I am particularly proud of that photo. It is a very localized rain shower in the middle of the desert, seen through some high-power lines… highpower lines… high powerlines… high power-lines… high-power-lines??? Not bad for a shot taken one handed at 85 miles per hour without even looking.

And then, the unthinkable almost happened.

I came within 12 miles of running out of gas… in the middle of the Arizona desert. Okay, I was technically at the Arizona/California border… but still.

I have never run out of fuel in a car in my life, not even in my old Suburban with a busted fuel gauge, that you had to write down the mileage in a little notebook and do math, which I suck at. But there are some wide expanses in the American Southwest. One minute, I had plenty of gas. Then, I had very little. Then, the warning light… in the shape of a little gasoline pump… came on. I watched my range indicator read down.

12 miles from disaster… well, extreme embarrassment, because I do have AAA, and could have just called a tow truck for free… I found a gas station.

I also found some tanks, but we can talk about that in the next post.

I will just leave you wondering about the armored vehicles for now.

And go back to tranquil scenes of the desert, like this one, with cloud shadows turning the hills dark.

Okay, catch you in a while.