Holiday travel smooth sailing for most

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ATLANTA, Georgia (AP) -- The journey home at the end of the long Thanksgiving weekend was smooth sailing for many travelers Sunday, although snow slowed the journey for some in the West.

In Washington, 15 inches of snow fell near the Canadian border and traffic slowed to a crawl on the state's main east-west corridor.

Farther south, chains were mandatory on vehicles traveling on two major highways linking Sacramento, California, to ski resorts in Nevada's Lake Tahoe area.

"It's super slow-going because of all the holiday traffic," said Greg Schiessl, a California Highway Patrol dispatcher in Truckee, California.

Yet travelers across most of the nation had dry and relatively mild weather for their drives and flights home. Airports in Boston, Chicago, Dallas, Columbus and Cincinnati reported no major problems or delays. (Watch how weather cooperated with most holiday travelers )

At midday, "On Time" flashed next to most flight numbers on departure boards at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International and security checkpoint lines took less than 10 minutes.

"They're in a pretty happy mood," Bobby Anderson, a 73-year-old shoe shiner, said while watching the largely relaxed crowd at the world's busiest airport.

More than 290,000 travelers were expected to go through the Atlanta airport Sunday. (Watch what's confiscated and stored at TSA's warehouse )

Ken Edwards and his 11-year-old son went to Hartsfield-Jackson nearly three hours early to make sure they had plenty of time to negotiate lines. But traffic was smooth, parking was easy and lines were short.

"We were expecting the worst," said Edwards, 44, of Albany, Georgia. "I'm not sure what's going on, but everything's going perfect."

As calm as the crowds were at Hartsfield-Jackson, one exception was Chris Donaldson of Alpharetta, Georgia. He had taken his family to Santa Domingo for Thanksgiving and they were to fly back Saturday, but mechanical problems on their flight led to a cascade of headaches.

Dressed in flip-slops and shorts, they were ultimately routed to New York City's John F. Kennedy International Airport, landing Saturday night. "It was about 45 degrees, and we'd come from 87," he noted. They had to get up early Sunday to catch a flight out of another New York airport, LaGuardia. It was a 26-hour experience that left them visibly exhausted.

To rub salt to the wound: Donaldson had tickets to the 1 p.m. football game in Atlanta between the Falcons and the Saints, on the 45-yard line, twenty rows back. He'd been looking forward to it all season. But he didn't land in Atlanta until about a noon, and had to get his weary family home.

The game was out of the question.

"As far as traveling nightmares go, it's right up there," he said.

At Los Angeles International Airport, about 75 members of a city union protested for renewed contract negotiations. Members of the Engineers and Architects Association chanted slogans and waved picket signs outside the departure areas of two airport terminals, said Robert Aquino, executive director of the 7,400-member union.

While three protesters were cited for blocking traffic, the demonstration was largely peaceful and not disruptive, police spokeswoman Martha Garcia said.

Midday crowds also weren't as bad as expected at Boston's Logan International Airport.

People are spreading out Thanksgiving travel plans over several days instead of hitting the airport all at the same time, said Danny Levy, spokeswoman for the Massachusetts Port Authority that operates Logan.

At Logan's US Airways terminal, more flights were arriving early than late at one point, but Jeff O'Sullivan was on one of the exceptions.

His flight home to Charlotte, North Carolina, was delayed by two hours and he didn't know why.

"We thought it was too good to be true, and it was," O'Sullivan said.

Windy City's warmth helps

Luck also wasn't with Michael McGarry of Hoboken, New Jersey, who said lines were horrible when he left Newark Liberty International on Sunday morning on his way to Miami for vacation.

He said there was no effort to speed up things for first-class travelers like himself or for people who were close to their flight times.

"The premium I paid was not justified today," McGarry said after landing in Miami.

The unusually warm weather in Chicago was "definitely a blessing. Both airports are reporting no major delays," city Department of Aviation spokeswoman Wendy Abrams said of O'Hare International and Midway International airports. Chicago's temperature edged above 60 degrees over the holiday weekend.

More than 1.9 million travelers were expected to travel through Chicago's airports over the weeklong holiday travel period ending Monday, Abrams said.

In the Northwest, gloomy, damp weather in the morning put a damper on travelers' morale.

Nearly all flights into and out of San Francisco International Airport were on time Saturday morning; but by early afternoon the airport reported an average 46-minute delay for all inbound and outbound domestic and Canadian flights.

The change coincided with light showers and decreasing visibility in the San Francisco Bay Area.

The weather did not affect air traffic at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport, said Gary Mayer with the Federal Aviation Administration.

Farther inland, however, wind-blown snow caused poor visibility at Snoqualmie Pass, which carries Interstate 90 across the Cascade Range that divides Washington state. Tire chains or four-wheel-drive were required for all vehicles because of packed snow and slush in the pass, state highway officials said.

On Georgia's highways, 20 people had been killed as of noon Sunday, matching the State Patrol's forecast.

There had been more than 3,000 accidents -- about 100 more than predicted -- with nearly 800 injuries, according to the state Department of Public Safety.

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