Those travel decisions for Thanksgiving
One thing I don’t like about Thanksgiving, in addition to all the things I do, is the need to travel within a compressed time frame.
Christmas holiday travel tends to be more spread out. But for Thanksgiving the choices are more limited. To get wherever you’re going it’s usually the Wednesday right before – or, if you’re lucky, maybe Tuesday.
I’ve been caught in some epic traffic jams of the past on the day before Thanksgiving, trying to get from New England to New York City (once in a huge snowstorm). One time I tried to finesse the problem by traveling down in the wee hours of Thursday morning, arriving around 3 AM. Only problem (besides the darkness) was that when I arrived, there were no parking spaces to be had.
For years I traveled on Tuesday. But over time, I noticed that Tuesday had become more crowded than Wednesday.
Nowadays I have more flexibility. Plus, I go to New York City for Thanksgiving less often; I’m more likely to be somewhere in the country rather than the city. That tends to make the traveling much easier.
Then there’s the question of when to return. Sunday is the big day, so I usually opt for Saturday or Monday. Which means that today, Saturday, is a traveling day for me. To all who’ve traveled for the holidays and are trying to get back, have a safe trip!
Here is your travel weather information:
http://www.mikesmithenterprisesblog.com/2019/11/today-and-tonights-weather-risks.html
On my blog, I try to provide information on major storms during heavy travel periods.
Our daughter arrived here at 8:30 a.m. on Wednesday, after her four-hour drive, and she left this morning to return. Our other daughter currently lives in South Florida. Next year she will move to another southern state, so we will no longer have to suffer driving I-95 and I-75. For that we are truly grateful!
Christmas is a good day to fly 🙂
I’m lucky that I usually only have a 1-2 hour drive and the weather usually isn’t too treacherous so I take the surgical strike approach where i leave Thursday morning and return Friday morning.
Family in small doses is the best family.
Spending the holiday in Florida with our daughters. One drives back to Atlanta tomorrow, the other lives here in Orlando. Wife and I both retired, so not returning until Wednesday. Avoiding both crowds, and now it turns out a snow storm. Still it will be hard to leave 80 degrees for 30s and snow. Lower latitudes is definitely in our future.
Ok, this is not a problem for me, but why not take the car to the general outskirts and take the train? New Haven, or somewhere…
I’ve visited but never had any issues, but only once during the holidays, and that was back in the 80s
ONloodyHell:
Many reasons I don’t take the train.
During the long-ago gas crisis I took the train. It was so crowded that some people were sitting on their luggage in the aisles. The train broke down, too, and we ended up on some weird commuter train. What’s more, once I got to NYC there was still plenty of traveling and hauling luggage around before I got to my destination.
Now, with my orthopedic injuries, it’s hard for me to haul luggage around.
Last but not least, when I’m in NYC I often do side trips that require a car.
Neo
Many reasons I don’t take the train…..
I took the Boston-NYC train in the ’80s. I was entertained by overhearing a fellow passenger talking about how his fellow Harvard Law students were such GOOD people. Salt of the earth, those Harvard Law students. 🙂
And so modest!
Next door neighbor traveled Thanksgiving morning (Thursday!) to see his new grandson. Avoids crowds, costs less (sez he) . . . but he gets to see less of his family that way.
My daughter, son-in-law, grandson, son and son’s dog have been here since before Thanksgiving, and just left (Saturday evening) to get home to Pennsylvania and Connecticut from Central New York before the two-day winter storm that’s due to start in the morning. It means driving a long way through the dark, but it also means that grandson — a toddler– left wearing his jammies and will swiftly fall asleep in his carseat so that his parents can drive and converse with each other in peace.
It was a lovely holiday, two out of three kids at home and the third coming for Christmas, plenty of laughter, and many, many reasons to give thanks.