According to AAA, more than 1.4 million people were expected to travel 50 miles or more from home during the Thanksgiving holiday.
ALAMANCE COUNTY, NC – The leftovers gone in the fridge are a reminder that the holiday weekend is coming to an end.
And a busy travel weekend too.
If you’ve been on any of the highways along the Triad today, you shouldn’t mistake the rush to get home.
“We’ve been in traffic all day,” Ricky Pennington said.
“We’ve had some pretty heavy traffic areas,” Lance Perkins said.
“Traffic has been kind of heavy, it got really bad once we got to 85,” Nancy McCoy said.
From the highway to the back roads…
Stop and go traffic was the norm for many people heading home from the Thanksgiving holiday.
Ricky Pennington is from Lexington and spent the weekend in Myrtle Beach before visiting his grandkids this morning in Greenville.
“About 40 in Raleigh, there’s debris on both sides of the road, backed up for three or four miles,” Pennington said. “You sit in traffic and you move a little, you sit in traffic and you move a little. Ever since we got on the 40 here it’s been the same.”
If you got caught in traffic today, you weren’t alone.
AAA of the Carolinas estimates more than 1.4 million North Carolinians drove this weekend.
Experts also say that travel before Thanksgiving is usually spread over several days.
However, for many, the journey home is on Sunday.
Packing three days’ worth of travel into one.
“The Wednesday before Thanksgiving we got 77-81 and it wasn’t that bad. It used to be really bad, but it wasn’t that bad,” McCoy said.
Nationwide, Thanksgiving travel was expected to increase from last year, but is still projected to be less than pre-pandemic holiday travel.
“We do this trip about once a year for Thanksgiving, and it’s pretty typical to see this every time,” Perkins said.
Although the traffic was heavy, those we spoke to say it was worth it to spend time with the family.
Leaving some already looking forward to Christmas.
“Exactly, taking a break for the Christmas rides,” McCoy said.
Getting to and from your Thanksgiving destination also cost drivers more this year than last.
AAA expects North Carolinians to pay about 10 cents more per gallon than Thanksgiving 2021.
