Thousands to take to the road for holiday

Tens of thousands of Iowans will be someplace -other- than Iowa within a matter of hours. Dawn Duffy, spokeswoman for Triple-A Iowa, says the summer travel season is launching today with the start of Memorial Day weekend. Some 35-million Americans are expected to be taking trips during the holiday weekend of at least 50 miles from home. Duffy says that’s an increase of one-tenth of one-percent from last year. Most of the travelers will be hitting the road — 84-percent — while 11-percent will be flying. The remainder will be using trains, buses or other modes of transportation. Duffy says gasoline prices have fallen significantly since U-S forces entered Iraq back in March, although she says it still costs more to fill up this year than it did on Memorial Day weekend of 2002. Gas prices are 15 to 20-cents a gallon higher than a year ago, averaging a dollar-50 in Iowa.