Memorial Day Weekend

Memorial Day weekend is the unofficial kickoff to summer—trust us, this weekend's lineup of event in Rockford is going to keep you very busy!

My hope is for you to have a fun and safe Memorial Day Weekend. You should know that if you live in Missouri or Illinois that weather over the holiday weekend could become dangerous with conditions right for explosive storm development.

The Missouri State Highway Patrol wants you to have a safe and enjoyable Memorial Day Weekend. Ahead of that holiday though, they've issued some warnings and a reminder of the dire situation they faced last year with many unnecessary accidents and fatalities.

The weather this week is especially back-and-forth between early Spring and mid-Summer.

It's been almost two years now since Illinoisans and the rest of the country looked at Memorial Day Weekend as an opportunity to take a long weekend trip, but with COVID-19 numbers going the right way for the most part, plans to hit the road are being made.

The last time the national gas price average leading into the holiday was under $2/gallon was 17 years ago in 2003. That year motorists paid, on average, $1.50 to fill-up.

Obviously this isn't everything you can do, but if you don't have plans yet, it's a good place to start.

I just finished chatting with my friend Jennifer Bowman of the Rock River Valley Blood Center. Jen pointed out to me (so I'll share with you) that as Memorial Day Weekend is the unofficial start to the summer season, it's also the beginning of a time period that has the largest need of blood donations.

High gas prices, combined with effects of the Great Recession, have tamped down holiday travel to a certain degree over the last few years. However, according to a new report from the American Automobile Association (AAA), more Americans (including more of us from Illinois) are ready to do some travelling this Memorial Day Weekend.