Good morning!
  I don't usually say much on the list, but I had to say one more thing
today!!  Thank-you Karen for this e-mail to the list!!!  This is my favorite
part of being on the list.  I love hearing about the shell trips and the
experiences getting the shells!!!  Thanks! LaVerne
*******************************************



>From: KAREN VANDER VEN <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: Conchologists of America List <[log in to unmask]>
>To: [log in to unmask]
>Subject: John Lloyd State Park and Just another South Florida afternoon
>Date: Sun, 14 Oct 2001 11:13:32 -0400
>
>I'm not sure John Lloyd Park is a secret since it's been discussed
>on this list. But here's an update from a recent trip when I had
>a free afternoon for a return visit.  Beach shells on the S. FL east
>coast ? Never, except here...
>
>So I went north along the beach, checking out the sand ridge high on
>shore, looking for little shiny protuberances and poking with a stick
>every now and then.  And soon the tiny  treasures began to pour
>forth. Several perfectly fine oliva sayana were the only larger shells.
>
>I finally got to the end of the beach where the canal from Port
>Everglades runs out into the ocean.  Leaving the sand ridge,
>I went to the shore line where little puddles of grit larger than the sand
>offered promise.  Even more treasures.
>
>While I was bent over searching this, and standing up every now and
>then to put my finds in the little baggie, a young woman approached
>me and handed me a half of a bivalve  on a piece of rope. When I turned
>it over, there was an American flag painted there using some kind
>of glowing material that added texture.  She told me that she was giving
>them out to people.  I thanked her, put the necklace around my neck,
>and, warmed and smiling, continued my shelling.
>
>Finishing, I stalked back up the beach to pick up my beach bag
>with towel, shorts, hardcover novel that I never sat down to read,
>goggles, and other items. I finally realized that it was gone.
>  "Who would want my beach bag" I grumbled, my warm feeling about the
>shells
>  and the gift giving way  to annoyance and anxiety.  I continued to search
>for it, distracted a bit by an almost perfect 2 1/2 inch pair of rosy
>  pinna carnea in the seaweed.
>
>Finally I gave up and started back to the car. Then I got an idea.  Perhaps
>someone had fished through my bag and then thrown it in the garbage.
>I peered in every garbage can. No bag and no shells either. Then I
>spotted a big dumpster. I climbed up the side so I could peer in
>and I couldn't believe it.  There, just out of reach, was my bag,
>intact ! I climbed down, back up with a stick and fished out the bag.
>At the car, I took another look at the American Flag on a shell.
>I could tell that it was a glycmeris undata underneath.
>
>Bearing in mind that all shells I found  were small (except for the olives
>and the pen shell) and  that some were faded, what did I find on this
>little
>adventure? There were: terebra dislocata, cerithium eburneum, cerithium
>lutosum, turritella exoleta, favartia cellulosus (I'm pretty sure I got
>this right), columbella mercatoria, fasciolaria tulipa, busycon caricum,
>murex recurvirostrus rubidus ( OK, so the "rubidus" was gone but the
>shape unmistakable!), marginella guttata, dentalium species, natica
>species, conus species, cyphoma gibbosum, trivia pediculus, strombus
>alatus (juvenile), melampus coffeus,  olivella mutica ( really nice, shiny
>and colorful), olivella floralia, bulla striata, mitra nodulosum ( rather
>un-nodulose, to be honest), turrid species (ostrearum ?) rissoina
>decussata, nassarius vibex, among others. I left the pretty crabbed nerita
>versacolors. I'd swear there's a  colubraria lanceolata ( in very poor
>condition but recongizable). Other intriguing looking species I can't ID at
>all.
>
>Anyway...just another South Florida afternoon.
>
>
>Karen
>
>PS - In case anybody has made it this far - I must stand up to be
>counted - I like the humor on the list.


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