I stuck in the v.26 cd, and everything worked fine again. The cd just told me my copy was current, so I confirmed with an OK and everything went back to normal. I'm trying again to get v27, but I've put in a freshly burnt copy of the disc. Again it is having a problem, so I left it at the blank screen with hopes it'll load within the next few minutes.

I'm about to burn a new copy now. I should add I burnt the last two on GQ media at 40x (max speed). After a few software loads, I've never had a problem with this combination.

Edit (8:46pm): I corrected a typo.

I just ran back out and the drive remained blank. I did the v26 swap again, so that's my fail safe option now. I'm about to try my newest burnt copy.

Edit: Success! I've concluded that my previous two copies were faulty in some way. I reburnt using a different burner, same GQ-branded media, at an even faster 52x (I'm impatient). Watching installer 7.00 was an exciting moment for me. When I switched on Perspective mode, the view was great! The time is almost 9:00pm and the sky was pouring rain a minute ago, but the nav shows a bright blue sky littered with clouds, and that reflects what I'm feeling now. Thanks to all for the prompt responses.

The street names appear absent, but I remember reading that so it's no surprise. When zooming to 1/4 scale, I can see some lake names and federal lands. With perspective mode, the scales beyond 1/2 mile are more useful now.