More than a million North Carolinians head home following Memorial Day weekend

LELAND, NC (WWAY) — Millions of Americans are coming home Monday after kicking off the unofficial start to summer.

According to Triple-A, more than 1.3 million North Carolinians traveled more than 50 miles for their Memorial Day vacation, a new record for the state.

With so many people on the move, Zachary Arledge said traffic was heavy leaving from places like Ocean Isle Beach and Oak Island.

“Be prepared for traffic,” Arledge said. “It gets frustrating at times but its hard to complain on vacation like this.”

Memorial Day isn’t just for vacation as many sporting events are held over the weekend.

Marie Kelly watched her granddaughter Chesley play in a tournament down in South Carolina.

“Well last weekend, we went to Conway South Carolina to a 12U softball tournament,” Kelly said. And the traffic was pretty good going down but coming back, it was raining so bad, traffic was bumper to bumper and we ran into a bad wreck and had to delay, detour around. But we made it home safe, we’re very thankful. I hope everybody be safe and travel safe and get back home. Have a good time.”

Triple-A said a tip for future vacations is to wait until after 7 pm to leave to avoid congestion on the roads.