Not much commentary today — I'm being driven insane by the muzak. I'll explain later.

Our touring is nearly over, and we're heading down to Mesa — just outside Phoenix — to end off our trip with a few days of simple relaxation. On the way, we stopped in at the Petrified Forest National Monument where, over the span of a couple hundred million years, trees essentially turned into stone (that's my technical explanation).

The photos show a number of details, especially where minerals have been absorbed and grown inside the trees. These have the same look and texture as tree bark, but they're stone now. Kinda neat.

Finally... I'm typing this from the resort where we're staying. The place is nice, and big. Though it sort of looks like a collection of 1,000 (no exaggeration) trailer homes — but believe me, they're really nice. Anyways, the main complex is where I have to go to get the internet connection, and terrible muzak is piped in to all of these spaces — it's driving me crazy. So, I should have some time to deal with photos a little more properly now (I apologize for the huge file sizes over the past week — it's the only way I could easily update this). Anyways, time to relax...