As of yesterday, Michelle and I own what could be technically termed a “minivan”. God help us.

Seriously, it’s pretty cool. It’s a 1994 Mitsubishi Expo LRV. What, you’ve never heard of it? That’s because people just didn’t buy them. Most soccer moms would rather have big huge “mini” vans that would seat 7-8 people. And soccer “dads” would rather have something that held only 5 people, but gave them the appearance that they were “rugged” (hence, the rise of the SUV — ugh).

This car reminds me of my Civic (requiescat in pace!), which I loved. I say “reminds”; unlike my former Civic, it has a fairly beefy 2.4L 4-cylinder engine and headroom that’s generous enough that you could wear a cowboy hat while driving it. It is a grocery buying machine, and it performed great on the trip from Charlotte to Raleigh.

My father, the previous owner, bought it in 1996 when it had 31,000 miles. It’s now 2002, and the odometer is just about to turn over 42,000 miles. It’s as if it were new. Thanks, dad.