I arrive in Kamloops at 3 in the morning. It's been a rough trip. First of all I started this day in Victoria at 5 in the morning, followed by a full day of friends in kilts, getting lost, and then a show... "Thou must have tire chains" signs pepper the Mountain passes (I don't) and at this time of night you don't necessarilly see anyone for a while leading to thoughts of getting eaten by wolves. My bare all-season tires skitter along the road and I drive sloooowww... At one point my GPS tries to kill me (not its first attempt) by driving me down an exit and then back up the same entrance for no reason - which would be fine, except that the entrance is unplowed, filled with snow, and totally barren of human life. It's a scary trip, but Harry Potter & The Deathly Hallowes on my ipod gets me through. I stop for donuts and ice tea somewhere along the way. And just when I think I will die without sleep, I arrive in Kamloops.

I debate sleeping in the parking lot - I really only have time for 4 hours of sleep in order to make it to Calgary in time to return my rental car and catch my 6pm flight. But the lure of a shower, continental breakfast, charging my cell phone, and a brief, but infinitely more pleasant sleep pull me in.

The next thing I know it's 7am and I'm stuffing muffins in my pockets and back on the road. Somehow in the light the road seems less daunting. I'm in the middle of the mountains and they are stunning - giant snow-capped peaks. Even though it's snowing, it's still brilliant. And all along the sides of the road, miles and miles of white forests and chilled lakes border the road. Hundreds of feet below on my right is a railroad, next to a lake, both of which I'd prefer not to hurtle onto or into.

Around mid day I am a little bit worried about time - it should be a seven hour drive to Calgary... but driving safely means driving slowly and I'm now going to hit Calgary with only an hour or two to spare to get on my plane. I pass a miniature village on the left. There's a pullover on the right and I stop for a quick stress break, driving into a lot of deep snow. And suddenly I am stuck. The wheels spin but don't reverse.

I get out and look at the trees and the mountains and the highway and am surprisingly calm that this is the start of my "how I was almost eaten by wolves" story. Luckily, I'm not totally alone - there are technically people in the cars ignoring me as they pass by.

Still none of them stop - not that I'm really flagging them down. I'm just kind of standing there. Instead, I opt to walk back a ways, along the highway, jumping into the ditch filled with snow as trucks approach. After a while, I find a man with a snow plow, next to the minature village. He tells me that he can't take the plow on the highway, but that he'll lend me a shovel. I follow him up the hill to his house, get a shovel, and walk back to the car, where I start digging.

Countless cars pass by, until finally a nice local guy pulls up in his trucks, grabs the shovel from me and finishes up. We put some David Hein posters under the wheels for traction and with a push, I've reversed into shallower waters. Hooray for Rocky Mountain good samaritans...

Not celebrating too early, I now have no time to spare, but still need to drive extra slow. I call Air Canada and find out that there's another flight at midnight, which sounds awful, but at least I won't have to sleep over if I don't make my 6pm flight...

But then I get stuck again - stopping at another rest stop. This time, luckily, there's a crowd of stuck people - about 10 cars. I spend half an hour helping a truck get out of the frozen lake of a parking lot and then they help me.

And then the storm starts. I'm getting a little freaked out. The bald, all-weather tires seem to be ice skating (which I am not particularly good at). I phone Air Canada to ask them to switch my flight, but suddenly the phone crackles out and I lose all reception. I turn around and head back to the last town, where my phone last worked. The flight switched I head onward into the darkness and the snow.

And after a veeeeery long, scary time, I get to Calgary. I drop off the car. I get a cab to the airport. I sleep a tiny bit. I arrive. I get a bus to the subway. Take the subway to my station and take another bus home.

It's 8:30 am. The tour was awesome, but it's so good to be home.