When I was a student at a university about 1 h north of San Francisco, I thought nothing of driving 2 hours after work to catch the evening hatch on the Little Truckee or the lower Sacramento, fishing for 2 hours, and then driving back. There were periods where I did this four or five times a week (the caddis hatch on the Sac. has a way of doing that to you). Of course, gas was only about $1.05 a gallon then, and I had next to no expenses other than rent, food (and I ate a lot of ramen), fishing gear, and gas for my truck. Day trips at that time were to any location within 5 hours, which, from where I lived, meant I could hit the north coast, the central coast, the Sierras, parts of Nevada, the Hat Creek-Fall River area, and all sorts of warmwater fishing.
Now that I have kids and added work responsibilities, I will still do the 5-h drive for a day trip, but it is a rarer event than before. Trips before, after, or during working hour are limited to about 30 minutes drive because I need to be able to get back home to help with the kids if called. Still, I see a time seven or ten years from now where I will once again do the 5-h day trips and the 2-h afternoon fishing sessions, but this time there'll be two youngsters with me to share the blame (and the punishment) when we get home.
