Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/20280
10B – Daily News – Wednesday, November 24, 2010 Coupon Happy Holidays our gift to you Watch Battery Free Must have coupon Exp 12-24-10 Gold Exchange 530 528-8000 423 Walnut St. Red Bluff LASSEN STEAK HOUSE Full Bar • 9 Beers On Tap Big Screen TVs • Pool Room ANGUS STEAK Call 530 839-2838 Corner of Hwy 99E & Vina BLACK 22755 Antelope Blvd. Red Bluff, CA 96080 (530) 527-9166 Lost in frenzy over Open Mon. thru Sat. 10am – 6pm November is get your room on! Come check out our new addition! Variety of • Ballasts • Reflectors • Bulbs Wide searches, travelers hit roads LAS VEGAS (AP) — Michael Sommermeyer’s Thanksgiving plan goes like this: Load his wife and children into their Ford Taurus, hand his teens an iPad stocked with movies and drive 15 hours — from Las Vegas to Texas. Sommermeyer would not have it any other way. Lost in the frenzy over new airport inspections is the fact that 94 percent of holiday travelers will reach their destination by road this year. For some, a snarled freeway and $3-a- gallon gasoline is a wel- come respite from the mad- ness of air travel. ‘‘The full body scan, I am worried about it because of the radiation,’’ he said. ‘‘They claim it’s safe, but who knows?’’ Roughly 39.7 million will travel by road this year, a 12 percent increase from last Thanksgiving, accord- ing to a AAA travel survey of 50,000 U.S. households conducted during the week of Oct. 25. Just over 1.62 million holiday travelers will fly the long holiday weekend, a 3.5 percent increase from last year, AAA said. AAA conducted its trav- el survey before many groups began organizing protests at airports against additional security proce- dures, including the body scan machines and a more rigorous, intrusive pat- down process. When they do travel, families are not straying far from home. Those who travel by car will drive roughly 816 miles over the holiday weekend. Wednes- day and Sunday are gener- ally the busiest days for air and road travelers. AAA attributes part of the increase in travelers to people feeling more confi- dent about the economy and, in some cases, taking Wednesday and Friday off to make the drive. ‘‘The economy is being perceived as turning around,’’ AAA spokesman Michael Geeser said. ‘‘They think things are bet- ter for themselves, so maybe they are taking an extra day off from work and making it a long week- end.’’ The average lowest round-trip airfare is expect- ed to cost $176 for the top 40 U.S. air routes, AAA reported. Car rental rates, however, could cost an average of $42 over the holiday weekend, down 4 percent from last year. Marie Johnston, 48, was traveling with her parents from Glens Falls, N.Y., to Columbus, Ohio, where her daughter, a recent col- lege graduate, was hosting Thanksgiving in her new house. She took three days’ vacation and scheduled an overnight stop in Buffalo, N.Y., where her son attends college, to break up the 10- hour trip. Grabbing a cup of cof- fee at a rest stop just east of Rochester, N.Y., the family agreed that cost and conve- nience were the most important factors to them. ‘‘Partially because of the recession, partially because maybe people feel more secure when they’re in their own vehicle, and they have more liberty on where they’d like to go and if they change plans,’’ the legal assistant said. The family figured on about $100 in gas in their Honda sport utility vehicle — using a grocery chain’s incentive discounts to save on every gallon — for the 1,250-mile roundtrip, com- pared with about $800 for airfare. For his 15 hour roadtrip, Sommermeyer, a 46-year- old foreclosure mediation analyst, planned to start Tuesday night. While his children watch the iPad — and hopefully drift off to sleep — he and his wife can listen to the audiobook ‘‘Decision Points’’ by for- mer President George W. Bush. They have made the drive to his father-in-law’s northern Texas house every Thanksgiving for the past eight years. He usually faces snow showers on rural roads and a few car accidents, but the econom- ics made sense, especially in these tough times, he said. ‘‘It’s a lot cheaper for us,’’ he said. ‘‘Even if we got a good deal on airfare, it would still be over $200 per person.’’ Along Interstate 70 in Colorado’s eastern plains, many holiday travelers said they were happy to make 1,000-mile-plus treks to avoid the air — and airport lines on the ground. Eric Flynn, 35, of Salt 331 Oak Street, Red Bluff, CA 96080 (530) 526-4545 tasteoftehama.com Pecan logs, gourmet cookies, chocolate bark, chocolate candy, jewelry, gifts, salt water taffy 10% Senior discount everyday FRESH FRUIT BOUQUETS For your Wedding, Anniversary, Birthday, Baby Shower, Super Bowl, Holiday Or Anytime Party. Chocolate Dipped Bananas Lake City, was driving to Junction City, Kan., to spend the holiday with family. Flynn, who was traveling with his wife, 4- year-old daughter and the family dog, was stopped at a gas station in rural Watkins, Colo., to fuel up. He said he was happy to be on the road instead of in the air. ‘‘It kind of seems like a pain’’ to fly these days, Flynn said, as he filled up the car’s tank at the gas sta- tion on the wind-swept plains, the snowcovered mountains towering on the horizon. ‘‘You get in the car, do your own thing,’’ he said. ‘‘It might take longer, but it’s more relaxing.’’ NOW OPEN oh yeah