(Radio  Iowa) – Next week may be one of the busiest travel weeks in Iowa history, according to a forecast from AAA Iowa. The motor club’s Brian Ortner says the study estimates nearly 82-million Americans will be leaving home for the Thanksgiving holiday, including six-and-a-half million Midwesterners traveling by car, plane, train, bus or boat.

“When we’re looking at this year, it’s growth over last year in our region, for a total of almost 2% growth,” Ortner says. “Those who are taking the car is growing by about 1.3%, a majority of people are traveling that way from our region, over 5.8 million folks. Three-hundred-six thousand are taking to the air, a growth of almost 2%.”

Ortner says the number of people taking cruises this year bounced 12-percent over last year, and he says plenty of Iowans will be setting sail for Thanksgiving. “Some reasons for that are, affordability, accessibility and obviously, the destination,” he says. “Weather, we’ve been fortunate lately, but usually when we get into Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s, weather in our area isn’t always the best. Some of us like snow or cold, but none of us like the ice, and why not be on a boat in the sunshine?”

For road warriors, the current average price for gasoline in Iowa is $2.80 a gallon, which is a full 30 cents below the national average. “We shouldn’t see any significant changes beyond that. There’s some fluctuality going on with the markets, but, looking at the markets today, crude oil, which makes up the largest cost of a gallon of fuel, is trending less than $60 per barrel. So, I would think you’ll see those prices either plateau right now, or even decrease a little bit as we move toward the Thanksgiving holiday.”

The Iowa Governor’s Traffic Safety Bureau is reminding Iowa motorists to buckle up. During Thanksgiving week last year, Iowa had 17 fatal or serious injury crashes, including five that involved people who weren’t belted in.