West Michigan's Morning News
Record High Holiday Travel
traveling this holiday weekend, get started. This is West Michigan's morning news. Steve Kelly, Brett, Makita, Lauren's back with us. Soon to talk about weekend events. Tanya J. Power is here to talk travel with Fox News Radio in New York. Good morning, Tanya. Hey, good morning. So it's going to be record-breaking travel, right? Whether you're doing it on the road, or you're doing it in the sky. Talk to us a little bit about what we might expect. Yes, the AAA folks, they didn't say to track all this stuff. They said that this is going to be a time when about more than 70 million of us are going to go 50 miles and work from home for the holiday, the fourth travel period. They say if you're driving, timing is everything, as we all know, the worst times to travel today and tomorrow are going to be between 2 and 7 o'clock this afternoon. Just keep that in mind, no matter where you are, those are apparently going to be the worst times. If you're in a metro area, you can expect the worst travel delays today and Sunday for trying to get out before the forest that maybe didn't start there. They're a long week last Thursday, because a lot of folks did. Now, if you're flying, they say about 6 million of us are going to fly. The TSA already expects this summer to be the busiest ever. They said that they're probably going to screen more than 32 million travelers in the period that marks between last Thursday and this coming Monday. That is what AAA has designated the holiday travel period. So it runs from last Thursday to Monday. So 32 million folks, there's a lot. If you're going to the airport, prepare ahead of time. Make sure you've got things checked there. You've got stuff in the right bag. Remember, the my TSA app will help you out with that. If you're kind of wondering, OK, can I take this? Can I-- would that go need to put going to check this? Do I need to not? Remember, don't take a loaded gun in your carry-on. It is very important. Don't take a loaded gun in your check package either. You have to unload that. But you can check a weapon. You just can't take it. You can't-- don't try and go through the TSA and go, oops, I forgot to do that. That will not end well for you. And you will definitely hold up a line or two. So that's just a reminder. If you're looking at gas prices, we're sitting about where we were a year ago. It's 3.51 for the national average of a gallon of regular gas today, a year ago, it's 3.53. So as far as gas prices, they're right around where they have been. Tony, it's funny because when I was a kid growing up, right, you do the alphabet game when you're going on long road trips. And there's going to be a lot of alphabet games playing if you're doing the old school. But they've got chargers now. Make sure everything is charged up with your phone for your kids. And I say that because one of the stats that jumped out at me road trips over this holiday week could take up to 67% longer. Oh, boy. And yeah, we'll all get road rage at that point. Yeah, there could be some testing that's going on. I do have a solution if you're traveling this weekend or maybe tomorrow night later. Something soothing that you could listen to through the shameless plug. I'm hosting tomorrow evening with an edition of the Fox News rundown podcast, the Evening Edition. And I've got a story that I found fascinating on the Star Spangled Banner, not the song, necessarily, but the actual flag that sits at the Smithsonian in Washington, DC, some stuff that's kind of going behind it. I talked with the curator of that amazing artifact of American history. And this is not your father's boring history left. Let me spit it that way. No, not with you at the helm. We'll definitely check that out. How about you? Will you be watching the fireworks doing stuff with the family? Yeah, I'm going to be-- hopefully, I'll have a good seat for some fireworks. There's plenty around here in Manhattan to see whichever side of Manhattan you want it to reverse to. You can see some good fireworks. So I think that's the plan, kind of chill out what some fireworks hang out with the family. And it's kind of the thing we do. All right, Tonya J. Powers, Fox News Radio in New York. Thanks for your time this morning. Sure, thank you. My sister-in-law lived in Brooklyn Heights. I've been to Manhattan once in my life. And we had a very nice time. That was plenty. Actually, I was there twice, my first and last time. So there you go, folks. I'm not cynical. I'm just saying, not my thing. I'll have to tell you about my experience with my dad and family in New York. Oh, Kelly. Yeah. Rich at that. Was he driving? No, he thought he was going to until he saw someone stripping literally a car down on the highway.