Mavric

That's a bit of a hike.

They have these things called airplanes that make traveling more convenient.

Unfortunately you have to live near those things call airports to take advantage of said airplanes.  

It would have been a three hour drive to the airport, get there two hours early, two hour flight, an hour or better getting out of the airport and getting the rental car and another hour drive to Waco.  So that's at least 9 hours of travel time to fly vs about 12 hours to drive.  And it was a bit cheaper on the ground.