Hello List,
I wanted to write a few things about the fantastic hunting experience last
week in Wisconsin. It was a real blast. ( No pun intended... THIS time.)
I knew I would naturally run into some long time friends, such as Mike, Greg,
Rubin, Robert, Geoff, Dave, Rob, Cottingham and many others. It was great to
see them all again. What I didn't know was that I would make such terrific new
friends.
On the way back to the hotel at the end of the first day's hunt, Jerry and I
drove by a couple of guys walking up to their cars. We pulled over to ask if
they had had any luck. They started telling us what they knew about all of the
finds so far... and VERY unselfishly invited us to join in the hunt with them
on the land they had received permission to hunt. I had never had the pleasure
of meeting these guys, but when they told me their names, I instantly
recognized them.... Larry Atkins and Karl Aston. We all hit if off immediately
and ended up becoming great friends over the next 2 and 1/2 days. Larry's
bodacious enthusiasm and happy personality is quite infectious. A very fun
loving guy. And Karl, is one of the most laid back, easy-to-get-along-with guys
you could ever hope to meet. He worked tirelessly driving around and asking for
permission to hunt in the ever-changing and growing strewnfield. I'm sure that
all of you who already know them
will agree completely.
The four of us were usually the very first (at least by a few minutes)to meet
for continental breakfast at 6:30am sharp each morning, and were in the field
hunting by 7:30am, not coming in until around 7:30pm. We often hunted along
fairly close to each other, and spent some of the time exchanging "old hunting
stories". It was great. We also had the pleasure of teaming up with a local
photographer they had met and invited along for the hunt, Mark Hirsch. This
"newbie" was walking just several feet away from me and the others when he "had
that magic moment" and found his very first meteorite ever. Another new member,
christened into our crazy obsession. It was a true pleasure to meet and spend
some time with him as well. I have a feeling we'll all be seeing more of him at
future falls.
( You can see "the team" in action in today's RFSPOD. A big thanks to Bob King
and Michael Johnson for posting the photo! Its a great shot.)
Mine and Jerry's overall experience there was perfect. Everyone was very
friendly. The weather was great, and the scenery was beautiful. I saw quite a
bit of the native wildlife, including a dozen or more wild turkeys, a mink or
muskrat, a duck sitting on her nest of eggs, and my first wild badger (
probably was good that I was sitting IN the car when he popped up out of his
hole just a few feet away and stared at me for a minute or so! He didn't look
very happy to see me).
In the end, we did technically find some meteorites, small as they were. In
fact, as far as I know, I probably hold the dubious distinction of one of my
finds possibly being THE smallest specimen found ..... a whopping 3.2g. But,
hey. I'm not complaining! ;-)
And then there's the incredible experience of the young school boy finding
the meteorite live on camera! Unbelievable. A quick shout-out of thanks to Mike
Farmer for calling and alerting us to the finds there, enabling us to expand
our search area.
Very best wishes to all those who went and/or are planning on going. Good
luck!
Sincerely,
Robert Woolard
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