I loved to travel through W. Texas, no one there.)
That stretch of I-10 between Kerrville and the I-20 merge may be the closest this country has to an autobahn. Nobody goes slower than 80 because there's nothing out there to tell you not to. Gotta watch your gas gauge and your rest stops, though, because you don't want to get stuck out there. I remember stopping in one town (Ft. Stockton?) to gas up and asked the clerk if there were any restaurants in town - not just a convenience store with a microwave but an actual place to sit and eat. She perked up and said "There's a new I-HOP a couple of exits down." Looked clean and the food was passable but it was kind of sad that the snazziest place to eat in town was the new I-HOP.
Just rattlesnakes and lots and lots of windmills now. Really ruins the barren country appeal.
In June, we left Pecos around 7am on a Saturday headed west and actually counted vehicles until we got to the I-10......6 semis and 3 passenger cars.
In December 2003 my boss and I were driving a sounding rocket payload in a 14-foot Ryder truck from San Antonio to White Sands. We hit mile marker 334 on I-10 (almost *exactly* between Ft. Stockton and Ozona) when the left rear interior tire blew. I gently but immediately pulled off the road and called 1-800-Go-Ryder, or whatever their help number is. (By some miracle, I had a *cell phone signal* at mile #334.) Anyway, the Ryder folks got in touch with a service in Ft. Stockton, and said the truck would arrive with a new tire in three hours. Sure enough, three hours later, the gentleman arrives with a tire and an air-wrench, and we are on the road again 15 minutes later.
We pulled into Las Cruces 3 hours late and met the third member of our party, who flew directly from SA to El Paso and drove the rest of the way. He killed the extra time by watching football in the hotel bar, buying the last two squares in the football pool, and winning $100!
In all seriousness, I am very thankful that we not only got a cell phone signal in the middle of nowhere, but we broke down in temperate December instead of hot-as-blazes July.
Oh, and the launch was a success!