As JRR Tolkien wrote, the road goes ever on and on. And on, and on, especially when the girls and I took a road trip from our house to Luther College in Decorah, Iowa. There is no four lane highway that goes to Decorah which made for an extremely long drive. That evening, we were going to attend a concert by the Lutheran Summer Music concert band. They were performing a piece that my sister composed, and we could hardly wait to hear it in person!
My sister lives in California, which is even farther away from Illinois. I rarely get to go to one of my sister’s concerts in person. I’ve heard recordings of her concerts, but actually being able to attend a live performance was a chance I couldn’t miss. Ed stayed home to work, but the girls and I piled into the car on a Thursday morning for our long drive.
We drove through 62 miles of construction on I90 and made it to Madison in time for lunch. We drove through cornfields, passed a row of wind turbines, and went over swollen Midwestern rivers.
We had good conversation and listened to music. We had fights over blankets and the temperature in the car. We had quiet time and coloring.
We had Pizza Hut for dinner, since it was next to the hotel in a small town and we were hungry. Finally, we were seated in the concert hall, and I fought back the tears as the music washed over me. As my sister stood up and applauded the conductor and concert band, Emmy whispered in my ear, “I have to go to the bathroom.” The band had more music to play, and as we stood in the hallway waiting for the applause to begin again so we could go back into the auditorium, Emmy confessed that she had to go during my sister’s composition. “But I knew it was important to listen, so I waited until it was over!”
Well played, Emmy. Well played.
