It’s Sunday morning and about 6:30, we knocked off just over 300 miles (480 kms) yesterday, climbed over 2500 feet in elevation, it is 39 or 3 degrees and the sun is rising as I’m typing, Mr Sam is in the front window as we are looking almost straight east, Miss Laurie does not take sun rise photos and I’m just taking this one out the windshield but it is beautiful this morning. As you may have gathered Laurie is the photographer of this union, we are off to Albuquerque New Mexico to day another longer day than we like, but even with highs in the 70’s or 20’s today, Amarillo will be below freezing to night and a high of 35 or 2 for Monday so we will keep moving west.

Update on Thunder, back to full power, held any speed I desired, climbing up in to Texas, conclusion I purchased about 15 gallons of bad diesel in Arkansas at a Murphy’s Fuel, it was at the Walmart that we stayed at and as we were pulling out it was just handy. We normally fuel at big truck stop stations Pilot or Loves and we normally run on the top quarter of the tank because if you get some dirty / bad fuel it is quickly diluted but yesterday we run the tank to the half tank and added 50 gallons (190 litres), I will add some more conditioner this morning and I think we can call this issue done.

Albuquerque is forecasting a high of 67 and a low of 37 (19 and 3) which is much better than here and on Monday we will be moving to a street corner in Arizona. This morning the batteries are at 74%, because of driving we only brought in 18 amp/hours of solar, the batteries were fully charged from Thunders alternator, and as the sun breaks the horizon the solar panels have come to life, and within the next hour will be more than carrying the electrical load. We did not run the generator last night, I wanted to see if the batteries would carry us through the night, the voltage is 12.1 volts so not good, but just to add insult I just turned on the inverter now It reads 11.9 volts but the sun will take over soon.

Miss Laurie is preparing breakfast, a cheese omelette with ham and a bagel, with fresh perked coffee. It’s tough going out to eat when I get this kind of meal that I can eat in my house coat while watching the morning news. It’s easy to say its to save money, but the reality is because this is our chosen life style, we do pretty much the same as we did when we owned sticks and bricks, oh there are little changes, planing has became more important, pre made meals when we have hookups. We reheat more with the stove rather than the 800 watt microwave, that 800 watts is close to half what our 2000 watt inverter capacity, Miss Laurie has become a great planner and we eat better than most and a lot better than those Who are eating out all the time. Oh we still like our fried food now and then, and a good feed of smoked brisket is always a draw, you know things too difficult to even try on the move like we are, the thing we both miss are salads, it’s just one of the more difficult things to make so we buy pre packaged salads and find many are treated with sulphates to make them last longer, but all the items of a good salad take up too much shelf space in the refrigerator, as we Have found our refrigerator space is one of the things we miss most.

Well it’s noon and we are well into New Mexico, have just stopped for a little lunch and to scout out a spot for the night. We have climbed almost another 2000 feet so our elevation is around 5500 feet, so we are almost to Albuquerque elevation which is our destination for today, actually a small casino just past Albuquerque with full hookup for $17 per night, we have entered another time zone, so this should be the last change till we hit California next year, so the last time to set all the clocks, at least I can remember how, it is the fourth time in about 10 days…just saying

Yesterday was a good down day, got the fuel filter changed, Miss Laurie did some laundry, used the oven to make some meatloaf, dumped the tanks, topped off the water, and just had a break from driving.

It’s Saturday morning and quite a bit warmer this morning and the forecast is for temperatures in the 70’s or 20’s with sun shine all day, so we are heading west, just to update the air filter did not get changed, the correct one that was to be in this morning, didn’t show up, something about a truck down. Said it was heading out of Tulsa this morning but I wanted to be on the road by 9am if possible, so I just got a refund, picked up another fuel filter and some Lucas diesel fuel conditioner. So back to Thunder and pack things away, put the old air filter back in place, add some of the conditioner, a quick bite of breakfast and we were on the road.

As we made our way to I-44 Thunder still has a little cough but much better than Thursday when we pulled in, as the fuel filter has made that much difference, I’m lead to believe that we just got some bad fuel. A fuel top up at the service centre on I-44 and just ease Thunder down the road, maintaining 60 to 65 mph, as we continue to roll, Thunder just keeps running better, pretty soon Miss Laurie has noticed we are running over the speed limit. Leaving Chandler and heading to Texas we are climbing continually from 850 feet at Chandler to about 2500 feet at the Texas State line and to 3500 feet by Amarillo TX. Well we have settled into a rest stop for the night, was another big day of driving, but the cold is driving us west. As we shut down just before 4pm the temperature is 75 or 22 degrees and clear sunny skies. Will be making a run into New Mexico tomorrow which should get us past the cold diving in from the north, now the cold will because of the elevation but sunny and 51 is much better than 28 for Monday’s high…just saying.