Hi fam,

Judy and I are on our way south from Minnesota and Northern Wisconsin. I had meetings in Minneapolis on Sunday night and Monday so Judy and I drove up from Winnetka and we're making it a little vacation. We spent Tuesday night in Stillwater, MN, a beautiful, old river town on the St. Croix River. Today we visited Taylors Falls, MN, an old logging community. Interesting trivia....in the St. Croix River, next to Taylors Falls, they had the largest log jam in history. In 1886, the ice melted and the rains came at the same time. The logs came pouring down the river and got stuck in a sharp turn in the river. The jam ended up being several miles long and 50 feet high. One more bit of cool trivia....Interstate Park at Taylors Falls has more potholes in a smaller area than any other location in the world. And the deepest pothole in the world. Potholes were formed when the glaciers were receding and the river was raging. Rocks would get caught in the eddies/whirlpools and would grind a hole in the rock under the water. The hole would get deeper and deeper. Eventually, the glaciers pulled back and the water receded and now, the potholes are exposed and are mostly dry. The deepest of the potholes is 60 feet deep.

Now, on a much lighter note, there is a ski resort along the river. Since it is summer, there is no snow but they have these cement and fiberglass slalom runs that you can ride a kind of sled down. Amazing. I rode a chair lift to the top of the mountain, then hopped on the sled and took off down the course. The sled has a stick that if you push it one way it slows the sled down and if you push it the other way it speeds it up. I think I set a new record for going slowly down the course but it was still fun.

That's it for tonight. Time for bed.

Jerry