Service Area:
Gem Mining & Geode Cracking programs and activities

Up to this point, we have never really “officially” defined our “normal” service area. Typically, most of our events and programs are within 90 miles of Damascus, MD. However, we are willing and able to travel pretty much anywhere within the continental United States. The real limiting factor is not so much how far we are willing to travel, but at what point is it no longer cost effective to do so. The larger the event or program, or the more events or programs we can book at or near a particular location, the further we can travel reasonably.

In 2012, we are now going to have three service area classifications; Local, Regional, and National. In the future this will likely be changed as we expand into new markets.

Local service area:

We define our local services area to be up to 60 miles travel, one way, from Damascus MD. Most of our programs currently include the first 30 miles of travel one way (unless otherwise noted). For travel beyond the first 30 miles, we do add additional fees per mile traveled, and in some cases, other travel related expenses. As always, we are happy to provide a free, no obligation estimate for your program or event.

Regional service area:

We define our regional service area as greater than 60 miles but less than 180 miles of travel, one way, from Damascus MD. While we are happy to quote a small program with travel of this distance, your price per participant would normally be too high to be cost effective. Travel of this distance would be more likely for larger events or programs involving hundreds to even thousands of participants for clients such as schools, major youth group events, company picnics, festivals & fairs, and similar clients or events where this additional travel cost is absorbed somewhat by the large number of participants involved. As always, we are happy to provide a free, no obligation estimate for your program or event.

National service area:

We define our regional service area as greater than 180 miles of travel, one way, from Damascus MD. Because of the high cost to travel this distance, this is considered on a case by case basis. This would typically involve us running programs for several schools within a region, very large youth group summer camps, larger festivals or fairs, larger company picnics and so forth where this additional travel cost is absorbed somewhat by the large number of participants involved. While we may have clients that no travel fee is too great to pay to have us come out and run a program for their son or daughter birthday party. Realistically, the travel fee will be simply too high for all but the largest programs. As always, we are happy to provide a free, no obligation estimate for your program or event.

International:

While we never expected to have to say this, our service area is limited to the continental United States. We routinely receive requests from our neighbors in Canada and good folks overseas and we regret that this is outside our service area.

All travel is calculated as starting in Damascus, MD:

Regardless if we are traveling from our warehouse, office, storage lot, or another client’s address; we base all of our travel calculations as originating from Damascus, MD. This is also “driving miles” (one way), and not “as a bird flies”. We are happy to prepare a free, no obligation quote for any of our programs. We typically will use MapQuest or similar website for most of our estimated miles calculations. However, keep in mind that we place greater importance of the safest route to transport our equipment as opposed to shortest route when given a choice. 

Things to keep in mind…

Even a small gem mining program for 14 people still involves us transporting right around 5,000 pounds of equipment and supplies. Many of our larger gem mining programs can involve transporting not only that, but additional displays and upwards of several thousands of pounds of enriched ore too. We even have one large event this year that may involve upwards of 24,000 pounds of equipment and supplies.

Our geode cracking programs typically involve about a third of the weight of equipment and supplies as compared to our gem mining programs. As result, traveling longer distances with our geode cracking programs are often better choices price wise than our gem mining programs.

DIY Kits: If your budget does not allow us to come out in person, please remember that we do offer a number of different DIY kits. Theses will be available shortly at our online store