Quartzite, AZ

George Lucas must have seen Quartzite, Arizona right before he envisioned Mos Isly space port. There are maybe fifteen or twenty permanent buildings and the rest are trailors, RV's and tents. I've spent a fair amount of money here ($345 USD so far) and I'm likely to spend alot more before the end of the day. As far as rocks, minerals and fossils go, there are about 6 countries represented here: the USA, Morocco, Madagascar, Argentina, Brazil and China. two things that I'm likely to buy are an incomplete whale skeleton and a crocodile skull. Both are Moroccan.
I've been sleeping in the van and the nights aren't too cold. Over the weekend I had the fortune of meeting a group called"sisters on the fly" which is a group of women who meet and travel the country. Mostly they just asked me about paleontology, but one fellow made sure to ask if I was a christian. Since I was sharing these people's food and camp fire, I decided not to alienate them, so I played appologetics. I said I was a christian and believed in God and evolution simultaneously. I gave Dr. Lamoureaux's class synopsis as my justification: A book of god's words (the bible) and a book of his works (nature) which are both true and that the bible is not a book of science. For my three minute schpeel I received acolades for having the best argument for believing in the two that they'd ever heard. Of course, I put on a slight southern twang and said things like "y'all" and "aint." I stayed warm and got fed, so I don't feel so bad about compromising my ardent atheistic beliefs.
I'll be leaving Quartzite soon. I haven't quite decided where I'll be going, but I've seen everything here and haven't been nearly as impressed as I was when I was a kid. If I buy the skulls, I'll go back to California to drop them off, if not, I'll just go up to northern Arizona, perhaps I'll see the grand canyon again.