This year’s travel for the Fourth of July Weekend is set to be the second highest on record as 47.7 million Americans pack their bags, only 2.5 percent lower than 2019. Around 1.4 million North Carolinians are projected to travel at least once between July 1 and July 5. Despite gas prices being the most expensive nationwide since 2014, 43.6 million Americans opted for a road trip this Independence Day Weekend and 1.2 million are North Carolinians, according to a press release from AAA Carolinas. The current average gas price in the New Bern area is $2.80 a gallon compared to $2.01 in 2020 and $2.56 in 2019. Since the gas shortage that occurred earlier in the summer, things should be back to normal, said Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy.