[meteorite-list] Park Forest, Wonderland...Day 2

From: Rob Wesel <Nakhladog_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:10:06 2004
Message-ID: <02d001c2fdfe$0a140580$4e9fe70c_at_GOLIATH>

Saturday

It was up at first light for a full day of hunting and thankfully the rain
had stopped, though it was bitterly cold. Dave and I went back to Osco Drug
to search for a hat and see if we could bribe the manager for a crack at the
roof of the building. We failed in both endeavors. While in the store the
cell phone rang and it was list member and local resident Jason Phillips who
we had planned to meet up with. Still talking and exiting the store Jason
says "Hey Rob, you wearin' a yellow jacket?"
"Yes"
"I'm right in front of you"
Sure enough Jason emerges from his car along with his brother Shawn, a
sports memorabilia collector, and his wife Brandy. If you recall from
earlier posts, Brandy was the lucky finder of a 300 plus gram stone in and 8
inch crater by a park bench. Oddly enough, she explained to us that even a
find of this magnitude was not enough to get her out of the cold that lucky
day and Jason said they could go home a soon as she found a bigger one. We
laughed a good bit to hear this and were impressed that she was here again.
Shawn was a good sort as well, happy to be on the adventure and a true
affection for of the collector mindset. Jason has done quite well in PF and
is a happy genuine person.

A call came from Roman, as planned, to join us on the hunt. He arrived
carrying his first acquisition, a 12 gram half stone that he purchased at a
reasonable price.

We searched the local area for while and ran into Rob Elliot and Gregory
Wilson, out for a bit of a hunt. Rob Elliot had pretty much set up with
meeting folks that had pieces to sell which allowed only a short time in the
field and he wanted to get his feet dirty. Not long after a Subaru Outback
comes speeding toward our location and we are met by a local resident named
Tim Janecyk. Now Tim has no real interest in meteorites but has been a
treasure hunter for some time. He has no interest in hunting meteorites at
this time because he is devoting every waking minute to assembling a map of
the strewnfield. Equipped with a full load of gear and a brand new GPS, Tim
drives around looking for meteorite hunters and then asks them where they
have found pieces. He then drives to those locations, snaps coordinates, and
plots them on a map of the area. He plots each find with a red dot then
connects each red dot to every other red dot on his map, the idea being that
with enough info he will end up with a solid red ellipse. Now, the
strewnfield on this fall covers four towns so far. Throughout the trip we
searched three of them and found ourselves in some very remote areas: lots,
alleys, woods and no matter what town you were in Tim was there when you got
there or when you left. He was everywhere, all the time. His goal is to find
the top of the ellipse, presumably where the largest pieces hit, and grid
search that area. We spent a lot of time with Tim and lost sight of Jason,
Roman, Rob and Gregory so we hit the coffee shop. While there we spoke with
owner, left business cards, and talked with customers about the fall. We met
a man who offered to photocopy the newspaper articles he had on the fall and
we gladly accepted. He dropped them off at the coffee shop later that day, a
wonderful gesture and overall picture of the PF residents. We never met a
hostile sort, though all the locals told us to watch our backs.

We called Jason to meet up again and they were about 2 miles away at a ball
field. We arrived to find that Marvin Kilgore,Bob Haag, and Steve Arnold
Chicago had met up with them as well. Roman's van was the place to be to
talk meteorites and stand protected from the wind. While we talked, a local
drove up in his car and opened the trunk. Now this was a guy at the right
place at the right time, he pulled out a box and was descended upon a bit
akin to a rabbit against a bird of prey. Unfortunately all his material was
terrestrial but I had to laugh at the frenzy. We stayed at the van looking
at some specimens while Marvin and Bob disappeared into what can only be
described as a heaving pile of rubble. We all groaned and took bets as to
how long it would take Bob to return from the pile with the main mass of PF,
given his blessed luck in all things meteoritic. They returned empty handed
and we discussed dinner plans, agreeing to meet at Red Lobster that night.

Dave and I broke off and went our own way for several hours and met many
interesting people, many with meteorites, none for less than $20 per gram
and some almost angry we were unwilling to pay it. No meteorite finds.

Evening fell and we set for Red Lobster. Joining us in the insane line at
the restaurant were Roman and Lori, Marvin Kilgore, Tim the map maker, and
collector Terry Boudreaux with his son Christopher who, at only age 10, has
a pea sized fragment of Tagish Lake! We waited for the rest to show up and a
few calls later learned that at Applebee's was the other half of our group
so we set out again. Dinner was going well and Steve Witt has his PF slices
out for show and sell. This is one beautiful piece when sliced as you have
seen. I had the chance to speak at length with Marvin Kilgore, a soft spoken
well educated man, about his collecting, his career and the state of the
meteorite market this year and this moment. He is a pleasure to listen to.
Some of the group left and I changed seats to talk a bit with Bob Haag. Not
much more to be said that hasn't been already, Bob is everything you expect.
Excited at the big and the small, cordial to the kings and the pawns. At one
point he looked straight at me and said "Look at you, you're here, you came
man, you're not at home reading about it, THIS..IS..WHAT..IT'S..ALL..ABOUT"
shaking my shoulder then throwing up his right hand "High five". Very few
moments in my life have exceeded the goodness of that moment.

I had a chance to show my found pieces to the table and again,
congratulations were issued, that was soon to change. The piece I purchased
was further examined and several trade offers rolled in but the most
interesting offer was from Rob Elliot who has just acquired the "Garza
Stones", the now famous house smasher. I agreed to meet the next day to
discuss the trade further. Just when things had leveled off, another group
came strolling into Applebee's consisting of Geoff Notkin, Steve Arnold IMB,
Al Lang, John Sinclair, and Greg Hupe. Neither the restaurant nor the five
newcomers knew what hit 'em. They had a booth in the opposite corner and our
table quickly vacated to standing room only on their side. Moments later,
Mike Farmer, and Jack and Devin Schrader arrived as well. Mike had his
magnificent oriented stone with him, the one he bought the finder a car for.
Words do not describe this piece and it will without doubt be the best of
the strewnfield. I sat in next to Al Lang and Bob Haag. Now Al is the one
dealer that was so far out from what I had envisioned. I had imagined a
stately, well spoken, dapper man. The opposite could not be more true. Al is
a wonderful man with a heart of gold, full of stories and anecdotes but his
speech is a mile a minute and rough as a cob. A bit disheveled and in your
face, funny and off the cuff , he had the whole table in stitches. John
Sinclair, never have I met a man with such enthusiasm. Much the same a with
Bob Haag, he made me realize that coming to Chicago was one of the best
decisions I have ever made. I had a chance to speak at length with Greg
Hupe, who presented us with photos of one of his African expeditions, a
stunning documentary that would make anyone's jaw drop. The photos went
around several times and about six margaritas in, Bob Haag began to narrate
each photo. Hard to discriminate the salt on my glass from the tears in my
drink from laughing so hard. For every empty glass on the table, there were
six full ones in waiting and Greg Hupe was covering the bill. For that I
must thank you Greg and I look forward to retuning the favor. It wasn't
until we were all three sheets to the wind that the crowd turned ugly and
accusations of trying to liquor-up the competition befell Greg. Steve Arnold
IMB had with him the fruits of his efforts over the last 10 days, a tackle
box containing beautiful little stones. He had worked his ass off and the
huge majority were finds. For some strange reason he was a bit vague when I
asked just where he had been hunting. It was an amazing collection greater
in number than anyone at the table but surprisingly few considering the
intense time and effort expended. These meteorites are exceedingly difficult
to find amidst the city debris and asphalt. John and Geoff had been with him
that day and did well also.

We closed the bar and stumbled home. We were tired, drunk, and had to move
the clocks ahead an hour. Greg's evil plan worked.

--
Rob Wesel
------------------
We are the music makers...and we are the dreamers of the dreams.
Willy Wonka, 1971

Received on Tue 08 Apr 2003 02:38:24 PM PDT