Thoughts while contemplating the $4 a gallon I expect to be paying at least one point along a 1,800-mile vacation route:

The jewelry industry may be mostly gone from Attleboro, but it's still easy to think of the city as the center of a golden ring. If high gasoline prices will be keeping the motoring public on a short leash, there are far worse places to be stuck than in Sun Chronicle country.

Suppose you were to set your leash at 38 miles - which happens to be the distance my wife's car can travel on 11/2 gallons, or three gallons round trip - you can reach Boston, home of Fenway, TD BankNorth Garden and more museums, cultural and historical destinations than one can count, and have a few drops to spare (but only if you don't get stuck in traffic, which you undoubtedly will).

Set off slightly more to the east and you'll hit the South Shore, with ample opportunities for saltwater recreation anchored by Plymouth with its historically themed attractions.

Farther to the east, and you've hit Cape Cod - not the heart of it, but 38 miles will take you at least to the Cape Cod Canal. Adjust your compass slightly southward and that 38-mile leash allows you to hit the Westport, Mass., and Little Compton, R.I., area, where Goosewing and other beaches, along with a delightful inland landscape, beckon.

Still farther south is Newport, R.I., with its beaches, mansions and seaport shopping. It seems farther, but the ask.com distance finder says 31 miles. If that's true, we can take a round trip on that three gallons and have a pint or two left over to start the next trip, say to the Rhode Island shore area anchored by the town of Narragansett (35 miles, says ask.com).

Travel to the west has always been discouraged by a lack of good roads, but the 38-mile leash would at least allow a trip to Purgatory Chasm and to a couple of links to the Warner Trail, if a good hike is a turn-on. It's not to me, but I just might use the gas for a trip to the A & W Root Beer stand in Greenville, R.I. It's not Furtado's, to be sure, but the root beer tastes about as good.

And if we were to extend the leash to 50 miles, we could have the full extent of the Rhode Island shoreline and a goodly piece of Cape Cod, not to mention the southern end of the North Shore and the full extent of the Rhode Island beach areas. If we cheated a little and didn't count the ferry rides, trips to Cuttyhunk, Block Island, Martha's Vineyard or Nantucket would be within our grasp (43 miles to Woods Hole, says ask.com). One online distance finder says the Foxwoods Casino in Ledyard, Conn., is 50 miles from Attleboro "as the crow flies," but it's probably best not to fly there.

Conversely, if we shortened the leash to 17 miles (a gallon-and-a-half round-trip) a great array of summer fun would remain handy: concerts at Tweeter Center, golf at Tourney Players (just kidding, working people, but there are still plenty of fine local courses within our budget), Water Fire (not to mention dozens of fine restaurants) in Providence, carousels at Slater Park in Pawtucket and the former Crescent Park site in East Providence, Attleboro's Capron Park and Zoo, North Attleboro's World War I Memorial Park, a half-dozen town commons where free concerts will be offered through the summer and hosts of other attractions, at least to locals in the know.

So why, I wonder, should I leave when everything I need is right here?

Because everything I need is not here. I need to go to a place where I see relatives that I don't see the rest of the year. I need to go to a place from where I always come back with a song in my heart. I need to be somewhere else for a while.

And so, I suspect, do you. Have a happy, guilt-free vacation when your time comes.

MARK FLANAGAN (mflanagan@thesunchronicle.com) is Opinion Page editor of The Sun Chronicle. He can be reached at 508-236-0335.