Travelers Head to the Airports

Millions of Americans were hitting the road, heading to airports and taking to train stations Wednesday to get home in time for Thanksgiving turkey on what's traditionally the busiest travel day of the year.

Traffic was snarled for miles on Washington's Capital Beltway on Wednesday morning after a tanker truck carrying 8,700 gallons of gasoline exploded on Interstate 95 just north of the city around 5 a.m.

Drivers who stopped near the scene in suburban Beltsville, Md., were told to get out and abandon their cars for fear of a larger explosion, but no injuries were reported. The tanker's driver was able to escape.

AAA reported that more than 37 million people will be traveling over the holiday weekend, undeterred by more expensive gasoline, rental cars and hotel rooms. Snow could create messy travel conditions in many areas, particularly on the southern shore of Lake Erie, where temperatures were likely to remain below freezing.

Kate Kehoe, who was filling up her tank in Michigan as snow fell around her, said she wasn't too worried about her trip from Ann Arbor to Flint.

"I'm glad gas is not $3 anymore," the preschool teacher said Wednesday morning.

For those taking to the skies, the Air Transport Association, which represents major airlines, predicts 21.7 million people will fly on U.S. airlines between Nov. 19 and Nov. 29, slightly more than the record number that took to the air a year ago.

Some travelers, heeding warnings about delays on Wednesday, left a day early.

"I wanted to beat the rush," Joe Lamport said Tuesday after arriving at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport. The 35-year-old New York City man brought his family to Atlanta to spend the holiday with his brother-in-law's family.

Lamport wasn't alone in getting a head start. The airport reported 289,597 passengers on Tuesday - nearly 4,100 more than what's expected for Wednesday. Tuesday's rush also prompted lighter-than-normal commuter traffic in Washington, D.C., and Atlanta.

And Amtrak spokeswoman Tracy Connell said 125,000 people last year traveled on Amtrak trains the day before Thanksgiving, up 80 percent from the 69,000 who ride the trains on an average day.

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