fairly, well in advance of a holiday," said gail weinholzer. "so they typically don't make a lot of last minute changes." the heaviest traffic is expected the day before and days after the holiday. gas prices are said to be the lowest since 2008. with the national average at about $2.20. "i love it," said roy soule. "makes me want to travel a lot more," said rodney wells. and for those doing their traveling over christmas. it gives most people something to wish for. "i hope they go lower," said rodney wells. >> also to note, with thursday's weather forecast not looking as as great as it can, triple a tells drivers to think well in advance. pack an emergency kit with gloves, a blanket, flashlight and anything else that could help in case of an emergency. live in sioux city, sam curtiss, ktiv news four. (sheila) with thanksgiving just two days away, airports around the country are seeing a steady flow of holiday travelers. (al) that was the case this afternoon at sioux gateway airport in sioux city. travelers departed for chicago o'hare enroute to their final destinations, including college students attending school away from home. now on break, students from out of state are ready to celebrate the holidays with their families. "hang out with the family, haven't seen them in awhile," said dylan rana. "have a nice dinner with the whole family, relax and not worry about school." "food! a lot of food and time with family, and then christmas time, i'm going back to arizona to do the same thing over again for about 2 weeks," said adam ortolf. "i have 3 siblings and i'm the only one that can be with my parents during thanksgiving, so it's very important to be there with them." according to aaa, an estimated 3.6 million americans will be flying to their holiday destinations. we want to know what your holiday plans are. are you driving out of town? catching a flight? or are you staying home? log on to ktiv dot com and cast your vote. we'll bring you the results tonight on news 4 at ten. a lot of people want to know what they can expect from the weather for their thanksgiving commute. for that, we'll toss it over to chief meteorologis t ron demers. weather ad-lib winter storm watch for harrison and shelby counties thursday 6 am to midnight it was another day of melting with highs in the 40s and 50s in central and southern siouxland with the cooler 30s to the northeast where the snowpack continues to be deeper. a combination of today's melting and more moisture moving in from the south is going to create the possibility of fog and drizzle as we head into the nighttime hours. we could see the drizzle and fog linger through the day on wednesday with maybe even a few rain showers trying to develop as well. this is the beginning of a system that could make travel a little difficult for our thanksgiving holiday. and while gas prices have been declining, there's one thing on the increase...car thefts and burglaries. "the recent spike is unusual, especially the stolen motor vehicles. that has been a spike we don't usually see," said detective zach lewis of the sioux city police department. that's not something you want to hear about, especially during the holidays. ktiv's tiffany lane has the details of an ongoing investigation by the sioux city police department. tiffany? al and sheila, over the past month and a half, there has been an influx of cars being broken into and stolen throughout sioux city. today, police shared some ways we can prevent this from happening. city. but the main areas hit are east of lewis boulevard, the north side and leeds. one of the biggest similarities police see with the burglaries and thefts is that car owners had left their cars unlocked or with the keys inside. "rarely do you look inside and see a key. it's once you're inside, whether it's locked or you force entry, you break into it, you find the key." su "once someone makes their way into your vehicle, even if your keys arent out on the seat, they can still find them, even if it's in your glove compartment box or underneath the seat. so police say, always make sure not to have any sets of keys inside the car." and with this wave of break ins and thefts, sioux city police say the people involved are not straying away from breaking windows as well. "which is uncharacteristic of your nighttime burglaries because usually the theory is to make as little noise as possible. but if these suspects or suspects see something inside the vehicle sitting out, a purse, they will break the window to gain entry." just another reason to always take precautions for your safety.>> sioux city police say they can't sioux city police say they can't confirm how many people are involved in this chain of break-ins and car thefts because it's an ongoing investigation. but they are saying they believe there are multiple people involved. al and sheila? and while the investigation continues, sioux city police say there are things you can do to reduce your chances of having your car broken into. never leave your car unlocked. never leave keys anywhere in the car. and don't leave valuable items visible in the vehicle. aside from the group involved in the rash of car thefts, this time of year, police say there's always an influx of cars stolen because of the cold weather. the problem is caused by people leaving their cars on. this is usually while their engines heat up or when they go in and run a quick errand. "it's very common at gas stations," "people will run inside the gas station and the cars are left running at the door," said detective zach lewis of the sioux city police department. sioux city law enforcers say they also occur on city streets as well as in home driveways. they say they get a handful of calls on these types of thefts on a daily basis. and for those in need of warm winter gear, there's still time to register at goodwill to participate in their shoe and mitten drive. the annual shoe and mitten party will be held on saturday, december 5th. they will be registering children ages 5 through 12 until the event is full even up until the day of the event. to register you can go to the goodwill administrative offices on west 4th street. military members past and present brainstorm over ways to serve siouxland veterans. they did so over coffee and donuts this morning in sioux city. the group "support siouxland soldiers" invited them to sit down and share their ideas. we'll hear from the organizers and have more on what they're hoping to accomplish.. tonight on news four at ten. still to come... norfolk catholic was trying to finish an undefeated season at the state finals in lincoln. we'll have highlights from memorial stadium, later in > winter storm watch for harrison and shelby counties it was another day of melting with highs in the 40s and 50s0sn centrr and southern siouxland with the cooler 3030to the northeast where the snowpack continues to be deeper. a combination of today's melting and more moving in from the south is going to create the possibility of fog and drizzle as we head into the nighttime hours. we could see the drizzle and fog linger through the day on wednesday with maybe even a few rain showers trying to develop as well. this is the beginning of a system that could make travel a little difficult for our thanksgiving holiday. as condition cool wednesday night, a mix of precipitation could start falling and we can't rule out a little freezing rain, especially in southern siouxland where a winter storm watch has been posted for thanksgiving day. the colder air will continue to settle in throughout the day on thursday turning the mix into all snow across much of siouxland with 1-3" accumulations possibly occurring. the snow should come to an end thursday night meaning black friday is looking drier but you'll still want to keep an eye on the road conditions. we'll stay dry saturday before a little more light snow may fall from sunday into monday. thanks to the holy cross third graders for having me visit with their class this morning. they were very good at paying iowa egg farms are gradually recovering from the bird flu that destroyed 25 million of the state's egeglaying hens this spring. the u.s. department of agriculture saysowa egg production during october was 753 million eggs. that's up 2 percent from september but still down 47 percent from a year ago. wholesale egg prices remain about a dollar per dozen higher than a year ago in some markets but the usda expects prices to fall below that level by the second half of next year. still to come... meet a siouxland woman whose oven has been working overtime! she's baked more than one-hundred thanksgiving pies! and books for all! siouxland students have some new reading material thanks to a big a thanksgiving meal isn't complete without a tasty pie to top off the turkey. and one rock valley, iowa woman has been busy makingngore than a hundred homemede pies for the holidays. rachael vavae weerd started her pie business a few years ago, after moving back to her hometown to take care of her aging grandparents. she needed a break from the daily routine, and learned how to make her mom's sour cream raisin pie. she mastered that and 23 others flavors and now sells her pies all around town. "restaurants started asking and i said, "sure,","nd then the lolol grocererstore started carrying it andndt's just like i get to be in the home doing what i like to do, grandma is enjoying herself and people get pies, it's a win win," says rachael vande weerd. be sure to watch sarah te slaa's special reportthera-pie, tonight on ktiv news 4 at 10. some sioux city elementary students went home with some extra reading today. in an effort to promote reading, all students at hunt elemenenry got a new book. the books s re provided by quota international. the books serve all different reading levels from kindergarten fifth grade. "it's about ships that sink at branquavius long talking about the titanic. "why are you excited to go home and read up on it?" asked a reporter. "because i like boats and ships and pirate ships," answered long. more donations this year allowed the group to include all grades at once. quota international says they hope to do a similar event with gloves and mittens in the coming months (sheila) brad's here -- with championship football games from lincoln. norfolk catholic was t ting to close ououa perfect season in n the class s title game. mark freund will have the action. and, the hawkeyes will also be in lincoln friday, trying to keep tir national title hopes alive. spos fource is next. football rankings in nebraska are not a good indicator of who's going to win. but still had a tough test in the title game. ktiv's mark freund reports from lincoln. mark: norfolk catholic has tatan out the number-2 and d e numberer teams on their way to the class c1 final. the knights have won their 3 playoff games by an average margin of over 32 points per game. catholic, looking to finish off the perfect season against third- ranked columbus scotus. but instead - the knights found themselves playing from behind. catholic trailed by as many as 14 points in the first half - david engelhaupt - hurt in this game - but still trucking through defenders - knights s ailed 25-14 heading into the fourth quarter. first play of the 4th - miles vrbka to engelhaupt down the sideline - 90 yard touchdown is the longest play in a class c-1 championship game - and brings catholic back within 5 points. but scotus answers - the shamrocks torched norfolk catholic for 306 rushing yards - taking a 32-20 lead. the knights actually outgained scotus by 67 yards, keeping them in the game matt miller on the reception, down to the 1 - catholic p pches it in on the next play.. so down 5, with under a minute to play - catholic gets the ball with a chance to win it - but engelhaupt fumbles and scotus survives - handing norfolk catholic its only loss - 32-27. "it was a different experience for us," said senior david engelhaupt. "we worked hard. we had a lot of heart but we made mistakes that really kept us back from winning the game." "if you would have asked me at the beginning of the season if we would have had a chance to win the game with two minutes left in the state championship, i would have taken it a hundred out of a hundred times," said senior matt miller. "i'm very proud of our kids," said norfolk catholic head coach jeff bellar. "no coach coaches to lose but there's a time when you have to man up and you have to step up and say 'we did what we did and we got beatat we'll fight for it again nextxtear." in lincoln, mama freund, ktiv sportstsurce. in c2, oakland-craig facing aquinas catholic from david city. first quarter - monarchs on the move - lane napier from 7 yards out - aquinas quickly on top. things going - moving the ball well - cole mitchell finds zach ahrens - shakes a tackle - it's a 15-yard gain - but that drive ends with an interception. and then aquinas pounces - two guys behind the defense - kenton kobza makes e easy grab - 71 yard housecall - aquinas catholic rolls to its fourth title in five years, 36-7. when the big ten decided to pair braska and iowa inn the heroesesame, they hoped to crcrte extra drama. they've got it this year, going into friday's matchup in lincoln. iowa is 11 and 0 and ranked third the a-p poll. nebraska is 5 and 6, and need a win to become bowl eligible. the hawkeyes have already clinched the west division and a spot in the big ten championship game. but iowa is right in the middle of the national championship picture -- if they win out. "the better t tngs get, the more distractionsnshere are out there for everybbdy to take thhm off course of what makesesou successful," said iowa head coach kirk ferentz. "i think that's really the challenge we're trying to deal with right now. it's going to be a hostile environment, we know that. any time you travel in the big ten it's going to be tough to go into someone else's stadium. that's an added challenge and we're playing them on their senior day as well. we got a tall list of things we're going to have to get prepared for." iowa is a 1-point favorite. kickoff is at 2-30 on friday.