Dec. 22--Check your tires and check your flight status. The holiday travel rush is upon us.

State troopers are patrolling for speeders and impaired drivers. Road crews have closed down construction projects.

And Raleigh-Durham International Airport has scheduled wine tastings, book signings and plenty of music this week to ease the strains of air travel.

"I've had a two-hour wait because my husband missed his connection from Newark," Laurie Dolan of Autryville said Wednesday evening. She was grateful when a string quartet -- musicians from the Durham-based Mallarme Chamber Players -- began performing holiday tunes in the vast Terminal 2 lobby, between the U.S. Airways counter and a Hanukkah menorah.

During a tender rendition of "The First Noël," Dolan recorded a video clip on her phone and emailed it to her daughter, "a band geek in high school." She was waiting at home to greet her father, a soldier returning from Germany for the first time in six months.

"It's very soothing," Dolan said. "They had a piano player in here earlier. I hope they continue playing because it drowns out all the other junk and helps you relax. It's wonderful."

In the air

RDU expects to handle 170,000 travelers during the seven days that began Tuesday -- down about 10,000 from the same week last year. Airfares have increased about 21 percent in the past year, the AAA Carolinas motor club says.

Today is the busiest air travel day of the season, with 28,000 travelers expected to pass through RDU.

Wednesday got off to a slow start at RDU when 36 departing flights were delayed between 15 and 60 minutes. A false alarm in an airport authority computer triggered the shutdown of a jet refueling system at 4:30 a.m. RDU said the problem was fixed and normal schedules were restored before 10 a.m.

On the road

AAA predicts that 2.4 million North Carolinians will pack their cars for year-end road trips.

Gas prices have fallen steadily in the past few weeks, but we're still paying more at the pump than ever before at Christmastime. The average Triangle price for self-service regular Wednesday was $3.235 a gallon, according to AAA, but many stations posted prices below $3.15.

The state Department of Transportation said drivers will find construction-related delays only in two places, where lanes are closed on U.S. 17 bridges in Windsor and Jacksonville.

The state gasoline tax will increase by 3.9 cents on Jan. 1, so North Carolina drivers will ring in the New Year with a tax rate of 38.9 cents a gallon -- higher than in all but four other states.

Siceloff: 919-829-4527 or blogs.newsobserver.com/crosstown or twitter.com/Road_Worrier/

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