[meteorite-list] My Park Forest trip.

From: Tim Heitz <midwestmeteor_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:10:06 2004
Message-ID: <3E933846.9080601_at_earthlink.net>

Great story, thanks for sharing

Tim Heitz

Roman Jirasek wrote:

> Hello all.
>
> It was a blast and a half! Much more than I could have imagined.
> My wife Lori and I drove to Park Forest Friday morning in the middle
> of an ice storm.
> After 11 hours we pulled into the Country & Inn Suites in Matteson, 3
> miles from
> Park Forest. Now I appreciate my 4x4 Yukon even more. An hour later we
> went to
> the Baymont Inn to meet Rob Wesel and his friend Dave. Rob had a great
> ~80g
> specimen of the Park Forest meteorite he bought from a local dude,
> cheep! He also
> had several small fragments he found earlier to show us.
>
> After that, the 4 of us met Steve Witt & sister, Gregory Wilson & Rob
> Elliott at the now
> famous meteorite restaurant. We ate, took pictures, looked at slices,
> and shot the s....
>
> Saturday morning we went hunting. I met meteorite hunter Dan Cooper,
> and bought
> my first P.F. meteorite, a nice ~12g fresh crusted half individual.
> He had another 21g
> individual he wouldn't sell. But he did get a case of calendars from
> me as part trade.
> We then met Jason Phillips & wife, and Jason's brother, and hunted
> together. After 5
> hours of no luck, we decided to go for a late lunch. But before we
> left we met Marvin
> Killgore and Robert Haag in a parking lot. I got both of their new
> books, thanks guys -
> very nice, Bob even threw in one of his "Meteorite Recovery Team"
> shirts. They just
> arrived and were ready to hunt the hood. Steve Chicago was also there,
> he and Jason
> did some trades.
>
> After lunch I dropped Lori off at the hotel and went searching for a
> few more hours.
> I met Dan again and got the 21g specimen by trading some cash and a
> large NWA
> I brought with me. Now I was happy, but it was just beginning.
>
> That Saturday night was like no other. We ALL met at Applebee's for
> dinner and drinks.
> Bob Haag, Marvin Killgore, Rob Elliott, Al Lang, Mike Farmer, Jack &
> Devin Schrader, John Sinclair, Greg Hupe, Steve Arnold (IMB), Geoff
> Notkin, Rob Wesel & friend Dave, Steve Witt, Gregory Wilson, Tim
> (with 2 little daughters), Terry Boudreaux with son and a Huge
> NWA with lots of black crust, & Lori and I. Digital cameras, cell
> phones and a few digital scales were part of the table decor, not to
> mention Park Forest specimens being past
> around. And the Margaritas! Man, I think there were more than at the
> Tucson birthday bash
> I went to 3 years ago. We closed the place, it was a blast! P.S. I
> picked up a nice 14.5g slice
> from Steve Witt that evening, which was cut by Al Mitterling (nice job).
>
> Sunday was my score! Lori and I went to Steger to search the streets.
> After about 1/2 an
> hour I picked up my first ever meteorite find! 8.2 gram fragment. Then
> 1 minute later,
> across the street, a 14.6 gram fragment with 25% black crust. This I
> could not believe.
> It was a nice neighbourhood with a few friendly people out that I
> talked to. After another half
> hour I met my wife and showed her my finds. I then found a 3rd one
> when we walked together, it was 5 grams on the nose. She was happy for
> me, after all it was my birthday
> on April 6th. I got the GPS coordinates and street names for the
> record. These were
> fragments just rotting in the street gutters. If we didn't have to
> drive back that moment,
> we would have stayed to find more for sure. Oh ya, I did leave 900
> more calendars with
> Rob Wesel to give to Steve Witt that evening. Chicago has the most
> meteorite calendars
> on the planet now, besides my shop, I still have a few more than that
> unfortunately.
>
> Only 8.5 hours to get home early Monday morning. Man what a trip, I
> loved my 1st hunt!
> Pics to follow on my web site in a few days.
>
> Best regards,
> Roman Jirasek
> www.meteoritelabels.com <http://www.meteoritelabels.com>
>
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Received on Tue 08 Apr 2003 04:59:50 PM PDT