Still heading towards Flagstaff we've made a stop at the Painted Desert in Arizona, yep we are definitely in the desert.....amazing colours appearing in the landscape, never have I seen anything like it, kinda like Alice Springs in many ways but without the big rock. The Painted Desert area truly is a natural wonder. I can't help wonder about the early explorers coming through this beautiful yet unforgiving countryside, most definitely moving stick country & they are in abundance....the ones that rattle! We talk about the 40 shades of green in Ireland well I am here to tell you that Arizona & particularly this area of the Painted Desert has the same quantity in reds & would you believe that Old Route 66 runs straight thru both the Painted Desert & Petrified Forest. The Petrified Forest is high, dry grassland was once a vast floodplain crossed by many streams. Crocodile-like reptiles, giant amphibians & small dinosaurs lived among a variety of ferns, cycads & other plants & animals known only as fossils today. The trees fell & swollen streams washed them into adjacent floodplain. A mix of silt, mud & volcanic ash buried the logs. This cut off oxygen & slowed the logs decay. Silica laden groundwater seeped through the logs & replaced the original wood tissues with silica deposits. Eventually the silica crystallised into quartz & the logs were preserved as petrified wood. They are extremely strike on souvenir hunters 'acquiring' said wood with road blocks checking cars, buses etc...pretty severe jail terms await souvenir hunters, pretty sure all sheep passed. This is Arizona where things go bump in the night....apparently all weird stuff happens in & around here, guess it depends on how many brews you've had! Seemingly many UFO sightings have occurred here. Be back later.....dododododododo Wheels on the bus go round & round...... Still waiting to be standing on the corner of Winslow Arizona.......are we there yet?.......soon! Hoo Roo