November 8, 2023 – Day 41 Today we decided to drive! We’ve never done that before. The good news is that today we were able to clean the windshield. (kidding) It was going to be a short day. Our drive was just 260 miles. During the day Susan checked the weather back home. We were very happy to be not home right now. Definitely pleased that we wouldn’t be driving in what was coming the next day. Partway through today’s drive we noticed that we had left the flat, dry part of the Southwest. We now had rolling hills and trees with “normal” fall colors. And the first clouds we’d…

November 7, 2023 – Day 40 Nothing happened today. We drove, we got gas, somewhere in there lunch was had, we drove some more. There’s something surreal about the photo, the bugs on the windshield, the odd reflections on the glass. We guess it fits in with the otherworldly landscape that is the rural southwest. We didn’t have nothing all day. In addition to buying gas, we got to see them process the oil. This operation isn’t nearly as big as the miles of refinery you see in Houston. It smells just as bad though. It’s the kind of bad that gets so far up in your sinuses that even…

November 6, 2023 – Day 39 Today was a travel day, not a super long one because we needed to do life maintenance and to that end we were up early. I hope you’re not getting tired of sunrise photos. As photographers, we tend to dislike them. They’re all pretty and pretty gets overdone. But man, they are nice. This was taken right out the bedroom window. Check out the vintage RV on the far left. We love seeing the older ones. Notice that it isn’t very tall. Back then they made them much shorter. This had advantages and disadvantages. Shorter is easier to store, is less affected by wind,…

November 5, 2023 – Day 38 In 1969, Robert Lamm and the band Chicago released their first album, Chicago Transit Authority. On it was the single, Does Anybody Really Know What Time It Is? That’s been us for most of this trip. At home our lives are guided by the clock but on the road our natural rhythms take over unless it’s interrupted by the noise of trains. Paul woke up at 1:30 AM to the sounds of a train. No big surprise. Also a no big surprise is that Susan slept thru it. He wondered, which 1:30 AM it was. First 1:30 AM or second 1:30 AM because it…

November 4, 2023 – Day 37 Paul had a lousy night’s sleep, really lousy. You see, Billy’s RV park is wonderfully close to the wildlife refuge. It’s also incredibly close to a very active train track as in right across the street. And did you know that trains blow their horn when they cross a road? And did you know that there was such a crossing right down the road? So we were camped about 800 feet from a train when it would blow its horn. At 1:30AM and 3:30AM. They also make a lot of noise. They make a lot of noise when they’re 75-100 cars long. That’s something…

November 3, 2023 – Day 36 Today was a driving day. We’ve been enjoying the sunrise skies so we got up super early, right before sunrise. But we were also up early to get a jump on the day for the drive to San Antonio, NM. This was taken at 6:06 AM. It turns out the desert sunrises are pretty boring a lot of the time. We were as surprised as you are. The lack of clouds means no colorful clouds in the sky. Only the horizon, as we see above. The camera didn’t catch the glow of the sun very well. What the sky lacks for color the surrounding…

November 2, 2023 – Day 35 We chose Kartchner Caverns State Park as stop on our return home because we had liked Carlsbad Caverns so much on our last trip out west. We were really disappointed as we pulled into the park in the dark only to find a big sign that said “All Tours Sold Out.” After unhooking the Jeep, then leveling the RV and putting the slides out. Susan quickly got online and was able to book tours for the 2nd. The sign must have been for the day we arrived. (susan here: I call it the “fun house”! It will never stop amusing me how you can…

November 1, 2023 – Day 34 We said goodbye to family and Phoenix, stopping in Peoria which just north of town to meet up with our friend Jay for lunch. We had planned on a half day drive from that point. Lunch was great, we bid goodbye to Jay and hit the road. And then we hit Phoenix traffic. We aren’t sure exactly how but lost half an hour with traffic. Back to the title of the blog, 7 Miles to Empty. When we drove to Phoenix we knew we had a Pilot with RV lanes on the way out of town. After a few hairy experiences both with the…