Thanksgiving weekend has come to an end, but the nightmare of heavy traffic has begun. New Primals is a rock band from Minneapolis that is on tour and made a quick gas stop in Palm Springs. Band members Sam Frederick, Eric Nordling and Andrew Kurtz were heading to Los Angeles from Phoenix.

“We have a cool show tonight, but we gave ourselves like 3 extra hours to get there because of all the traffic obviously,” Frederick said. “There’s probably going to be a lot of people going to LA, coming back from LA, it’s after Thanksgiving.”

According to the Automobile Club of Southern California, 5.37 million Californians drove a vehicle during Thanksgiving weekend in 2017. This is why California Highway Patrol is asking drivers to keep their eyes on the road and to make sure they wear seat belts.

While the westbound of the Interstate 10 freeway was bumper to bumper, those heading towards the east were not having a stressful return. One of those drivers was Kory Masushige.

“Going our way has been awesome, it’s been great no traffic at all, looking at the other side of the road, it’s ridiculous,” he said. “It is so backed up, they are not getting anywhere they need to go for hours.”

Also heading to Arizona was college student Harrison Bauer, who spent the holiday weekend with some friends in Los Angeles.

“So far we haven’t run into anything, but I have been thinking about it in my mind if it’s going to get bad,” Bauer said.

Although traffic can be chaotic during this season, travelers like Bauer find this as an opportunity to bond with one another.

“Honestly just talking to each other about the trip,” he said. “We are all really close, and we make good company with each other.”

California Highway Patrol recommends taking extra precautions during this peak season.

Holiday travellers hit gridlock traffic