All year we look forward to it, plan our logistics and squirrel away money for it, book airline tickets and hotel reservations for it, and then, somehow by a kind of surprise after all, it's upon us: the Tucson Show!-that sprawling show-of-shows that Tucsonans call "the gem show" and solemn administrators call the "Tucson Gem, Mineral and Fossil Showcase." When we mineral collectors suit up for activities during these three weeks of city-wide buzz, we're apt to decide not to visit most of the 40+ gem and fossil sideshows-naughtily incurious, yes, but there's only so much time in a day, or even in three weeks of days. So we'll probably hang out full-time in the three or four serious mineral venues where we're certain to find the superlative mineral specimen(s) of our dreams. And showgoers who (like me) live in Tucson and don't have to bother (as I once did) with planes, hotels, and car rentals are apt to look in on some shows well in advance of their "opening" days, this being a slippery concept in any case, as for instance the eager traffic at Mineral City begins at least a week in advance of that show's official "first day."
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