Thanksgiving Travel Rush Underway Across U.S.

About 4.5 Million Are Expected To Travel This Thanksgiving

About 42.5 million people are expected to hit the road or take to the skies for Thanksgiving this year, according to travel tracker AAA. That's the highest number of travelers since the start of the recession at the end of 2007, record show.

The rough economy led people to find ways to save money, but many refused to scrap their travel plans. Across the country, Americans are finding news ways to travel.

One couple told the Associated Press that he and his girlfriend opt to sleep in their car instead of getting a motel room when a heavy, wet snowstorm flared up along the New York State Thruway during their 20-hour drive from New Hampshire to St. Louis.

"Americans will still do what Americans do. We travel the roads,” he said.

The average round-trip airfare for the top 40 U.S. routes is $212, up 20 percent from last year. Tickets on most Amtrak one-way routes have climbed slightly, and drivers are paying an average $3.33 a gallon, or 16 percent more than last year, according to AAA.

But it doesn’t seem to bother travelers. "I think it's something you can't quantify in terms of monetary cost," Jake Pagel, a waiter from Denver flying to see his girlfriend’s family in San Jose, California, told Associated Press. "I mean, being able to spend quality time with your family is fairly significant."