A Fourth of July Invitation from Garrison Keillor “Stearns County is about as close to Lake Wobegon as you can get so it’s where we plan to observe the 35th anniversary of A Prairie Home Companion — in the town of Avon, which is on the Lake Wobegon Bike Trail, broadcasting live coast to coast and overseas via Armed Forces Radio — a brass band, speeches, acoustic blues and rock n roll, some reminiscences by old-timers, and the whole big crowd singing the national anthem, and our sound-effects man will make rockets go up in the air. I’ve biked the Bike Trail a couple of times and love the ordinary beauty of farmland and meadow and the towns along it. And since the radio show had its origins there, in the stories I heard when I lived near Freeport and hung around St. John’s, it’s only right to return and say hello.” -Garrison Keillor More information available at: www.prairiehome.org