Thanksgiving travel up from last year

11/21/2012 (Updated 11:23:45 PM)

(Source: Jeremy Donovan)

This weekend is one of the busiest travel weekend's of the year.

"This is a real family oriented holiday," said Richard Jacobs, President of AAA Southern New York.  "About 44 million people will be taking a trip of 50 miles or more from home." 

Thirty-five percent of Americans will travel this weekend, up one percent from last year.  Jacobs says gas prices have dropped 20 cents both locally and nationally over the last month.  While that helps, the national average is still $3.46.  Not enough, apparently, to keep folks from making trips back home:

"If I told my parents I wasn't coming home they'd probably just pay for my gas for me, so it wasn't really a concern," said Daniel Camporese who is traveling home to Yorktown, NY.

"It's one of those things where you kind of bite the bullet.  It's a necessary evil because you want to get home and see your family," said Taylor Kulik, traveling home to Rochester.

But even though you might be anxious to get home for the holiday, for a taste of mom's cooking, if you're part of the 58% of travelers choosing to drive, Jacobs says to plan ahead and be safe

"You'll be driving in darker hours, so make sure your car is in shape for that, and you get a little more tired when you drive at night, so plan to take some rest breaks," he said.

Sometimes driving is not an option.  But despite the rising airline costs, for some, the chance to see family is too important not to fly home

"It's very important because I live very far away from my family and we only see each other a few times a year.  So, we were going to come no matter what, even if we had to drive we would've come," said Katie Spitzer, flying into town from Birmingham, AL.

From all of us at Fox 40, be safe and have a Happy Thanksgiving.