SUSQUEHANNA COUNTY, Pa. — The rest area off I-81 North in Susquehanna County saw a steady flow of travelers like Nate Childers and his dog Bucky Making a quick pit stop to get out and stretch their legs.
"I just actually adopted him three months ago, so this is his first time going on a long-distance car ride like this, so yeah, hopefully, he likes it as much as I do," said Nate Childers, Pottstown.
For Carol Hecky, this is her family's 31st Memorial Day Weekend trip.
They have a couple of different routes to navigate through the Keystone State in case construction, or congestion gets too bad.
"We can come up through the Poconos 80 and 380, and that's usually horrible, so we decided to go up the Northeast extension. So we sat for an hour on that because of construction, but once we got here, everything's been great once we passed that, so far, so good," said Carol Hecky, Trenton, NJ.
A popular weekend spot for travelers in Northeastern Pennsylvania is Lake Sheridan in Wyoming County.
Staff at Lake Sheridan Bar and Grill say it's all hands on deck to accompany a crowd that changes every year.
"It's just keeping up with how busy it gets. Everybody in the family come in, and they fill up all the houses and especially with things that are going on in the area, will have a lot of do you know, extra people coming for walk-ins or reservations, are usually booked for completely for the holiday weekend as well," said Ashley Tomeo, bartender at Lake Sheridan Bar and Grill.
One of the ways to the lake is down Route 107 near Factoryville.
There you'll find Nick's Cold Beer, where owner Nicholas Pawlukovich recently finished an addition to account for the busy weekend crowd.
"So this is probably our second busiest weekend of the year after fourth of July obviously, so it's big for us to get a lot of sales in this week, and you know, every time the weather warms up with this industry, it's always like go go go," said Nicholas Pawlukovich, owner of Nick's Cold Beer.
According to AAA, gas prices are lower this holiday compared to last year, when the national average was more than $4 per gallon.
Although we are seeing some lower prices at the pump, car travel this holiday is anticipated to fall short of pre-pandemic numbers by about 500,000 travelers.
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