traveling from San Antonio to California (El Paso, Fort Stockton: hotel, home, buy) - Texas (TX) - City-Data Forum

mom4 · 07-02-2007, 01:19 PM

Has anyone traveled from San Antonio to California? My family and I are taking a trip next summer to California and we will be stopping over night in San Antonio and we were told to make sure we gas up as much as possible exspecially from El Paso to Phoenix. Is there not a lot of gas stations along the way?

rd2007 · 07-02-2007, 01:49 PM

west of San Antonio is pretty barren. I vividly remember ignoring the no services for 78 miles sign on 10 one of the times I drove across and the amount of pain my bladder was in by the time I finally got to a gas station..
It's definitely an area you don't want to be tired in as it's pretty boring and you can literally go hours without even passing a car.
what route are you going? if you're going 10 all the way west from here you should plan on driving at night and early morning. The desert gets blazing hot in the peak sun hours and it stays that way until you go over the mountain into San Diego. I also vividly remember that big ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh as I went over it on my first trip into San Diego.

mom4 · 07-02-2007, 02:11 PM

we are driving from Florida to California I-10 all the way and stopping overnight in San Antonio during the month of June. Thanks for the info. I need as much as I can get because we will be driving with 4 kids 2 dogs and a mother-in-law. Some vacation!!!

rd2007 · 07-02-2007, 02:16 PM

I feel your pain!! good luck, you're seriously going to need it..
I, luckily, was alone and even I got on my own nerves at times..

How many stops are you planning on making? I've driven from Virginia Beach to Monterey, Monterey to Orlando and Orlando to San Diego and made three hotel stops for each one. I would highly recommend you make more stops than that though because you won't be able to mentally handle all the responsibilities you'll have riding with you. All that driving plays games with your mind and after it's over you'll have a hard time remembering most of it. You basically turn into a zombie. I don't want to scare you, but that's what I experienced. It's pretty draining.
again, good luck.

lvknight · 07-02-2007, 03:12 PM

I would add take lots of water. And I don't mean those 12 or 20 ounce bottles. Buy 4 of those 2.5 gallon jugs, the ones that have the pour spout buit into them. They're fairly compact and easier to stow than 10 1 gallon jugs. You'll be in the desert in the summer and it will be incredibly hot. Should you break down 35 or 40 miles from the closest town, it could be awhile before you see highway patrol or someone will stop and help. That water should get you through 2 days should something happen. Also, if you do break down don't let your husband do the whole "there's a town 10 miles back, I'll walk" thing. They have found lots of people dead from dehydration because someone decided to hoof it. Also, if your car overheats, turn off the a/c, roll down the windows and turn on the heat. Yeah you'll suffer,but you may be able to get to the next service station. Just prepare for the worst and hope for the best so to speak. Take some sunblock too. The desert sun is brutal, and should you get stuck you wan't to prevent sunburn. Not trying to scare you, and I hope that I just reccomended you waste $20-$30 of you hard earned money, but the heat kills autos and people quite a bit in the Southwest if you're not prepared for it.

rd2007 · 07-02-2007, 03:29 PM

some more really good advice and being in Las Vegas I think they know what HOT is

also made me think of a few more things. make sure you bring a cell phone charger for the car, get your car (especially the cooling system) checked out and make sure you fix even the little things. The middle of Arizona is not the place to blow out a tire that maybe should've needed replacing..

I will mention that it's not as bad as we're probably making it seem. Modern cars will make the trip with no problem at all. You definitely want to be prepared though, it's a tough trip in the fall/winter/spring, but the worst is definitely summer.
one more thing, pay attention to the weather. Seems Texas has replaced Seattle this year when it comes to rain. Luckily we've only had rain and not the really bad high wind/tornado storms, but we've definitely had MUCH more rain than normal. Now when it rains the roads flood pretty much instantly because the ground just can't take any more.

edit- just noticed that the trip is next year.. oops. well, hopefully we'll have a nice wet year again, but not quite this wet..

back2sa · 07-02-2007, 03:29 PM

We JUST did this trip last summer (in June). We live up in WA state and drove down through Oregon, CA, Nevada, Arizona, NM, then to TX. On the way back home we took I-10 from San Antonio through El Paso and stopped in Tucson for the night. It wasn't bad at all. We left SA around 9am and got to Tucson around 10:30pm. We have 4 kids so we stopped here and there for bathroom breaks. Just fill up in El Paso before heading to Arizona. There are some places about an hour out of Tucson to fill up if you need to. It was about 4 hours from El Paso to Tucson. Not a whole lot on I-10 from SA to El Paso though. There will be a few stops but not many.

1StarRanch · 07-02-2007, 04:07 PM

I drive the I10 from SA to Yuma,Az every year.

My advice is to head out from SA to SD at about 1:00 am. The drive is so much quicker at night, otherwise it's pretty boring.

If you drive during the day the speed limit is up to 85mph out of SA to El Paso.

Get an Ice Chest and fill it up with your favorite beverages

Your first stop from SA will probably be in Van Horn which is
437 mi – about 6 hours 10 mins from SA

If your tank can't last that long you'll want to stop at Fort Stockton
329 mi – about 4 hours 53 mins

Take your C-phone charger for sure.

If you have kids, plenty of activities...

If you have a spouse or company, take turns driving, so much easier.

wehotex · 07-02-2007, 05:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mom4

Has anyone traveled from San Antonio to California? My family and I are taking a trip next summer to California and we will be stopping over night in San Antonio and we were told to make sure we gas up as much as possible exspecially from El Paso to Phoenix. Is there not a lot of gas stations along the way?

The 10 is very boring from el paso - san antonio. if you have the time, i'd suggest that you take hwy 90, a detour road from the 10. the speed limit was 55, but i saw no highway patrol to speak of compared to the amount of them on the 10. it passes through some glorious mountains, the mighty pecos river and the town of marfa, home to the marfa lights and a bustling art scene. it was a route which definitely captured my attention. if you have time, i would also suggest carlsbad caverns, a little northward in carlsbad, new mexico. try to gas up in the bigger cities b/c gas stations in van horn and kent are $$$ if you take the 10. i took the 8 once to get to san diego. i remember that it passed through quite a few agriculture towns where they grew vegetables and flowers. it was really beautiful. have a great trip.

mom4 · 07-02-2007, 06:14 PM

We will be heading to Anaheim CA. stopping in Baton Rouge, San Antonio, and Phoenix for overnight. I'm a little nervous now. I thought I-10 would be a very busy highway since it goes accross the US. I will make sure we have plenty of water, a car phone charger and first aide kit. I cant believe we may not see cars for awhile. What about police traveling along I-10. I would hope there would be a lot knowing people can get stuck in the dessert. I cant imagine not seeing a town for 4 hrs.