My rule of thumb would be three hours if there was such a thing as two hour "door to door" air travel. But the minimum for all practical purposes seems to typically be about four or five hours that you have to set aside for even a short hop trip. The only way I'd think you could get under that would be if you had the good fortune to be going airport hotel to airport hotel without needing to park and/or rent a car.

And you're absolutely right....satellite radio and mp3 players have taken some of the boredom out of those long drives.

Unless you're a "regular" used to driving long distances, 600 miles in a day is about the comfortable maximum for one driving alone. Not a regular driver and alone behind the wheel? The think of 450-500 miles as a full days drive.

In this case, 940 miles or so one way, you're talking about 4 full days on the road. I do love the Southwest, but will tell you that that sort of driving (especially as Summer takes hold) is not every driver's cup of tea.

I was statoned in Maine and traveled from Brunswick Maine to Joplin,Mo straight threw. 23 hours :td:

I dont think I would like to do that again, but I have done it. I have decided to drive bit extend the length of the trip just because I want to do some sight seeing. I have been all over that area cause I was stationed in NM. so I fully expect what to see at T&C and carlsbad.

Thanks again everyone.

Drive or Fly
 

:cool: I'm off to Salem, VA, next weekend. Have decided to drive so I can enjoy all the lovely spring weather as I drive north from Baton Rouge.

It's a 13 hour drive the route I'm taking. Will stop overnight, enjoy a good night's sleep, have a picnic lunch in the mountains, and arrive refreshed and rested in the early afternoon. Usually, I follow a combination of country roads and the Interstate.

I fly to Europe and Australia every other year, and feel that's enough flying for me!

Back in the 90's, I took a lot of road trips and loved them! But when I discovered FT and frequent flying, I left the Road Trip era and entered Frequent Flying era...and it was wonderful! But now that flying is so much more hassle and unpleasant, I'm about to exit Frequent Flying, and will do that after my award RTW trip next month (mainly to burn off most of my remaining airline miles), I will then spend most of my vacations on the road again. I'll still fly, but not as much as before. I won't try to chase miles as hard as I used to, although I will try to chase after hotel points. Whatever flying I do will be in whatever YUP fare I can find domestically, and premium economy or even discounted business class overseas. Maybe I'll even be able to afford RTW in business class every now and then.

But I will no longer chase after miles as feverently as I used to, at least until this whole security nonsense ends, if ever at all.

It just ain't fun or pleasant anymore....

Plus those are tough drives :)

That works! Actually, I was alluding to the Academy-Award Winning Movie, Million Dollar Baby.
Those who have seen the movie, of course, will understand how that is possible. :)

Welcome to FlyerTalk, Lagniappe! Make sure you snoop around the other forums to ensure you have the best experiences on your travels. Who knows, you may start flying more after reading this site. My personal travel this year will exceed 100,000 miles - and it is all FlyerTalk, the Mileage Run Forum and Viajero Joven's Mileage Run Seminar. Whatever you do, study up and enjoy your travels!

Glad you decided to drive AND extend the length of your trip. There's nothing like a good road trip.

While I can (and have) drive upwards of 1,000 miles per day on a cross-country mission, for a road trip (in the western half of the country) involving sightseeing, I plan to allow no more than 500 miles per day (and that can even be a bit of a frenzied pace). I just did two road trips this winter.

The first was Simi Valley, CA to Branson, MO by way of Albuquerque, Santa Fe (and a side trip to Bandelier National Monument and Los Alamos), Dodge City, Lincoln (NE), and Kansas City (we were hitting National Park sites along the way to fill out our NPS passports), which (according to Google Maps) is 2,290 miles in 5 full days (including one long stretch the first day from Simi to Albuquerque, 825 miles). That averages out to 458 miles per day, and we were going almost non-stop (only figuring on stopping at each NPS site for 1 hour, although it usually took 2 to feel like we didn't just breeze through it).

The second was from Branson to Little Rock, Vicksburg, Natchez, Natchitoches (LA), Jackson (yes, backtracking), Tupelo, Savannah (TN), Memphis and back to Branson by way of Jonesboro, AR (again, hitting NPS sites for our passports), a 1,541-mile trek in 4 days, for an average of 385 miles per day. That was going from dawn 'til past dusk each day (probably 13-15 hours each day) and stopping two times per day for an hour or two each.

My point in this is, while you can drive ~1,000 miles straight from Joplin (I was just through there in December on my way to TUL, flying back to BUR after those two road trips--I indeed did drive there and fly back!) to El Paso in a hard day's driving, if you plan to see anything on the way, cut that distance-per-day by half. So, I hope you've extended it to at least a four-day weekend!

Like I said, I'm glad you chose driving. Carlsbad is very cool--I went through there probably 8 years ago (though it feels like just a couple) on another NPS-hunting trip (we hit Big Bend, which is very scenic in its own right, and Guadalupe Mountains just across the TX border from Carlsbad, which isn't all that special). Also, since it's on the way, I'm sure you've been to O-City (living in Joplin), but I've been told the memorial at the federal building is quote moving (it wasn't built last time I went through there).

One option no one's mentioned: if you want a unique experience, there's always Amtrak. You can drive to OKC and take the Heartland Flyer to DFW and transfer to the Sunset Limited to ELP (I don't think there's a danger of missing the connection in Fort Worth, as I believe the Flyer trainset gets joined to the Sunset Limited's trainset there). It's a 33-hour, 45-minute trip (including the layover and assuming the Sunset Limited's on time, which is a big assumption, although not as much so westbound), but if it's running on dates that work for you (it's only 3x per week), it's an awesomely fun way to travel! :) (If you've never done a train trip before, I highly recommend it. And before all you frequent flyers out there flame me, yes, I understand Amtrak's long-distance trains aren't a serious mode of transportation for people who don't want to enjoy the journey along with the destination, but when you've got plenty of time and want a fun, social, scenic, relaxing travel option, nothing beats a good ride on the rails.)

Question (to sundrop): if you chose to fly, would you drive to TUL? I would think fares out of JLN are bad like they are out of SGF, which is why my family in Branson always uses TUL when paying for tickets (and SGF only when using miles). The fact that you'd have to drive the couple hours to TUL only makes it make even more sense to just keep going in the car (especially since you want to sightsee).

And all y'all frequent flyers need to get out on the road more often! ;)

Oops
 

I just realized that it's the Texas Eagle that (I believe) gets joined to the Sunset Limited, not the Heartland Flyer (not sure how I got confused there). I have no clue what the Flyer's on-time record is, so I don't know what the chances of making or missing that connection are. Since it's a shorter corridor, though, I wouldn't be surprised if it runs pretty much on time.

Also, Amtrak operates a Thruway coach from Tulsa to Oklahoma City that has a guaranteed connection with the Heartland Flyer (Amtrak Thruway buses are usually much nicer than their Greyhound counterparts), so if you want to look into Amtrak, that would reduce the driving time for you a bit. The bus actually runs from Kansas City to Oklahoma City, but the only other stop is Bartlesville, which isn't really any closer than Tulsa.