What could be more fun than driving 5000 miles across the southwest in early spring?

The Mojave desert, front and rear.

80 mph!
I didn't get such great mileage going 80, so I cut back to 67-68mph for most interstate driving. I-40 seems to be above 5000 feet elevation for most of the length I was on. I'm sure that killed mileage too. I ended up averaging between 25 and 26mpg. Normal mileage at or near sea level (not hauling a half a ton of stuff and a kayak) is 33 on the highway.

One of the first lakes in Texas I fished, Canyon Lake. Pretty... pretty windy, pretty cold. I guess this is a Texas style picnic site, one table on a five acre plot.

The Colorado River, just outside of Columbus. Beautiful, slow moving, clear, full of fish.

Looking back upstream at the highway 77 bridge. There is an old boat ramp and parking under the bridge. Access couldn't have been easier.

One of the types of sunfish I was after. This is a big male longear sunfish. This one was too big for fish tank transport, but had amazing colors. I also caught spotted, orange spotted, dollar sunfish, all good tank size. I got made fun of a bit for fishing for "perch".
I.e, "Whatcha fishin' for?" "Sunfish, spotted, longear, redbreast, orangespotted, bantam, flier." "Uh... perch? Ok..."

Hundreds of catfish, everywhere I looked there were big catfish swimming around. They didn't seem to be spooked by the kayak. This one was about 16" long, probably 2-3 lbs, cruising the shallows.. I saw several that were much larger, 10+ lbs at least. They mostly hung out around snags and tree trunks in the water.

It rained for about ten minutes one day.

Further south along the gulf coast, visiting at a relative's shop. It's -not- raining in this picture... but say hello to 100% humidity.

We saw lots of wildlife along the highways. Deer, wild horses, bobcats, coyotes, ...pronghorn antelope. Hard to get good pics at highway speeds, but my wife snapped this one as we whizzed past.

So, 5000 miles without any major problem. The only malfunction on the car was the rear tailgate power window started to act up. I'm guessing the (45 year old) "gate closed sensor" switch is going bad, as I had no problems rolling down the window, just rolling it up.