Fox Valley residents ready to hit the road for Thanksgiving

Passengers proceed through a security checkpoint at Chicago Midway International Airport last Friday. Experts are predicting a record number of people will fly somewhere for Thanksgiving this year. (E. Jason Wambsgans/Chicago Tribune)

Travel experts say plenty of folks in Illinois will be hitting the road and the sky – the latter in record numbers this year – during the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend.

That travel trend includes many who live in the Fox Valley. Joel Friend of Montgomery said he’ll be among the many hitting the road this season.

“We’re going to southern Illinois to a town near Collinsville called Maryville. We go there every year,” he said. “Come Thanksgiving, we’re always on the road. In terms of more people traveling, I think it’s been gradually going up since the end of the pandemic. Things have slowly started to ramp up again and gas prices are reasonable.”

Molly Hart, a spokeswoman for the AAA Motor Club group, said an estimated 2.8 million Illinois residents are planning to travel for Thanksgiving, up 2.2% from a year ago.

To put that number in perspective, AAA says it’s the second-highest total since the record-setting 2005 season. The group says Thanksgiving is the second-biggest travel weekend of the year, following Memorial Day.

“In 2019 before COVID, we had 2.9 million so we’re just shy of that so you can see people are wanting to travel again,” Hart said. “However, the big shout-out for us in Illinois is that more people are flying out of town than ever before, a new record high.”

Statistics from AAA noted that 290,000 Illinoisans are expected to fly somewhere for the holiday, which would be the highest total on record – an 8.1% increase over 2022 which had been the previous record total.

Another change this year is that many are choosing to extend their weekends and fly back on the Monday after the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend, she said.

Hart said while prices for some airline tickets can be high, people are choosing to leave because they need a change in scenery or can now afford it.

“We’ve been talking about this, people either did home improvements during COVID or saved up their money for travel and still might have a little more money in their travel bank and that’s what they have opted to do,” she said. “And they’re going to different destinations. A lot are selecting Florida or Mexico even though it’s been warm here. I spoke with a colleague in Georgia recently and they are reaching record-breaking numbers. People are feeling comfortable about traveling again.”

Travel times. Hart says, can also be an issue both in terms of when to leave and coming back.

Diana North of Montgomery plans to drive to Manteno in Kankakee County for Thanksgiving. The AAA Motor Club predicts a near record number of travelers this holiday season. (David Sharos/The Beacon-News)

Joel Friend’s wife Julie said things have gotten better “since we moved out here” to Montgomery.

“Things have been much better since we moved out here after living in Chicago for 19 years,” she said. “It was terrible getting out of the city and it took us forever just to get to Joliet.”

Hillary Joy of Maple Park said she is among the thousands who will be heading out onto the roads for Thanksgiving.

“We are going to my aunt and uncle’s house in Lake in the Hills, which takes about 45 minutes to an hour,” she said. “We almost every year go to someone else’s house – we don’t host. Sometimes there is bad weather but, in the end, we feel it’s worth it. Living in Maple Park, we’re kind of used to the weather and it’s never usually more than an hour when we drive.”

She said she is not surprised to hear that more people will be on the move for the holiday.

“I think a lot of it is with COVID being over and this year, anything you go to, events seem to be bigger, holidays seem to be bigger and people are going out more often than we did since COVID,” she said. “I think travel is up and going to events – we are all getting more comfortable to travel than we did.”

Diana North of Montgomery said she is going to Manteno in Kankakee County for Thanksgiving.

“I have five siblings and we rotate, so most years I’m on the road somewhere,” she said. “I don’t worry about gas prices. I just go. We always leave first thing Thursday morning and come back the same day.”

Sue Tegmeyer of St. Charles, who used to live in New Jersey, is flipping the script and having people come from far away to see her.

“We have a friend who is already here that drove all the way from El Paso,” Tegmeyer said. “We have friends we are picking up a little later that are coming in from D.C. I grew up in New Jersey and every other year we go out there and spend the holiday with my family. On the opposite years, we have Friendsgiving and all my husband’s friends from high school come and spend time with us.”

Like others, Tegmeyer said she isn’t surprised at the travel surge given that “people are recovering from COVID and beginning to feel like they can get out and have a wanderlust and want to go see people.”

“We’ve been cooped up for too long,” she said. “I don’t mind going somewhere every other year. I look forward to it. We’ve got two kids and two dogs and we throw everybody in the car and drive to New Jersey.”