By far one of the most trying problems associated with living in a small town is the fact that you just can't get to the airport with a hop, skip, and a jump to a bigger busier city.  The town that I live in has a county airport, but I shudder to think how expensive and unreliable it would be to take a flight from the county airport up to the capitol city in order to catch a regular flight.  Since this isn't usually something that people like to do, some entrepreneur decided to purchase and implement a shuttle service that picks people up at various locations around town and drives them the forty-seven miles up to the airport in the capitol city.  In the vice versa direction, the shuttle leaves the airport bringing people back several times a day.  The service is definitely convenient for the most part, but it has two inherent problems that weary travelers end up having to deal with.  Number one, first, and foremost, the shuttle service is fairly expensive.  The cost for the short drive is twenty-five dollars each way.  That right there puts a damper on using the service.  Secondly, the shuttle only arrives and/or leaves every two hours.  That leaves traveleres with especially early or late flights stranded if they can't come up with another alternative commuting solution.  I've heard that there are also some dial-a-ride type options so that people can find others going to the same general location and essentially share a car, van, or limo.  It saves a little bit of money but not much.  The biggest advantage to this particular option is that you don't have to wait around for the shuttle.  I have been the victim of arriving at the ground transportation center at the airport just five minutes after the shuttle has left, thereby leaving me with just about two hours to kill before the next shuttle arrives.  Post times, people end up conning their friends into driving them the short distance up to the airport.  It's under an hour for the drive each way, so while inconvenient, at least it's not an all day long trip.  This option is especially difficult during the summer months and the winter holidays when there aren't the usual abundance of friends from school and work in the small town who are able to take time out of their day to bring you up to the airport.  More often than not, I end up sucking it up and taking the twenty-five dollar hit to my checking account by swiping my credit/debit card at the ticket dispenser kiosk in the airport.  At least I know that paying that amount will get me a reliable, safe, and quiet ride back home.  Oh yeah, I forgot the fact that the shuttle only drops off to certain locations, so you still have to arrange for a ride to pick you up or drop you off...unless you've packed a pair of your cruddy walking shoes with you and you want to hike home with all of your luggage.  That just doesn't sound like any fun to me.  This time when I was planning my trip, I thought about just driving my car up to the airport and parking it in long term parking for a few days.  It's about eight dollars per day, so it could be a good or a bad solution depending on the length of time you're going to be away.  Based on the amount of time that I was going to be gone for this trip, the difference would have simply come out in the wash.  So, here I am sitting on the shuttle, having just shelled out my crazy twenty-five dollars payment, waiting for the one hour long drive to pass before I have to call and beg a friend to pick me up from the student union on campus.  What a way to end a great trip!