Awesome Field Trip Report, Alina!
Thank You!
Sounds like you had a great time, and it sounds like you've got the "Rock Bug" bad, which is a Good thing!
Well done on your first report. The way you figured out to do it is the same way I do it. A little bit of text and a few pictures with each post.
Glad to hear Mammoth Caves is still there! I grew up in Iowa and barely remember our family trip there in the 1960's. Great place to grow up but as Mom would often lament, "It's just so far from 'anything'.
Anyway, Love all the pretty crystal geodes and I'm glad you already know about Iron Out. You can try soaking hard to clean specimens more than once, 2-3 days at a time with a good rinse and spray inbetween, but sometimes the colors are going to be included in the quartz and just won't come out.
Now those "Geode Overachievers"(
), are a different animal. The first one you have pictured, sliced open, may be an agate, and, because of the little hollow cavity in the middle, is definitely a geode. But all the rest of your samples are a type of Chert Nodule called "Hornstone". Some people call them flint nodules. Very good material for knapping found in Kentucky and Tennessee.
Thank you again for the report!