Melissa and I had to drive to Boulder today to hand off the Bronco to Todd. We left a bit early to visit one of her favorite professors, Dr. Wade, at his home on the outskirts of Boulder.

A few days earlier, Melissa had shown me a strikingly designed homemade Christmas card from Dr. Wade that was attached to her refrigerator with a magnet. There were unique petroglyphs on the cover flap of the card and a personal note inside. Dr. Wade had been studying the Native American art in the Mimbres region of far southwestern New Mexico and commented that the Mimbrenos, as they are now called, were fascinating and unusual, first because so little was known about them, and second because their art seemed to display an ironic sense of humor that was rare in other Native American art. I was immediately fascinated, and Melissa set up a lunch for us.

After Mystic Mike and I said goodbye, I drove to the little general store and gas station on the edge of town, filled the Bronco with gas and bought a big cup of coffee, a local newspaper and some snacks for the road.

The store was the local morning gathering spot, with about half a dozen older men sipping their morning brew at a table near the coffee machine discussing the local goings on and swapping opinions about the news. Anyone who has ever lived in a small town knows this scene.

The drive through Utah and Colorado to Denver was magnificent. There was very little traffic until I got to Vail, and the terrain ranged from the multi-colored buttes and mesas near Moab to the gorgeous and snowy Rocky Mountain valleys through which the Colorado River and then Rock Creek rush alongside the road. I made a pit stop at Vail and responded to an email from a friend I had not heard from in a while, then drove the rest of the way into Denver on snowpacked roads.

I picked up Denna and Orian at 7:30 am this morning in Beverly Hills and we drove all day through Las Vegas and into Utah, arriving at Mystic Hot Springs at 11:30 pm tonight. It was freezing cold and snowing in the mountains of Utah, and we encountered occasional ice and snow pack on the roads. We had no protection from the cold because the heater in the Bronco did not work! I had loaned my gloves to Orian, who was freezing, so I drove with one hand in my pocket until the hand on the steering wheel began to freeze, and would then alternate. This went on for five or six hours!

Tricia and I have been so busy working on Pan American Dreams, planning for the Alaska trip next year, I had waited too late to buy an airline ticket to Denver to visit my family over the holidays. In December, the prices are much higher and reservations are difficult, so on a lark, I put an ad on Criagslist for a rideshare to Denver. That is how I met Todd, who runs a terrific non-profit organization called Mountain Journeys that helps at risk kids by taking them on snowboarding trips to Colorado. Their website is here.

Todd and his kids also work on donated cars and have a shop in Boulder, Colorado. The car donors get a tax write off and Mountain Journeys fixes the cars and resells them, teaching their kids a skill in the process. After Todd and I got to know one another, he asked me if I wanted to drive a 1988 Ford Bronco to Denver for Christmas. The Bronco had been donated by someone in Santa Monica. I agreed and picked it up earlier this month.