Next weekend’s holiday marks the unofficial start of summer and the official start of summer vacation season.

Gail Weinholzer, at AAA-Iowa, predicts it’ll be the busiest Memorial Day for travel in more than a decade.

“Thirty-nine-point-three-million Americans will travel at least 50 miles or more between Thursday, May 25th and Monday, May 29th,” Weinholzer says. “That’s the highest level since 2005.”

The boost in travel numbers can be attributed to several things. “We saw it last year, all five major holidays saw an increase over the previous year and obviously, we’re starting off that way this year,” Weinholzer says. “People must be feeling better about the economy as well as the fact that gas prices, while just a smidge above last year, are still much lower than in previous years.”

Read the full article on the Radio Iowa website.