---

November 24th - You hear a lot about the trappings of the upcoming holiday -- turkey, football, shopping -- but the real celebration of Thanksgiving centers on family gatherings.

In most cases, these mean travel. And those trips add up to the busiest travel time of the entire year.

Last year, it's estimated that nearly 38.5 million people traveled more than 50 miles from home at Thanksgiving, equal to slightly over the total population of the nation's largest state, California.

Each year, Americans go on about 350 million leisure trips that include an overnight stay.

More than three-quarters of these trips are made by car and the average trip includes four nights away from home.

---