Headed south for a bit

I get on a plane very early tomorrow to head to Boca Raton, Fla., for the Online Publishers Association summit (my day-job employer, Scripps, is a member).

This site may be post-free during that time. I know, how is that different from almost any other time?

It occurs to me I haven't been on a plane in at least two months -- not so much because of corporate cost controls, though we're minding the Ps and Qs, but because all my recent travel has been within my interpretation of "driving distance."

I extended my personal range for the drive-vs.-fly decision last year from roughly four hours by car to roughly six. Sound crazy? Well, when you fly out of a spoke airport, most every trip involves a connection, adding at least one hour to trip time. Then you have to be at the airport (even our li'l one) an hour early. Then you have to wait for ground transportation, be it a shuttle to a rental car or a taxi to a hotel.

In short, it's rare that a flying trip is less than a six hour total commitment. So I might as well drive if it takes six hours or less, and control my own destiny. Besides, I enjoy driving ... most of the time.

What about gas prices? Well, when they were pushing or even past $4 around here, I made the decision case-by-case -- and even then, the cost to drive usually won out. If I didn't want to put so much wear and tear on my mighty '04 Pilot, sometimes I'd rent a car locally for the round trip. That move often netted out cheaper for my company than reimbursing me a mileage rate anyway.

What about global warming, baby seals, rain forests etc.? OK, you got me there, except depending on who you believe, maybe my extra weight on jets pumping their pollutants straight into the stratosphere will do more harm than one more vehicle at ground level.

At least that's what I keep telling myself when I'm behind the wheel, stuck in traffic, and see a Boeing vapor trail overhead.

What's your drive-vs.-fly threshold?