Mountains tall. Gnomes small. LONG HAUL!

"We awoke in Calgary a little later than usual, but we were on the road with coffee in hand by 9 o' clock, human time.  The first stop we made was in Canmore, Alberta, where we got out to walk around the town and grab some food for the last leg of our journey."

"We soon made another stop to obtain some information about the area. Whilst we were perusing the information area, Leonard wandered off into the surrounding woods, and soon came running back yelling, "wizard friends! Come quick! So much cotton candy!"
We followed Leonard, so very curious about what he had found, and suddenly there it was: a huge mint ice cream colored cotton candy gorilla thing looming in front of Leonard (although he only came up to our knees).  After a conversation comprised of hand gestures and grunts, Leonard ascertained that the cotton candy gorilla is something like "the missing link" in the gnome evolution-- the technicolor Bigfoot of gnomes if you will...
When asked, "why is he so big?" Leonard replied, "uh, because it the Rockies! Everything is bigger here!" Ah ha.
So naturally the big fella agreed to join us for the rest of the journey and finally check out the distant city of Vancouver."

"As we passed Banff and the Lake Louise region we found ourselves at the foot of so many gigantic mountains and rocky spires, and the fact is, pictures really don't do them justice... but here is one for good measure. I cant imagine how they seem to little Leonard and his friends!"

"There was quite a lot of road work between the BC border and Revelstoke, so we were stopped a few times, but they gave us good chances to take in the scenery.
One time when we were creeping along at 5km an hour, Morty the swamp monster piped up and said, "you should ghost ride the whip!"
All the Canadians in the car gave him a confused look, but as a former Bay Area resident, I knew what he was talkin' about.  GHOST RIDE THE WHIP!"

"We were originally going to try to camp in Salmon Arm, but it did not tickle our fancy, so we decided to push through the remaining 5 hours to Vancouver. We needed to pull over in Kamloops for food, so we stopped to eat sandwiches in a riverside park.
We noticed that a movie in the park was being set up and whilst enjoying the warm air/late afternoon sun, Leonard said, "why don't we just stay here?" We all agreed, and hung out for a while longer.
We then went up the hill to try to get a cheap hotel room, but discovered that THE WHOLE TOWN had been booked up by 3,800 SENIOR CITIZENS because the BC Senior Games was in Kamloops this year.  We thought we could just use some magic on the situation, but there is a long standing wizard rule about using magical powers against seniors, so we were defeated. Extremely disappointed, we got back in the car shaking our fists out the window at those adorable old bats that beat us to the punch. Here is a shot of the sunset as we headed out of Kamloops."

"After a long night of driving, Leonard woke us up and we found miraculously that we were in our own bed!
"Come quick! The spell is complete! Its a miracle" exclaimed Leonard.
We jumped up to see what he was talking about, and saw that we were inside our NEW HOME IN VANCOUVER!  We walked outside in front of 2642 Oxford St. and found a spectacular little sight. Evidently, all that magic juju power we accumulated on the journey had manifested two little gnomes named Nick and Ashley, and they looked exactly like us!  No wait, they WERE us! Who would've gnome? Incredible. Just incredible.

All this magic and gnome creation calls for a family portrait.
"Come on everygnome! Get in here!"
Pictured left to right: Morty the swamp creature, Ashley the gnome version of Xelba, Leonard the Great and Powerful Canadian Gnome, Nick the gnome version of Zactus, Farris The Great Canadian BatBeaver, and The Cotton Candy Gorilla in the back.

Thank you for joining us on this fantastic voyage, and we will see you again when we drive back across this WONDERFUL COUNTRY OF MIRACLES again (because it was so friggin' fun)!