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

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