Considering just Texas (where I live) is about 800 miles East to West and about 600 miles North to South (but the roads across are longer taking turns to go through cities), that 900 miles isn't much.
Yes, we do drive a lot. It makes it much more economical. We have four children, so flying would cost a lot. If visiting family, we would then have to rent a car just to fit us all, and my parents would have to ride in their own car. So, driving was much less expensive, and we'd have a car (well, a mini van is what we had then - sat seven). So, if we were visiting my mother-in-law, she would ride with us, but when visiting my parents, we were in two vehicles when going someplace around town.
I remember as a child, we'd have a two week (sometimes three week) vacation where we would drive all over the place. With five children, my parents needed to drive everywhere - flying was way too expensive for us if were were going to do something when we got there.
By the time I was 15, I had been to over 40 of the 50 states, several provinces in Canada, and to Mexico - all in a car! I lived in Wisconsin from the time I was born until I was 20.
Now that the children are grown, we will not always drive, but that is still an option, especially for 5-6 hours or less driving (after all, to fly that far would require more time to fly, driving to the airport, and getting there at least an hour early, flying, waiting for luggage, and driving to the final destination - but then everything is on their schedule, not ours).