Millions are heading out on the roads for their Memorial Day Weekend plans.
AAA estimates that travel this year will be 4% higher than last year, with 43.8 million people driving 50 miles or more from home from Thursday to Sunday.
“We’re going to Cape Cod for a couple days, then we’re heading to Maine,” said Jill Klein of North Carolina, who was stopping through a Connecticut rest area Friday. “Yesterday was terrible, it was worse, a lot worse yesterday. A lot of traffic. Today’s been a little bit smoother.”
“We made it fairly quick up to Connecticut, and then of course 95, always something going on…traffic. Otherwise, we’re doing pretty good,” said Mark Anthony of New Jersey.
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Others are opting to stay in-state and enjoy our state parks.
Camping season officially kicked off Friday, and Hammonasset Beach State Park was buzzing.
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“I’ve been camping since I was a little kid with my father and mother. It’s generational now. So, my kids come up, they’re 19 and 16,” said Craig Wezenski of Orange. “Get back in nature, get away from the day-to-day work.”
DEEP says Hammonasset is the most popular park in the state, with three million people visiting during the summer season. The annual visitation to state parks went from 10 million people before the pandemic to 17 million people during the pandemic, a number that has stayed constant, a spokesperson for DEEP said.
More than 550 campers made their way into Hammonasset Friday. Spots are booked out 11 months in advance.
“You have to be up early in the morning on the day they open up the campsites, and I’m gonna say this is 90% full on the first day that it’s here,” said John Mascia of Berlin.
“Like a month ago, I think we said, let’s try Memorial Day camping,” said Reuben Randalot. “I put us on the waitlist, four days later we ended up getting this site and the lady said this is the best site in the whole park. I was like, this is great!”
DEEP said lifeguards will be on hand at Hammonasset Beach during Memorial Day Weekend.
