Just as there are good odds the turkey will taste dry, airports and highways are expected to be jam-packed during Thanksgiving week, a holiday period likely to end in another record day for air travel in the United States.

The great Thanksgiving getaway starts today. Millions are expected to hit the road or take to the skies ahead of the holiday, but they could run into some travel headaches with two storms in the forecast this week,

Turkey pardons can be traced back to President Abraham Lincoln in 1863. Historians claim he spared a turkey's life after his son, Tad, befriended it. But yearly pardoning became an "official" tradition under George H W Bush, when the former president pardoned a turkey in 1989 as animal-rights activists protested nearby.