Gem And Mineral Show

While staying in an area, we like to watch for local events and check them out, even if it is something we wouldn't consider ourselves interested in or knowledgeable about.  We find that there is always something for us to appreciate and we generally learn something new, too.  This gem and mineral show is put on by the Mohave County Gemstoners Club.  Enjoy the show!

Love these!

Amazingly pretty colors and patterns available in nature!

I believe these are salt crystals.  I love the lighted one! 

At first I thought these were just cheap looking necklaces, but I've come to realize that they are gems and minerals cut into beads and strung on fishing line for sale to people who make jewelry!

I thought the knife holder created from a cactus core made for a nice display! 

We were told that the black knife blades are made from meteorites!

Pretty lavender color! 

I thought the columns found inside the larger pretty rock were cool!

These are interesting formations!

This is called a desert rose.  I've never seen such a large one.  You can read on Wikipedia about the special conditions that form them.

These are sulfer!  We were told they exude the sulfer smell when broken open!

Lots of pretty turquoise for jewelry or other crafts! 

Very pretty pieces!

Nice!

Pretty pink! 

We were told that the fossils in these platters are real and not transferred patterns.

Some fancies for the wealthy!  I personally can admire the beauty of jewelry, as an art piece, but am only comfortable wearing a minimum of it.  I've considered buying jewelry just to frame as art!

I remember these whimsical watches from childhood!

These are cute little polymer creatures!

 Here's an interesting variety of things unknown to us!

Pretty and shiny! 

Hmmm?  What are they?  Pretty green and orange, whatever they are!

 Fool's Gold!

Hmmm?  What could be made out of these? 

More creative opportunities! 

Here is a creative idea!

Look at that amazing red and that perfectly striped piece at the top of the picture!

Enjoy checking out some more displays!

 

 

This knife has a stag horn handle.  I first took the description to mean the horn of a large animal, such as an elk, but now I wonder if staghorn is a type of gem!  Hmmm? 

 

 

 

Wasn't that a fun tour?  We enjoyed visiting with the club members we met!  If we were to remain in Kingman, I could see us joining this club for their educational field trips into the outdoors looking for gems and minerals!  Now that's something we didn't see coming!  

 

 

 

Verizon Head Trips!

When settled into an r.v. park, Roy and I enjoy lots of computer time.  We were on a plan with Verizon that allowed us 26 gigs of reliable speed usage.  While in Sierra Vista, AZ; Verizon offered us their unlimited data plan for what would be a cost savings.  We made the switch with excitement at the thought of all the things we could explore on the Internet with unlimited data usage.  We weren't told of the fine print that says that the usage speed will be throttled back at 10 gigs of use!  With our new found internet freedom, we burned through our 10 gigs of usage in a day or two and the speed throttled back so severely that it became unusable!  We were flabbergasted at a data plan being called unlimited and then made unusable at 10 gigs!  In our minds it was like buying a new car and then finding out the engine was set to shut down after 10 miles!  In researching Verizon's unlimited data plan, we found from other people's experiences, that the severity of the throttle back depends on how busy the towers are in an area.  People in some areas reported using 60 gigs of high speed internet and not being throttled back!  Four days into having the new plan, we called to cancel it, and were enthusiastically looking forward to having our 26 gig plan back!  Close to that time, we moved to Kingman, AZ.  We found that the clerk at Verizon hadn't cancelled our unlimited data plan, so decided to give it another try in our new location.  We couldn't believe it, when we burned through 60 gigs of data without being throttled back!  We had top notch download speeds and videos shown in high definition!  Wow!  What a difference!  We were on an internet head trip!  We were gaming and researching galore.  Best of all, we were exploring the world through listening to lengthy educational conferences on various topics, watching wonderful travel videos, as well as, the frivolous fun filled ones.  We streamed movies, t.v. shows and music!  All was great until the day Verizon must have decided to control the towers and informed us that our data usage would be throttled back at 10 gigs.  The month they started throttling again, the videos and streamed programs became so glitchy and grainy as to no longer be enjoyable.  General navigation speed on the internet was unpleasantly slow.  Once again we considered going back to our 26 gig plan with a reliable speed.  Hating to give up our new found unlimited data, Roy started researching the Internet for answers about Verizon's unlimited data plan.  He learned pertinent information, which he then confronted the Verizon staff with!  The catch to the 10 gig throttle back is that each device you have on your Internet plan has it's own 10 gigs of usage before being throttled!  In our case that means I have 10 gigs of high speed internet through my phone before being throttled back, as does Roy for his phone, and then also for our jet pack.  That gives us 30 gigs of high speed internet!  Each phone and the jet pack can be used as a mobile hotspot for operating our computers or the streaming feature in operating our DVD player for watching movies and videos on our flat screen television.  We learned that we can add additional devices to our plan for a flat $20 fee each. We have our old jet pack and we considered picking up used phones from a pawn shop solely for adding to our internet plan!  This technique would be cheaper than a more extensive plan that Verizon was offering.  What we have since learned is that Verizon doesn't appear to have the capability to throttle back data usage or speed, when a phone is used as a mobile hotspot!  In the last 10 days I used 30 gigs of internet operating my desktop computer's internet and Roy used 22 gigs with good speed and high definition operating his laptop computer through his phone, as well as, watching long videos and streaming off the air t.v. programs!  This experience has been amazing!  For those of you old enough to remember telephone rates based on the times and locations of calls and now enjoy unlimited phone use without parameters; that appears to be the future of truly unlimited internet usage to come!  Wow!  Won't that be something!