Today’s Daily Post suggestion was:

Planes, trains or automobiles? What is your favorite way to travel 500 miles?

First, a tangent… did you see that Bears game last week?

Ironically, it’s about 520 miles from my house to the hotels on Las Vegas Boulevard, and I’ve done the drive to Vegas on more than one occasion.  It takes about 8 and a half hours, a full day’s worth of driving.  Usually when I’ve done the trip by car, it’s when I’m taking a longer vacation in Vegas, 5 days or so, affording me the time to decompress in the car and leave my cares behind on my way to Nevada.  The biggest problem with doing that?  You still have to drive home after you’re done!

Of course, flying those 500 miles takes about 90 minutes, plus all the time spent in the airports.  You save a ton of time that way, and it’s not like I’m going to be driving around once I get to the casinos.  That’s what taxis are for!

A 500 mile trip is just far enough away that driving is not a good use of time… unless you’re definitely going to need a car once you get there.  The price of a rental car plus airfare might be prohibitive.

I haven’t taken a train for more than 40 miles (Mountain View to San Francisco on CalTrain) in a very long time, so I cannot comment on that experience.

But, really, the best way to travel 500 miles?  Walk!