Garden gnomes go missing all the time. It’s not an unusual phenomenon. Drunk fratboys steal them. Neighborhood children smash them. Sometimes they just get washed away in the rain. Maybe that’s why people don’t get too emotionally attached to garden gnomes. So when Bev York, a resident of British Columbia, noticed one of her gnomes was missing one morning, she just shrugged it off. Such is the fate of many garden gnomes. But this gnome’s story had a decidedly different ending. This gnome came back, and he had a fascinating tale to tell.

Eight months after his initial disappearance, Bev’s gnome reappeared on her porch, and he didn’t return empty-handed. Next to him was a hardcover photo book featuring pictures from his adventures over the last eight months. “Hi, my name is Leopold the traveling gnome,” he began, “One morning back on December ’15, I saw a motorhome toddle along Finlayson Arm Road and I thought to myself, ‘There’s got to be more to life than standing knee-deep in rainwater, being peed on by neighborhood dogs and staring at the same view every single day.” The book showcased pictures of Leopold’s travels everywhere from the Grand Canyon to Route 66 and even an excursion to Mexico. York was so impressed by his travels that she posted the picture online. Let’s hope we can all be a bit more spontaneous like Leopold the gnome.