No vacancies at some hotels along I-10

During the summer months people come to Kimball County to go kayaking, fishing, canoeing, and tubing. As a traveler you would think that small Texas towns would have plenty of space, right? Not exactly, according to patrons and hotel owners. Jerome Maldonado says “I went to probably about 15 to 20 different hotels if there was that many,it felt like that many. Finally I just fell asleep in the back of my SUV for about 4 hours and jumped back on the road”. On a stretch of I-10 near Van Horne, Ozona, Sonora , Junction and close to San Antonio there are several different towns and different hotels but the same story. Maldonado stated “Everything was full because of the oil field workers”. A wave of workers has converged on the state’s prolific oil basins where according to Forbes magazine–almost a third of the nations’ oil and natural gas is produced. Workers travel here from different locations such as McAllen,Houston and Albuquerque, where oil and natural gas production has catapulted the U.S. back towards being one of the top energy producers in the world. Drilling for oil and fracking are on the rise. Randy Robertson said “They’ll work anytime of the day, oil’s 24 hours a day, drillers drill that’s what they do to get oil you know”. Drilling requires hard work and these workers need place to lay their heads. Oil companies book hotel rooms in advance even when workers are going home for the weekend therefore summer travelers should plan ahead.