To attend a school, i drove from my humble east Texas home to Omaha, Nebraska. 770 miles. The classmates were dumbfounded that i undertoook this. I asked, “would you be curious and question if I said that I drove to El Paso, TX?” They all unanimously said “of course not”. Then I enlightened them that Omaha was not as far from my house than El Paso. 780 miles to be exact.
Yes. Texas is huge.
According to Wikipedia:
I-10 from the Louisiana state line to El Paso is longer than I-10 from El Paso to Los Angeles and it is also longer than from the TX/LA state line to Jacksonville, FL.
Twice a year I go from my house in Northwest Mississippi (20 miles south of Memphis) to El Paso all in one day. I pick up a coworker south of Little Rock on the way. At least once I did all the driving myself…1,110 miles just to say I did it. If I were alone I would have had to stop for a nap along the way. I leave my house about 0515 Central time and arrive in El Paso about 2130 Mountain time.
*Until about 1983, it was legal to drink & drive in Texas.
Example of measured distances, Lubbock to Ft Worth was usually 5-6 beers.
There would periodic points where as 2-4 vehicles of college kids would be stopped on the side of the highway to pee.