Millions flood roads, airports for Thanksgiving travel

Lindsey Ledous, holiday traveler: “I’m going back home to Texas, yeah.”

(Reporter: “To visit family…?”)

Ledous: “Family, yeah. I just moved here a month ago so I’m going back to my homeland.”

Reporter: “Busiest time of the year to travel.”

Aura Rodriguez, holiday traveler: “Well, this is the only time we have to take off from work, so we have to enjoy it.”

Braelin Howard, holiday traveler: “You’ve always got to worry about COVID and stuff like that, but I mean right now it’s not too bad.”

Alma Marroquin, holiday traveler: “Well we got vaccinated, we came with masks and conscious not to be touching anything.”

Sarene Brown, Holiday Traveler “Compared to last year, we’re actually traveling. We’re going to meet up with the rest of the family for the first time, you know, so it’s a special moment.”

“The majority of my family are vaccinated, but the other half is not, you know, so, you know, we’re being safe, we’re keeping, you know, masks and we’re vaccinated.”

Andrew Gross, American Automobile Association spokesman: “We’re expecting this year’s travel period to feel a lot like it did back in 2019 – the pre-pandemic. We’re expecting about 53.4 million people will travel. So that means you’re going to have a lot of company on the roads. There’s going to be traffic. And when you get to the airports, if you’re flying, you’re going to have a lot of lines”

Rasheeda Golden, air traveler: “It’s exciting in regards to be traveling now. especially with things opening back up. Some sense of normalcy going on.  I welcome it anytime I can travel and get away.”

Andrew Gross, American Automobile Association spokesman: “As prices are high, but they’re definitely not deterring travelers. Once people have decided they’re going to go, they go. They just figure out another way of budgeting in the cost.”

Tye Reedy, visiting with family from Nashville: “When I pulled in and saw the gas prices, it was a little bit of sticker shock out here from compared to Tennessee.”

“We did not travel last year because of COVID restrictions and all, you know all that. But you know, we’re confident enough and you know, with the vaccine and where things that are now with the the virus that, you know, we felt comfortable traveling. We flew out here.”

Laurie Allen-Requa, driving up to see family in Mendocino County: “It’s about 130 miles that we’re going, roughly. And I actually hadn’t planned to fill up here because it’s almost five dollars a gallon. So I plan to actually stop halfway where I know they’re cheaper gas and then it’s filling up there.”

Peter Titus, holiday air traveler: “We are certified COVID free and fully vaccinated because we’re traveling to Canada and they require all kinds of paperwork to get us there.”

Christian Titus, holiday air traveler: “It’s dangerous. But you love these people, so you do you do what you can to stay safe around them, but also be around them because life is short.”