Home for the holidays can be a winding road
Sally Scheidt lives and works in Brooklyn. A thrifty lifestyle is nearly impossible in any of New York City’s five boroughs, so she cuts costs where she can.
“We’re taking the Megabus,” said Scheidt, who is returning home to East Washington for Christmas, and bringing along her boyfriend, Rawaid Akhtar. The cost: $40 for a one-way ticket, a modest $80 apiece roundtrip.
“It’s just the cheapest way to get back,” she added.
And by taking the long-distance bus, they – and the other passengers – will minimize the hassle, as roads, rails and airways are expected to be jammed.
The overseers at AAA are anticipating a record holiday travel period this year. They predict a record 107.3 million U.S. citizens will commute by auto, train or plane during the holiday period, which will begin Saturday and end Jan. 1. That would be a 3.1 percent increase over last year.
Her job as an assistant events manager for Dobbin St. prevented Scheidt, 25, from celebrating a Washington County Christmas last year. She is pleased to be coming back this time, with Akhtar, who has never been to these parts.
They will pick up a red-eye Megabus in Manhattan at 11 p.m. Friday and arrive in Pittsburgh around 7:30 a.m. Saturday. Scheidt has shipped all of her presents to Pittsburgh and will travel lightly, with a suitcase.
“I wanted to come home, but didn’t want to fly. It’s too expensive,” she said. “I also recently came back from a European trip. I used to take Amtrak (between New York and Pittsburgh), but that’s a little more expensive and takes an hour longer.”
Jane Rainey likewise will be on the road to East Washington, and expects to be a bit uncomfortable en route from Cape Cod. But that has nothing to do with traffic congestion and everything to do with the arm she broke in a fall Sunday night.
“We’ll deal with whatever comes,” she said, philosophically. “We will drive as far as we can Friday and get there Saturday. You can’t change what’s in front of you.”
Rainey has been a linchpin in coordinating a lot of moving parts to set up what is, essentially, a gathering of Allisons in their original hometown. She grew up an Allison along with brothers Bill and Bob.
Jane and her husband Jim have quite a Friday itinerary. Jim will drive from their Eastham, Mass., home to Logan International Airport in Boston, where they will pick up their daughter, Rebecca, following a flight from Berlin, Germany. The three will then begin a two-day, 12-hour drive to Western Pennsylvania.
Jim and Jane’s son, Tucker – who attended the gripping Steelers-Patriots game Sunday – will jet back in from Los Angeles.
This, Jane said, should be a warm gathering for the family, which has several relatives in and around East Washington. “My brother Bill’s wife died in August and we will support him,” she said. “It will be really good to be together.”
AAA forecasts that more than 90 percent of holiday travelers will do so by automobile, and those in Pennsylvania won’t commute as cheaply as in other states. The average price of gasoline in the commonwealth is $2.71 per gallon, compared with the national average of $2.43. The U.S. figure is 12 cents cheaper than last month, but 20 cents higher than a year ago.
Prices, however, have continued to decline throughout Western Pennsylvania, dipping a penny this week to $2.774 per gallon, AAA reported. But that is more than three cents above the figure of a year ago ($2.452).
The association listed gas prices for 22 areas in this half of the state, and Washington had the third-lowest price this week, $2.726. Uniontown ($2.670) had the lowest, followed by Erie ($2.714). Jeannette had the highest average price per gallon ($2.824).