At The Oldfolks Home: Vancouver

Driving into the mountains is an awe-inspiring, exhilarating, and ultimately terrifying experience- at least the first time. But there's something really incredible about rounding a corner at the top of a hill and seeing the mountains for the first time.

Our mountain soundtrack: Ma Fleur - Cinematic Orchestra

Versa VS Mountain

Driving in a two-car convoy has sometimes been frustrating, but never more so that today. Cody took the wheel in Versa 1 and led me on a slightly harrowing chase up and down the winding, crowded mountain roads.

I have a pretty intense fear of heights, and skating high along the edges of those deep valleys took me to a whole new level of sustained fear. Despite the stress, I was captivated by the incredible landscape. I felt like the highway had wound its way into The Land Before Time… The mountains are so massive everything else seems totally insignificant in comparison. I almost expected to look over the edge and see dinosaurs!

We drove through one stretch of highway where the forest had been devastated by fire and had to stop for a little climbing adventure!

Those trees were so eerie!

First we stopped at the side of the road

Then Cody got adventurous

Eventually we decided to climb up to the trees. Here's Cody being majestic.

Here's a sweet log

Burnt out trees, closeup-style

We made it into Vancouver after dark. Driving the highway at night is a very different experience than during the day. In daylight you can see the scale of the mountains- at night, they take over the sky and obscure any light you may have gotten from the stars. It was a little bit disorienting. Even though we couldn't truly get a sense of how big the city is compared to Winnipeg, it was neat to see all the high-rise apartments and skyscrapers lit up like stars against the blackness of the mountain behind the city.

We had to rush to Ricardo's friend Nick's house to drop our bags off and get ready for the show, then hustle over to Ricardo's friend Ming's house for a quick drink and catch-up

before racing over to The Railway Club in downtown Vancouver.

The staircase into the venue was crazy, my knees ache in memory of lugging our gear up and down two flights of stairs. I played a little impromptu opening show as "Atlaas" since the band we were going to play with didn't make it.

Gotta get that setlist down!

The show itself was really fun. If you're familiar with Oldfolks Home's latest album you'll know the song Garland's Moving To Vancouver. Surprise surprise- Garland was at the show and she brought a big group of friends with her! We played one long set and then got right to dancing the night away!

Highlights of the night:

Watching Ricardo dance all through tear-down

Some guy offering to be my groupie

The band having its first (and hopefully only) heckler of the tour!

The next day we didn't have a show but Ricardo's friends were kind enough to invite us all to a delicious thanksgiving dinner! We spent the day exploring Vancouver and stuffing ourselves with stuffing!