u/UmDeTrois

This car top carrier is probably 25-30 years old and still gets use. It is a Road Rider brand KarRite model. Mysteriously, only 1 of the 4 brackets is rusted, and I can’t understand why that would be. The whole thing has definitely seen rain, and all 4 corner straps have a steel toothed ladder lock to hold the straps in place, and all of those have a nice rust patina, where it’s discolored but I’m not really worried about the integrity of it. So why would 3 out of 4 of the steel brackets look pristine still and one of them have rust all over it and the bolts that hold it (also not enough to make me concerned about the integrity of it, but still…)?

Irrelevant info - New to the group and a bit of a metallurgist myself, in the sense that I studies MSE in college then barely used it for 10 years, and now non-ferrous metallurgy is a part of my daily job for the last 2. This one has me stumped, looking forward to what the experts might say, thanks.

Spent a few hours at Elk Rapids’ Veterans Memorial Park in Northern Michigan’s Lower Peninsula (south end of East Grand Traverse Bay off of Lake Michigan), just in the main beach area.

Today’s big find was the palm sized favosite coral fossil, also known as Charlevoix stone. This was in dry sand right by our set up, far from the normal high water line.

I also found a few small Petoskey stones and other fossils. And some dark colored slag glass and coal, all of which are pretty typical of this area, and some of which I would say are a bit unique to it.

I also found a lot of nice quartz/chert/chalcedony pieces (I can’t always tell the difference), which will all tumble well.

This is a great family beach I come to often, and definitely not a rock hounding beach, but I like what it has to offer. It is unique in its abundance of cullet like slag glass, which is usually green to black, and sometimes purple or grey. You can often find pearly white, whole fresh water clam shells. The coal is also somewhat unique in my experience (does it burn in a fire? We will find out tonight!). There is also a lot of Great Lakes fossils, this favosite is by far the biggest I have found here, I think I will cut it on my tile saw but I am open to suggestions!