Fort Stockton, Texas

     The beautiful sunset last night had some dramatic cloud formations.  At dawn the cloud formation became windy, stormy, rainy weather.  We put on our rain gear and disconnected the camper from water and power and reconnected our car to the hitch.   I am wishing I had some good hooks in my shower on which to hang wet rain coats because we were soaked by the time we were ready to go.  I checked the forecast for Marathon and Fort Stockton and saw that the rain was supposed to quit by lunch.  The water was collecting very quickly and pooling on the road.  This was no day for driving on the dirt roads in the park - the washes were running with rain.  The Ocotillo in the picture looks like bare sticks until there is rain.  Then it bursts into little leaves all along the branches.  My favorite desert plant!
    By the time we got to Marathon, Texas, the rain had stopped and the marathon race was almost over.  We parked at a small wayside and watched the last few runners valiantly finish the last mile of the race.  They were probably happy that the weather was in the 60's rather than the 90's we had all week.
     We drove on to Fort Stockton and were very surprised to find an almost full campground.  It is just off I-10 on the route between El Paso and San Antonio.  Not many other nice campgrounds on this stretch so we all ended up here!  I guess this was true in the early days as well.  Fort Stockton grew up around Comanche Springs which was one of the largest sources of spring water in Texas.  It was a favorite rest stop on the Great Comanche Trail, the  Chihuahua San Antonio - El Paso Road and the Butterfield Overland Mail route.  It is now a small, dusty city with an impressive history.
 With access to TV we watched the weather report which shows that we seem to be following a couple days behind the heaviest rain brought on by Hurricane Patricia. Thank goodness!  I guess we also missed a bunch of campaign stuff for which I am also grateful. We head for San Antonio tomorrow - a town I have always wanted to visit.  I am happy to be out of the very hot weather which really drained our energy, but we totally enjoyed our visit to the remote and beautiful Big Bend!