International Falls always gets special mention from Al Rokers far and wide, for its record low temps. This November though, the Minnesota city known as “The Nation’s Icebox” will soon be on your idiot box.

A pair of Weather Channel producers recently spent time there interviewing residents and sampling the ice fishing culture (wow, that’s original.) Thankfully, they’re going a little more in-depth than just that, discussing the place’s role as a cold-weather gear testing hub (…I’m listening…) And featuring Voyageurs National Park (better still.) We’ll also find out the local elementary school’s policy for declaring snow days – a bit of trivia that, come to think of it, I actually would like to know?

In the meantime, you can watch a similar special The Weather Channel did on Barrow, Alaska; the northernmost city in the U.S. After watching that, I still think our place is better. They may have polar bears, but we’ll always have Rocky & Bullwinkle. Via Voyageurs.

Don’t feel badly you missed the fact that tomorrow is National Public Lands Day. Or even that you have no idea what that is — I sure didn’t. But apparently it’s momentous enough an occasion for the NPS to waive all National Parks entrance fees for the weekend. The lakes of Minnesota’s own Voyageurs National Park see a wider variety of boat traffic than the BWCA, including boat tours, houseboats, and those nutty kayak-camping folk. The park offers car-camping, but their miles of lakeshore camping are of the kind that make Minnesota outdoors experiences so unique.Worth the drive up this weekend… even if you didn’t know Voyageurs’ entry permits are indeed, free already via The Goat.