I remember driving my mother’s Ford Pinto from Ft. Huachuca to Ft. Hood back in 1979. From El Paso to LB Johnson City there was a looooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooong distance between gas stations.
I know what you mean. I was stationed at Fort Bliss, and made the trip to Tucson and Ft. Huachuca several times (a college classmate was MI, I was ADA). Made many long trips on I-10 to San Antonio and Houston. Long stretches of nothing, to say the least.