Brad and Steve

I have to take a minute to Thank my friends Brad Matala and Steve Laukannen who helped me out Part of Friday and all of Saturday with the hikes. Steve and Brad are both friends of mine from High School who I was in a band with late high school and early college. Steve now works and lives in the twin cities area as does Brad who runs a recording studio in St. Paul called Essential Sessions. They were amazing and amazingly patient with me as the hikes are taking longer than I had anticipated and they waited patiently in the power house for two full hikes on Saturday in between fishing in the river and soaking up the sun. They also rescued me from myself and my campsite for an evening but it was decided before they arrived that the destination would be Grand Casino Hinkley and the all you can eat buffet! With all this hiking, I can eat quite a bit. And we won some of the money we spent there playing Black Jack! I am not a gambler normally, so I had no problem stopping while I was ahead. We then hit the city of Sandstone's Quarry Days celebration which kept me up too late but was immensely fun as we hung out at my favorite bar there, the Gaslight, and took in two bands and some fireworks. Hearing bands that have their entire speaker system, instruments, and audio reactive lights set up inside of a SEMI with a removable side panel play "Ramble On" by Led Zeplin and "Summer of 69" by Brain Adams for some reason never gets old to me. All in all, a good night.

Thanks Brad and Steve!