The Austin American Statesman thinks that Ed Kretzschmar has the longest commute of any Central Texan:

You need a sense of humor when your daily workplace in Sealy is 130 miles away from your Cedar Park driveway and you have chronic back and neck problems. Kretzschmar, a mechanical engineer, leaves home about 5 a.m. every day and gets home as late as 8 p.m., having put 260 miles on his 1995 Lincoln Continental.

I wasn’t so much surprised that he had such a long commute as I was that he was doing it in a 1995 Lincoln Continental. Ironically, Mr. Kretzschmar says that he took the job in Sealy because of the high pay. I’m thinking he could have come out ahead by taking less paying job in Austin, and saving himself $800/month in gas (or $9600/year). Not to mention the wear and tear on his body, and the time-suck of being in your car 4 hours a day.

I used to drive nearly 1500 miles each way from home to work — I did this for nearly a year. Click below the fold to found out why.

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I used to live in Antigo, WI and worked in Houston, Texas. Granted, I worked off-shore oil at the time, where my work schedule was 30 days on and 15 days off.

When I’d get off the boat in Houston, I’d drive my 1986 Nissan 300zx up Interstate 45 all the way from Houston to Dallas, and then jump on I-35 all the way up to Minnesota, and then cut over into Northern Wisconsin (Antigo is about 30 miles northeast of Wausau and 90 miles northwest of Greenbay). The total distance from my office in Houston to my door in Antigo was 1489 miles.

I’d usually try to make it from Houston to Des Moines (1116 miles, or about 18 hours of straight driving) in one stretch. Then I’d sleep (usually in my car) for 4-5 hours at a truckstop, and then make the last 375 miles (6 hours) when I woke up. 12 days later, I would make the same drive back to Houston. And 30 days later, start all over again. I did that for about a year.