Monday, May 5, 2025
Time: 5:20 PM
Song: Like a Prayer
Artist: Madonna
Mode of Consumption: Listening to MP3s on the way on home from vacation.
Link to song: https://open.spotify.com/track/1z3ugFmUKoCzGsI6jdY4Ci?si=78751ec1a3cc4811
Illinois Route 40 runs north from Peoria to Sterling, and this stretch of rural two-lane highway is often the homestretch for us when we travel south for vacation. There is a sign leaving Peoria that marks the span as 56 miles.
It’s always the toughest stretch of the trip. A swirl of thoughts and emotions.
Resignation that vacation is almost over and at the end of these 56 miles, it will be back to normal life. Laundry. Mowing. Groceries. Bills. Work.
Weariness as the bustle of the previous few days of activities sets in. The concerts. The walking around downtown Nashville. The hotels. The restaurants. All the people we’ve passed that we will likely never see again, and wouldn’t know it if we did.
Impatience as it’s usually the point where we’ve had enough of sitting the car. We’ve probably run out of things to say, or simply don’t have the desire to say them. The jeep feels cluttered with luggage and bags from purchases, and wintergreens in the console. The air seems stale. Even the songs seem redundant, even though I don’t think we’ve had a repeat the entire trip.
It usually a slow feeling trip, one where it’s likely we’ll get stuck behind slow drivers, semis or farm machinery. Each mile counting off slower and slower. There’s a sign that marks 13 miles to Sterling, a distance that’s been nothing that last few days, and it always feels like those 13 miles take an hour each.
But we make it. We stop at Kroger’s on the north end of Sterling, Madonna is singing, and while we have a few miles yet to get home, it feels like the trip is officially over.
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