There are very few towns along this road which means great distances between gas stations. I had made it a habit (I thought) to stop for fuel whenever the gauge registered 1/4 of a tank. This habit served us well until today. We passed a gas station when I had 1/4 of a tank and I thought there was a bigger town a few miles away where we could refuel. It turns out there was no such place. Getting to the next "big" town without running out of gas was going to be a stretch. The gauge moved over the red line indicating it was nearly empty when we spotted a gas station in the middle of nowhere. As we coasted on the exit ramp to a stop sign, the low fuel warning signal started sounding. We made it to the gas station and refueled. I had about half a gallon left and would not have made it to the next station. This experience reinforced the habit of refueling at 1/4 of a tank... at least for this trip.
The weather was good until we got to the Fort Stockton area. We had a tail wind which helps improve our fuel consumption. Once past Fort Stockton the weather changed. We ran into a number of heavy showers and thunderstorms. You could see the storms traveling across the country and could smell the rain before we saw it. When the rain came, the temperature dropped as much 20 degrees. Within 10 minutes after the storm, the temperature started back up to where it was. We got to El Paso shortly after they had experienced a very heavy thunderstorm, There was a lot of standing water everywhere. Fortunately it stopped and we were able to set up without getting soaked.
Susie wanted me to take a picture of her at the gate of Fort Bliss, about 5 miles from the campground. She lived here for a few months while when her father was in training for deployment to Europe during World War II.
