This weekend opens one of the busiest traveling seasons of the year, with children officially out of school this week.

AAA projects 34.8 million Americans will travel 50 or more miles from home during the Memorial Day weekend, which is up 1.2 percent or 500,000 travelers from the 34.3 million people who traveled this time last year.

AAA Alabama spokesperson Clay Ingram said Friday that the organization is expecting a “very busy holiday weekend and a busy summer as well.”

“The overall domestic economic picture continues to improve slightly, however, American consumers faced a new challenge this year as steadily increasing gas prices throughout the spring significantly squeezed many household budgets,” said Ingram. “Americans will still travel during the Memorial Day holiday weekend but, many will compensate for reduced travel budgets by staying closer to home and cutting entertainment dollars.”

And travelers should feel some relief to their bank accounts as gas prices continue to decrease.

“Our state average (Friday) is $3.36 per gallon, down 36 cents from one month ago, and 28 cents less than this time last year,” Ingram said. “We probably won’t see too much change over the next week or so, but once we get past this holiday weekend, we could potentially see prices drop even further. While it is difficult to predict how much pump prices might drop, it is possible that we might see them below $3 at some point this summer.”

Locally, the area average sits just below the state average at $3.33 per gallon, down 37 cents from last month.

And gas can be found as cheap as $3.26 per gallon at several Gitty-Up-N-Go locations, as well as the Kangaroo Express.