Record 72M people expected to travel for July 4th: AAA

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- As America prepares to celebrate its 250th birthday, a record amount of people are set to travel.

Many of them might even be coming to Philadelphia to mark the big milestone.

AAA projects 72.2 million people will travel at least 50 miles for the July 4th holiday.

That tops last year's record.

The 9-day travel period runs from June 27th to July 5th.

More than 61 million people are expected to drive to their destinations, despite the high gas prices.

"Typically people have their plans laid out and they know what they're going to do, regardless of what gas prices are going to do. And what we saw over Memorial Day, people were complaining about it, they weren't happy but they were still pumping. They were still going to the gas station, filling up and hitting the road," says AAA spokesperson Aixa Diaz.

Nearly six million people are also expected to fly to their July 4th destinations.