Life: True Love

The winter in Colorado is no time for driving a 1970 Volkswagen van. Unfortunately. My van—The Old Lady—makes a good summer road trip, but the rust holes on her undersides don’t do so well with melting snow. I put down a bathmat on the driver’s side floor to keep water from coming in when it rains, but having iced-over feet in a vehicle without a heater is just plain unsafe, and no fun. The snow banks started accumulating around my apartment in early November, and I knew then that I’d have to find The Old Lady a winter home before neighbors started complaining about an abandoned vehicle. I started looking into storage units—or even an outdoor parking space—but this is the Vail Valley, and I soon realized that paying to park a vehicle around here is only for those who can afford second homes. I contemplated parking her in the Vail-Eagle airport’s 30-day free parking, but then there was a rash of thefts from parked vehicles, and I started second-guessing that option. Finally, a friend who lives in Leadville offered to let me park her for the winter on his property. So, there The Old Lady sits under a heap of snow in Leadville, Colorado: altitude 10,152 feet. I drove up the pass last week to make sure she still started. And while I shoveled mounds of snow off the tarp I’d tossed over her top, she purred in her lovely VW van way, reminding me of warmer days, of slow-going road trips, and adventures that have nothing to do with snow.