Joanna, you're right, Mark lives in Huntsville, AL which (per MapQuest) is 180-190 miles (depending on the route chosen) and less than 4 hours by car from the Atlanta airport. We do roughly the same to Ft. Lauderdale (195 miles) and Miami (205 miles) regularly, to avoid the hassles with 'regional' (too small) jets, too many stopovers and plane changes, potential missed connections, etc. Now they have started charging an extra $199 per person, it makes even better sense to drive.

I didn't realize how far DFW was - over 1000 miles - way too far! But Atlanta seems very doable, as it has nonstop flights to most cities in North America, with two US and six foreign airlines offering non-stop flights to Tokyo, Seoul and Dubai in Asia, Johannesburg and two other cities in Africa, and to more than a dozen cities each in Europe and South America, and one-or two-stop flights most anywhere in the world anyone would want to go.