Here was our dilemma! We needed 4 large geodes cut for Tim's display as the National NFMS Show in Billings, MT. at the end of this month.We contacted a few people, but their saws weren't large enough.

Then we thought of Paul and contacted him. He said he didn't know if his saw was large enough, but was willing to try. Well we talked to Andy and decided to all go as he had been wanting to go and see Paul. We planned the trip for a few days later. Early in the morning here came Andy rolling in, we loaded the geodes and Andy, Tim and I were off on our adventure. We decided to take the scenic route through the Yakima Gorge. So over the hills up the gorge and through the woods we went. The first stop was in Ellensburg as Tim and I had never been to the rock shop there.Spent a short time looking at all they had, it was a very nice shop with lots of items to look at and then off again. Went by all these great hunting areas and all said we had to come back and check these places out. None of us have ever hunted in this part of Washington, so we want to be sure we come back to hunt. Wanted to stop one more time to stretch our legs and Andy pulled into a turnout. We looked in the small field and there were two wild turkey's, so had to take some pictures. Off we went again.

When we got to Wenatchee Andy pointed to the left and said Paul's house is over there. We decided to eat some breakfast before going to Paul's. After breakfast off we went to find "THE HOUSE!!! " After we went up and down this road we decided to call for directions. Well none of us had a cell phone!It took another 15 minutes to find a phone. Finally found a phone then realized we all forgot to bring Paul's number! Amazingly there was a phone book and to top it off his number was listed and the phone really worked!!! We got the directions and we weren't to far off from finding his house on our own.

Got to the house and were met by all,14 dogs,Paul and Jeff. We got right to cutting it takes awhile for the saw to feed a large geode through. Paul,Tim, Andy and Jeff worked with the largest one first and all had suggestions on how to hold the geode tight in the saw. Paul the man of the hour came up with the idea of the pipe clamp to hold the geode in the saw. While they were doing the geode I was having fun playing with the 11 puppies and taking pictures.

Once they started the saw it was show and tell while it ran. Tim had some faceting material and some cut stones to show. Paul had lots of really great things to show and so did Jeff. About the same time we were half done with show and tell the first geode was done. We all headed out to see what the first one looked like. It was great it wasn't solid! That's how we spent the rest of the day. Show and tell,cutting geodes, Jeff making a great lunch, great conversation and playing with puppies. I tried to take pictures of the puppies, but have you ever tried to get 11 wild and woolly puppies to get together to take a picture ?? ARG!!!! We all had a great time at Paul's enjoying the ducks,rocks,Koi, and puppies.Paul was the man working hard cutting all the large geodes. It was great seeing Paul and Jeff again and finally meeting Val and Jen for the first time. We finally finished around 7:00. Val invited us to stay for dinner, but Andy and Tim were ready to head back home. Tim did great as this was his first long trip since his back operation and cancer. We thanked all for everything and the fantastic time we all had and off we went again.

This time we headed the most direct route to the house as we were all ready to be done riding in the truck. We tried to talk Andy into staying the night as it was late when we got back to Yakima, as he had another hour and a half drive back to Tri-Cities. He declined as he wanted to get back.

Even tho we didn't hunt any rocks it was a " ROCK'IN " trip! Fantastic friends,rocks and good food it doesn't get any better! Thanks again to Andy, Paul, Val, Jeff and Jen for a great day!