There is so much to do and so little time before we leave for home. There are museums, shops, historical sites and opera houses that put on performances of traditional songs, musicians, contortionists and Mongolian throat singing. It has been a wonderful experience.

We will fly out on the morning of September 8 for Beijing, China, and from there to San Francisco, then Dallas. Including the time between flights, we will be traveling for 24 hours.

It will be good to get back home to see family and friends, but I cannot wait to return to Mongolia.

(In photo: Some of the performers at the Mongolian National Song and Dance Ensemble.)

We stopped along the way at a ger to have lunch. A ger is a traditional Mongolian dwelling from the times before Genghis-khaan and is more effective in rough Mongolian weather. Gers are easy to put up. A latticework forms the wall, and supports the long roof poles, which come together at the central ring. Layers of felt are draped over the frame, and covered with white cotton. Several ropes hold everything together. In winter more layers of felt are added for warmth, while in summer the bottom of the covers may be turned up for extra ventilation. A simple stove heats the ger, fueled by firewood or animal dung. The interiors are brightly colored and filled with simple furnishings.

We arrived in Ulaan Bataar by late evening and checked into the Bayan Gol Hotel.

(In photo: John Graf and Louis Jacobs enjoying the comforts inside a ger.)

It is sad to be leaving the Gobi; I have had a fantastic experience and there is so much more to learn and do. However, like everyone else, I am anticipating a shower and bed when we do arrive in Ulaan Bataar.

(In photo: Just some of the many domestic Bactrian camels that roam the countryside.)

The wind was strong enough to snap 3 of my guidelines and break a pole on my tent. This was unfortunate, since I would be taking the tent down in just 12 hours. Several others are having problems with sand in the zippers of their tents.

Dave Eberth made the comment: "Between gear failure and running out of toilet paper, burlap and coffee, the Gobi is telling us it's time to leave."

(In photo, from left: Ganzorig, Darjaa, Turuu (in the truck) and Monkbold loading plaster jackets into one of the big trucks.)

A party was planned for this evening to celebrate the end of a successful expedition, with many fossils, partial skeletons and footprints. We had Mongolian barbeque and a large bonfire. A few of us (including John and myself) were convinced to take part in a favorite Mongolian pastime, wrestling. It goes without saying that our Mongolian friends remain undefeated.

(In photo: Long-eared hedgehog that decided to visit us in the mess tent.)

On top of the short time left to finish the excavation, we have run out of burlap. Burlap strips are dipped in plaster and applied to the fossil blocks to protect the bones, just like a plaster cast on a broken arm. The entire camp has donated t-shirts, towels, pants and socks to be used as substitutes for burlap. The hope is that they will be just as strong in making plaster jackets.

(In photo: John Graf and Louis Jacobs plaster jacketing the large block containing part of the Barsboldia tail.)

John, Louis and I will spend the rest of our time excavating and plaster jacketing the Barsboldia bones.

The anterior portion of the tail has been exposed, as well as the tip of the tail next to it. It looks like the whole tail is curved around and buried in the hillside. Using a jackhammer, we will take the hill back about a meter to expose more of the fossils and make room for us to work. With so little time left, we will plaster jacket and collect just the material exposed.

Barsboldia is a poorly known lambeosaurine hadrosaur (a duck-billed dinosaur). It is named after Ligden's father, paleontologist Dr. Richen Barsbold. It was a large quadrupedal plant-eater with very tall neural spines on its vertebrae. Until now, it had only been known from a single specimen.

(In photo: Ganzorig (with shovel) and Thomas removing part of the hillside to expose more of the Barsboldia bones.)

Turtle material seems to be one of the most common fossils in Bugin Tsav. No matter where I go, I find turtle shell. This is very telling as to what the environment must have been like 70 million years ago - a green river valley with enough water to support a large population of turtles, fish and dinosaurs. The mystery is that we find very few fossils of crocodiles.

(In photo: Fragments of shell from three different types of turtle.)

While Louis and Derek scoured the hillside, I came across a threopod track preserved on the underside of a sandstone layer.

The three of us traveled to a locality with bone exposed on the surface that John and Derek had discovered their first week at Bugin Tsav. They turn out to be just isolated bones. While searching the area, I collected a small ornithopod track and what turns out to be most of the right and left forelimbs and some vertebrae of a Gallimimus.

(In photo: The partially complete forelimbs of a Gallimimus with vertebrae fragments in the middle.)

In one block are the preserved fossil foot bones of a Gallimimus (another dinosaur made famous by the Jurassic Park movie). This is very unusual to have both bones and footprints in the same rock layers.

Phil, Eva, Dave and Derek returned from a trip to Nemegt, where they met up with a BBC/Discovery Channel film crew. The film crew is making a documentary on gregarious theropod dinosaurs and came to Mongolia to interview and film Phil. The film crew will be with us until September 1, filming the rest of us excavating fossils.

(In photo, from left: John Graf, Yoshi Kobayashi and Louis Jacobs excavating a track block. Two additional plastered track blocks in the foreground.)

(In photo, from left: Thomas Adams, Young-Nam Lee and Louis Jacobs with Louis' birthday cake.)

Yoshi Kobayashi, who has spent several years doing paleontology in Mongolia, had a conversation with one of the cooks about who the new people are in camp. Turns out that my name has been causing some confusion with our Mongolian friends. Tom translates to "big" in Mongolian, and Thomas, which sounds like tom yas, translates to "big fossil or bone." So when Yoshi told Otgoo my name was Tom, she responded "Yes, I know he's big, but what is his name?"

(In photo: John Graf at the ornithomimid quarry/track site.)

After lunch, we walked a circle from where the vehicles were parked looking for fossil localities. We found several areas with bone fragments on the surface. Shortly before we needed to meet up with the rest of the team members, we came across a poached fossil site of hadrosaur material.

(In photo: John Graf and Thomas Adams at Tsagan Khusu overlooking the Gobi Desert.)

This afternoon John and Nam-Soo measured a section (measured and described the rock layers) at the therizinosaur quarry and collected more carbonate samples, while Louis and I helped the crew plaster jacket the larger blocks in the quarry.

Each night, we all gather at 8 for dinner. Our cooks, Otgoo and Baaska, serve a terrific meal that varies from rice or noodles with meat, dumplings, soups, fried or steamed bread and assorted side dishes. Meat (beef, lamb, or goat) is served in large quantities, and we always leave the table full. Every meal, except soup, is eaten with chopsticks (including spaghetti). Needless to say, my skill with chopsticks is improving. Our Korean colleagues have supplemented each meal with kimchi, seaweed and canned beef and fish.

(In photo, clockwise from left: Dinner in the mess tent. Dave Eberth, Nam-Soo Kim, John Graf, Eva Koppelhus, Phil Currie, Ligden Barsbold, Yuong-Nam Lee and Louis Jacobs.)

The weather has been good so far. The temperature is cool in the early part of the day and rises to the mid to upper 90s by the afternoon. Around 6, the temps fall back down to 70 to 60 degrees. There have only been a few days with strong wind. Usually in the afternoon, when temps rise, so does the wind.

No matter how hard you try, the wind blows sand and dust into everything, including your clothes, tent and sleeping bag.

(In photo: Thomas' tent at sunrise with sandstone bluffs in the background.)