This blog page is about space--very big, open space--commonly known as west Texas! Those of us from North Dakota talk about distance and open spaces. West Texas must compare somewhere between North Dakota and Australia . 

The pictures today were taken around Fort Stockton, TX, the only town of significant size on Interstate 10 for hundreds of miles. As you look across these great, arid distances you see windmills, not wind machines to produce electricity, but old-fashioned windmills to pump water for livestock and an occasional family dwelling. If you find Fort Stockton on the Texas map you will find that there are no communities of any size to the south to the Mexican border, very few to the west, most of the way to San Antonio. In North Dakota, the advice is to keep your gas tank half full or better.  Here the advice would be to have an extra tank!

The area is desert. The pictures indicate some of the common vegetation. ND has cactus, but nothing like these. They are everywhere. Yuccas can be 10 or 12 feet tall. The succulent with the long leaves grew near our RV park just east of Fort Stockton. Evidence of oil production is everywhere.

It's pretty clear that if you live here, you'll be close to nature and its whims.