Governor JB Pritzker’s zippy $ 6 million Illinois tourism campaign this month unveiled Time for Me to Drive, an anthem set to the 1970s REO Speedwagon mega-hit and hotspots from historic Galena to Shawnee National Forest Announces Key Factor: The state’s gas price is among the highest in the country.

AAA reports that the average price per gallon is in Tuesday in Illinois was $ 3.22. While lower prices in the past have caused lawmakers to rush to a special session to take action, Pritzker didn’t seem concerned that the current price might remove summer road trips from the to-do list for some families when asked about it last week.

But apparently there are tourists too. Despite a national average exceeding $ 3 per gallon for the first time since 2014, AAA estimates 34 million people will be driving this Memorial Day weekend, down about 8% from the 37 million that hit the streets in 2019 but by more than half the number the hatchback grabbed during the deadly early stages of the COVID-19 pandemic last year.

It even has a name: “Revenge” trip, said AAA spokeswoman Jeanette McGee.

“People have pent-up demand, they have discretionary income savings, and they have free time …” said McGee. “People will keep traveling this year regardless of gasoline prices.”

Pritzker wasn’t impressed by the impact of last week’s price hike when he announced the annual road program that would be included in his ongoing $ 51 billion Rebuild Illinois 2019 plan based on it partly on a double fuel tax that will hit 39.2 cents per gallon July 1st. Defending the tax as a fair, improved road toll, he said the volatility in gas prices was related to external “public markets” when asked if families would accept his “Time to Drive” campaign on such expensive gasoline.

“It’s time for me to drive,” corrected Pritzker, “and it’s a great song by REO Speedwagon from Champaign. I hope everyone gets out and drives this summer. “

The “Time for me to drive” The title is a start of the 1978 hit by REO Speedwagon at the University of Illinois in 1978. “Time for Me to Fly” was written by frontman Kevin Cronin, who stated in a 2017 interview that it was a simple redux on a painful breakup with a high school sweetheart who escaped him to Colorado.

Not a word about whether he drove. But those who do this summer have to roll with the changes.

Jane Carrington of Petersburg said she took her RV to her son’s home in eastern Illinois last weekend and parked it there for the summer to visit regularly with her 6 and 1 year old grandchildren.

“I usually take it back and forth,” she said. “Not now with these gas prices!”

Ironically, the price per gallon was $ 2 nationwide as of June 2000 when the then government. George Ryan convened a special session of lawmakers to take the pressure off taxpayers’ paperbacks by removing the 5% state sales tax on fuel for the second half of this year. Illinois is one of the few states that levies both sales tax and fuel tax.

While price spikes rarely hinder travel, tourists reduce it, McGee said. They don’t go that far, they take on more free activities, they eat less.

Tricia Sprague and husband Doug of Decatur have postponed a planned Florida camping trip in early spring because of the cool temperatures in the Sunshine State. As gasoline spiked, they considered going west and then east and came across the same high prices. Now scheduled for 15 days in late June and early July, they’ll haul the camper at 8 mpg, rely on membership of a camping association that allows on-road parking, and stay in Florida’s panhandle for just four days.

“We’ll just zigzag a bit depending on what looks interesting and where the weather is good,” said Sprague. “And we plan to only drive four or five hours a day. So we justify the gas price by making the trip part of the trip.”

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