<p>It’s a lot easier to have a kid at a school within an hour of a major airport if you are not within a comfortable driving distance from home. My older ones were both about 7 hours away by car, but because they were were within a half hour from major airports, finding plentiful and cheap fares was easy. </p>
<p>I got round trip tickets for S2’s graduation for $115, round trip!! Since my oldest is also there with a car, we can fly there directly for very little time and money, also making it possible for wheelchair bound grandmom who needs a bathroom every hour or so to come to the graduation. Contrast that with S2 who is 90 miles from a major airport so we cannot get a direct flight to him. It takes us about 8 hours door to door using a plane to get to him, and that’s without delays. Also the cost of the flights are much higher. </p>
<p>Also S1 and S2 could take a bus to the airport or a cheap taxi. Not so for S3. It does make a difference. </p>
<p>When friends of ours were notified that their son was in the hospital from a car accident, they left immediately and were by his bedside in less than 4 hours in the wee hours of the night. Had we gotten the same phone call, we could not hope to be with our son for about 10-12 hours.</p>