Get Your Kicks (on Rte 66)

We were so excited to get away this weekend, that I wasn't going to let bad weather in Wisconsin stop us.  I suggested a trip down state, to the capitol.  We had been talking about it for a few years, and I thought this would be the perfect opportunity.  I took the Man to the town I went to college in.  I drove him around the campus, and showed him the parts of town that I went to school, lived, and hung out in.  Thirty years later, the theatre building looks tired and worn.  The whole day was a lesson in how desolate central Illinois seems to be.  At least the parts we went.  It's not a good sign if the first business that you see when you exit the interstate to go to a little town is the pawn shop.  We got to Springfield around 6 pm, drove around the State Fairgrounds and the Lincoln sites, and everything around it was depressing.  There was no place that we wanted to stay or go out to dinner.  It was my idea to come home, and that's what we did last night.  We love Wisconsin so much, that other places are just spoiled for us, I'm afraid.  The Man hates the drive to Michigan too, because seeing the back door of Gary and some dingier parts of Chicago is a large part of the trip.  One of the topics of conversation on the trip was how I need to get a new car.  The Man's idea.  I've been keeping my fingers crossed that my Rav4 with 181,000 miles will just keep going, but I had an awful vision of the belts just snapping when we were on the trip.
Maybe this might be the silver lining of my day job getting ramped up.  The Man is right.  I've been wanting a minivan for a while.  I mentioned this to a former work colleague a few months ago, and she made a comment about how I'm the first single person she's ever heard say they want to drive a minivan.  I've lived with the Man for over a decade, and we have a little family, so I wouldn't classify myself as single any more.  It makes so much sense with traveling and doing shows to have a vehicle that would accomodate all my display stuff, and be a comfortable ride for the road trips.  I'm just thinking right now with my shaky financial past, that I might not be able to get a car loan.   It's been six years since my vehicle has been paid off. 
I think that in my day job, I'm viewed as an oddity.  I'm "single", and let's face it, arty.  I try not to mention it much at work, which makes me feel most times like some sort of imposter.