On Saturday afternoon, around 4 pm, we closed the showroom. It was the final day of my thirteenth consecutive show and — unlike the majority of things in the modern world — the Tucson gem shows really do get bigger and better each year. With 4,000+ dealers from practically every country on earth, over forty separate shows, and 50,000+ buyers and visitors, it's exhausting just to think about trying to see everything, but no amount of browsing and touring can prepare you for the experience of being a Tucson show vendor. 

It was back in 1998 that I made my first journey to the Tucson gem and mineral shows. I was living just outside of New York City at the time, and although I had already fallen in love with Arizona as a ten year-old boy, and had traveled extensively across my favorite state in the Union, I'd never actually been to Tucson — the seat of Pima County and a small, eclectic, eccentric, charming city in the Sonoran Desert.