RAY: These signs proved to be completely accurate. How could this be? Now, Bruce's original puzzler suggestion didn't say anything about hiking in the Everglades or hiking in Death Valley.

TOM: That's right!

RAY: But, I wanted to lull people into two dimensions!

TOM: That was my first thought.

RAY: It doesn't get any flatter than Death Valley, doesn't it now? When you think about it, you don't think about elevation, but the fact of the matter is that the reason this all worked out is that point B was at the top of the mountain. So, it took five hours to climb up there, but if you wanted to turn around at B and go back to A, indeed it would only take three hours to come back down.

So, do we have a winner?

TOM: Yeah. Our winner this week is Elizabeth Caprini, from Naples, New York. And for having her answer selected at random from among all the correct answers that we got, Elizabeth is going to get a 26-dollar gift certificate to the Shameless Commerce Division at CarTalk.com, with which she can get our new CD called, Once Upon A Car Fire, The Greatest Stories Ever Told.

RAY: And Elizabeth, even though you won't be able to get it in time for Christmas this year, we want to remind you that it also makes an excellent Valentine's Day gift, right?

TOM: Yeah. For someone you want to break up with, sends the unmistakable message that I didn't care enough to get you a real present.

[ Car Talk Puzzler ]