture of shallow water siderastrea coral. A large coral that grows in the calm bay behind the wave breaking zone. The same coral that is found over 200 miles south. Apparently a large, shallow bay existed. He said it was unusual to have such a large area with no other species. These very similar in size and structure to modern day siderastrea. Astrea meaning asterisk referring to the corallites. Due to the low water level, clarity and strong sun I snorkeled sections of the half mile section and saw thousands of massive coral heads peppering the bottom of the river. Many over 3 feet across and perfectly shaped globes, hemispheres and florets. Many ring like a giant hunk of glass when tapped with a hammer. Totally silicified throughout. They were visible in the 5-15 foot deep water. Like a coral graveyard frozen in time. Many with large botryoidal cavities. Typical Hernando points, they are very thin and have fine craftsmanship
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Post by kap on Aug 10, 2014 16:58:52 GMT -5
I've got some in the saw running now! Will post some pics when cut!
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Aug 10, 2014 17:03:51 GMT -5
I've got some in the saw running now! Will post some pics when cut! They have a lot of variation and keep you guessing. Looking forward to photos. The cleaning lady ran me out of the hotel at 11:30, slept till 10AM. You guys are tough.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Aug 10, 2014 17:07:27 GMT -5
Nice! Looks like a great adventure. That one photo reminds me of a old-time baptism . . . These angels Baptised ??
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Post by kap on Aug 10, 2014 18:58:22 GMT -5
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Aug 10, 2014 19:17:34 GMT -5
I was hoping we would find a big vug of that stuff. Looks like you did fine as it is.
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Post by kap on Aug 10, 2014 19:22:09 GMT -5
Yep a very happy digger!!
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vugs
starting to spend too much on rocks
Rockbiter
Member since February 2014
Posts: 225
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Post by vugs on Aug 10, 2014 19:27:22 GMT -5
Damn fellas.. That stuff is really nice. jamesp Looks like you've got yourself a fine honey hole of coral there. Awesome of you to share it with friends Consider me officially jealous.
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munchie
starting to shine!
Member since February 2010
Posts: 35
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Post by munchie on Aug 10, 2014 20:12:29 GMT -5
Yea we found some nice stuff got to get some cleaned and cut.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Aug 10, 2014 20:18:45 GMT -5
Damn fellas.. That stuff is really nice. jamesp Looks like you've got yourself a fine honey hole of coral there. Awesome of you to share it with friends Consider me officially jealous. There is 32 miles of it vugs. May take a long time to clean that one out.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Aug 10, 2014 20:23:08 GMT -5
Yea we found some nice stuff got to get some clean and cut. The more saws the merrier Mark. Had fun. You guys are a great team. Gotta bring some fake spiders next time.
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munchie
starting to shine!
Member since February 2010
Posts: 35
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Post by munchie on Aug 10, 2014 20:37:13 GMT -5
You got that right we will have them jumping around like crazy
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1nickthegreek
spending too much on rocks
Member since February 2014
Posts: 382
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Post by 1nickthegreek on Aug 11, 2014 5:21:28 GMT -5
I wanna see pics of a 6 foot ball python LOL!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! They look just like 4 footers. Unless the image has something for scale there would be no way to know if it was 4-5- or 6 feet long. In my 11 years of owning a reptile specialty store I sold three of them. They do exist. There are those that believe the really big ones are from a single disjunct population. There is no data to support or deny this concept. Cool, I have seen some blood balls that were big like that, but not 6 foot nor p. regius lol
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Aug 11, 2014 7:36:26 GMT -5
a 6ft ball python will weigh about 12-14# a 6ft boa constrictor will weight closer to 20# a 6ft water moccason will be under 10# unless it just ate another 6ft moccasin! lol The image you post looks like a faked snake to me. To get an 87# burmese python you need to be north of 10-11ft. Is it possible that this Burmese weighs 120 pounds ? www.foxnews.com/us/2014/08/09/florida-cops-capture-large-cat-eating-python/
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Post by fantastic5 on Aug 11, 2014 8:02:18 GMT -5
Okay, here we are all on the last part of the last day. We are all fully loaded with great coral, tired and very happy. Like every day we were the last ones on the river, so when we decided that we needed a group photo and no one was around to take it, I set up my cell phone which has a voice activated picture option. So I first set this up with 'Cheese'. And for some reason the word cheese just didn't carry well. So imagine us all sitting in the water yelling Cheese at the phone. It did snap a few, but they were all bad because we were laughing so much. So I switched it to 'Smile' and got this shot. Tina and I the second morning before we got wet. The jamesp upstream taxi service Keith giving a goodie to Tina Coral as far as the eye can see One of Tina's fresh out of the water Fully loaded sea kayak with my whitewater boat in tow for the goodies Partial first day haul for munchie Mark and kap Keith Taking a break from the heat jamesp with his mud motor kap Keiths haul from noodling the bank I cannot express enough thanks to JamesP for hosting this trip. We all had a great time with great friends both old and new.
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Deleted
Deleted Member
Member since January 1970
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Post by Deleted on Aug 11, 2014 9:43:01 GMT -5
a 6ft ball python will weigh about 12-14# a 6ft boa constrictor will weight closer to 20# a 6ft water moccason will be under 10# unless it just ate another 6ft moccasin! lol The image you post looks like a faked snake to me. To get an 87# burmese python you need to be north of 10-11ft. Is it possible that this Burmese weighs 120 pounds ? www.foxnews.com/us/2014/08/09/florida-cops-capture-large-cat-eating-python/No that snake is about 60#. 120# burmese pythons are 15 feet long and thick as a fat man's thigh.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Aug 11, 2014 9:49:00 GMT -5
Great photos Ann. I like the noodling description. Saturday morning was needing Ibuprofen from 3 day soreness syndrome. You guys never whined. And dug like gophers.
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jamesp
Cave Dweller
Member since October 2012
Posts: 36,154
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Post by jamesp on Aug 11, 2014 9:54:52 GMT -5
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panamark
fully equipped rock polisher
Member since September 2012
Posts: 1,343
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Post by panamark on Aug 11, 2014 10:01:19 GMT -5
The jamesp upstream taxi service Wow, are we trusting or what? James, could you not find any mud to christen them? I have seen how far those mudbuddies can fling mud! On our dirt bikes people learn quick not to come that close. Even if we stop at a mud hole and ask someone "come look at this". LOL
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