How Long Does This Feeling Last?

[RickNC]

Despite a lifelong interest in fossils, I have only offically been in the hobby for a short time. I get so excited when I know I am going out. It is the strangest thing. I just can't wait to get into that creek and start screening even though I know it is going to be hard work like always. I am going after lunch today and have been all excited for like two days now. Wondering if it will always be that way...

Edited October 29, 2010 by RickNC

[tracer]

yes of course :Bananasaur:

[Xiphactinus]

been doing it for 35 years and still can't sleep the night before a big trip!

[Frank Menser]

Can only vouch for the last 53 years

[Uncle Siphuncle]

You can keep it interesting over the years by collecting venues different than what is available in your own backyard.

[MikeD]

I'm going out this weekend and have been "ready" for 2 weeks. Stayed up too late last night getting my stuff together.

[Angus Stydens]

Yep, 46 years and counting, and I still get excited every time I go out. I collect mostly eocene marine fossils in limestone quarries, and my heart starts racing every time I drive out on the floor of the quarry and see a gigantic limestone slope after a 3 inch rain.

[Terry Dactyll]

You can keep it interesting over the years by collecting venues different than what is available in your own backyard.

Focusing your efforts in collecting a specific area can pay off too and finding the 'unfindable' after many fruitless trips can also be very rewarding... More than often I go home empty handed but this doesnt mean I havent learned something new that will help me succeed in future hunts... above all enjoy it.... thats what its all about....

[Foshunter]

I go with all of the above, the thrill of what's around the next corner, finding that one of a kind, the scrapped fingers and blisters, that's what it is all about not counting getting away from work, the noise, the pressure and just some peace and quite with mother nature. Have fun, it will last a lifetime and great for your children.--Tom

[JimB88]

You can never truly get over the bug either. I stopped collected for several years but always had fossils in the back of my mind (especially when I would pass a roadcut and think "that looks like it would have fossils.")I dived backed into it last March and it was as exiting as my first find.

[beck man]

Despite a lifelong interest in fossils, I have only offically been in the hobby for a short time. I get so excited when I know I am going out. It is the strangest thing. I just can't wait to get into that creek and start screening even though I know it is going to be hard work like always. I am going after lunch today and have been all excited for like two days now. Wondering if it will always be that way...

been hunting for old stuff in a 2 mile radius of my house for 4 years still not bored always find something worth taking home and cleaning up even if sometimes its just me dogs. tara for now beck man.

[JohnJ]

Focusing your efforts in collecting a specific area can pay off too and finding the 'unfindable' after many fruitless trips can also be very rewarding... More than often I go home empty handed but this doesnt mean I havent learned something new that will help me succeed in future hunts... above all enjoy it.... thats what its all about....

Well said, Steve. It really helps to look at old sites with 'new eyes' from time to time.

Rick, if it goes away...we have to find another hobby.

[scmense]

Even time of day enters into finding fossils, how the sunlight is at the time your hunting. My wife and I drove to an area and got out and immediately spotted a number of fish vertebrae that ended with a tail, we both looked at it and came back a couple hours later and could not find the impression. We tried and could not find it again, sounds impossible but it happened and there was no alcohol involved. Dang it, if I would have had something to drink maybe we could have spotted it better crawling on the ground. Live and learn

[erose]

Sorry. No known antidote.

[Ordovician_Odyssey]

Rick, if it goes away...we have to find another hobby.

well lets hope that doesn't happen to any of us

i've just been collected for about a year or 2 now, so im a newbie, i still got may years ahead of me

[bear-dog]

I agree with the above.Cant sleep the night of the hunt.Only can drink coffee the morning of the hunt,too anxious to eat.Its funny I have only been doing this for 40+ years now.Just dont do like me,I forget to re-hydrate while hunting.Too caught up in the hunt.

[Nandomas]

Rick, I wish for you it will last all your life... :D

In the deserts or in the water, on the mountains or in th mines, nothing better than a day spent collecting fossils

[FossilForKids]

I live 4 hours from Sharktooth Hill and when there's a dig there I always plan on leaving the next morning but actually start driving in the middle of the night because I can't sleep! When I went back to STH after a near fatal bout of valley fever I wasn't thinking is this a wise thing to do or will I catch it again. I was thinking hooked teeth and large makos!!!

[RickNC]

Awesome replies!

[dhk]

I don't understand the question.

[TheFossilHunter]

You can keep it interesting over the years by collecting venues different than what is available in your own backyard.

I agree with Dan. It's yes and no at the same time. Yes, once bitten by the fossil bug , the virus will always stay in your bloodstream. But colecting the same thing could a littleget boring, especially with the time as you figure out that is really your thing and whattyp of fossils yo want to collect. You could lose a little bit of interest towards other certain types of fossils. just do things differently or switch to the fossils that interest you more in this case,.

Edited October 30, 2010 by TheFossilHunter

[Sundancer73]

I agree with all these guys.. even if I don't find much, I am just happy to be searching... Life doesn't get any better than doing that.

~Mike

[MikeD]

I noticed another feeling yesterday when driving back across Texas. It was the dissapointment that the hunt was over and it sure is a looooong way home. Was wondering where those flying cars are that we were all supposed to have by now.

Edited November 1, 2010 by MikeD

[cowsharks]

It's only been 15yrs of "shark tooth hunting" for me as my wife calls it, but my fever is still strong and can relate to all the comments above.

• always excited about buying another new pair of waders
  
• always excited about building a new sifting screen
  
• always excited about looking at my local weather forecast and tide schedule for the beaches I hunt
  
• always excited and can hardly sleep the night before I know I'm going collecting, even if it's back to a beach I've been to a 1000 times before...and if it's Lee Creek, forget about it...I don't sleep the night before and just stare at the dark ceiling thinking about how many Megs are laying out waiting for me to find!
  
• always excited about being first on the beach...heart pounds as I pull into the parking lot and see no one else there yet!
  
• always excited about new finds, even if it's just another nice tiger shark tooth, something of which I have 15,000 of
  
• always excited about looking at some of my "old" finds because I have forgotten how much I have. It's sort of like re-discovering them all over again.
  
• always excited about taking my sons with me - those are the best days...they somehow always manage to find a nice tooth - wink wink! You parents know what I mean.
  
• always excited that God gave me another day to enjoy the great outdoors and get some fresh air, even if I don't find anything special
  

Daryl.

[jpc]

I've only been at this for 20 yrs and the feeling is still there. And I also love the boredom of prep work. Ummm, I mean the final results. Yes, I do enjoy the tedium of prep work. Its a zen thing, I'm told. A very different thrill than the hunt.