We already have plenty of rocks at Mesa Community College . . . . . . but once a year, people come from all over the country with even more rocks for the annual Flag Gem & Mineral Show! This year it was January 3, 4, & 5. These photos are all from January 4, 2020. Shatturlite? Plancheite? Chrysocolla? Ajoite? You tell me. I came for the rocks, but ended up meeting great people. This is Sindi Schloss, GG (GIA), gemologist, and her hubby, rocking the turquoise rings. She has been appraising, teaching, and documenting gems and minerals for decades. Her book, Beads: A Reference and Price Guide offers practical information, like charts and photos, along with historical information on antique beads. Sindi is the founder and president of International Gemological Services, an appraisal firm in Scottsdale. I met another president at the show, President Les Glover of the Roadrunner Prospectors' Club. Two gold prospectors, Les and Ray, taught me all about gold mining in Arizona, so it was a one hundred percent increase over what I knew before. The Roadrunner Prospectors' Club has 280 active gold claims over 5,500 acres in the Bradshaw Mountains. They keep the documents for their claims in this book. If you go with them to mine gold, you can keep whatever you find. Follow them at Facebook. It sounds like a great reason to spend time in the mountains. They also have meetings in Phoenix to pour over their gold, and potluck parties to get together just for the heck of it. I found this beautiful aragonite from Chihuahua, Mexico, and bought it to remember my fun day at the show. Following are my photos from the Mesa Community College campus, and how it looked when I first started teaching real estate here ten years ago.