I've both driven too and from NorCal as well as flown from my base of operations (Dallas). I liked driving when it was more like a road trip and it took me a week. I got to go see other stuff in cities I wasn't familiar with, while being on my own. The drive back sucked balls. I did it in two days, got my mary jane taken by the cops, had to spend 3 grand on the ticket, all just to get home try and get drunk, but fall asleep from exhaustion for 16 hours. I had so much weed on me they didn't find it all though, I made oil out of the trim they didn't find. Flying was even worse, as there's no close airport to where I was, so I had to plane hop to SF-Oakland and fly out of there. Flying over the Rockies in the winter was cool, but I've done that before. Airports are a hassle, but still better than making that drive in 2 days. Not better than taking my time and making it in a week.
I feel people either forget or just don't understand the sheer size of the US. It's easy to spend 40+ hours behind the wheel just driving across the country. Throw in the need for necessities and sleep and a full week on the road is normal. To put it in context to cross the entire UK takes around 14 hours. That's something many Americans will treat as a single day trip. Now there are plenty of countries that have similar if not greater travel times than the US but there is a reason we tell you distance in time versus miles. Not many people can truly grasp the distance when you say oh you need to travel 870 miles today to get to your location. However, you tell them 12 and a half hours on the road and they can get the idea.
That's 69.6 mph if you don't stop. Generally, over 12 hours you'd stop for roughly an hour. I've driven clear across Arizona at 90 mph so I'm not one to judge, I'm just saying... I doubt the were going 69.6 mph steady for 12.5 hours straight; at some point, for an extended point, they were naughty. I don't blame them; speed limits in the US tend to be so retarded they actually cause accidents... and that's before you get into small town speed traps.
Example: "Oh, her house is about two hours away." Or, "I'll stop in half an hour."