My sister worked in the US for a couple of years when she was younger, and took a while to re-adjust to UK distnaces when she returned. I remember being rather startled when I was chatting to her and she mentioned she had gone from Milton Keynes to Newcastle for a day! She's been back for about 10 years now, and is back to the UK viewpoint.
more recently, when visiting friend in the US, I found that for them, a pub an hours drive away was 'close by', and worth going to just to get a burger and hang out for while.