After a good rest, we were on the road again.

  As we were driving north Dad, noticed the name of a town and zipped off the exit.  Mom found directions to where we needed to go and we ended up here:

a cornfield in Clear Lake, Iowa.  In the early morning hours of February 3, 1959, three young recording artists, Buddy Holly,  JP Richardson,”The Big Bopper”, and Ritchie Valens, ended their rock n roll careers in this cornfield when the plane in which they were flying crashed. They were on a Winter Dance Party Tour performing across the Midwest. Plagued by cold tour buses and flu, Holly decided to charter a plane to reach their next venue.  After playing the Surf Ballroom and despite deteriorating wintry conditions, the three of them along with their pilot, Roger Peterson, took off only to crash a short time later.

We had to walk a quarter of a mile through a cornfield to pay our respect.

Buddy Holly, age 22, was a central figure in the mid 50s rise of the genre of music known as Rock n Roll.  He wrote, recorded and produced his own material and was a major influence on later popular artists: the Beatles, the Rolling Stones and Elton John.

” Everyday, it’s a getting closer/Goin faster than a roller coaster/Love like yours will surely come my way.’  Simple lyrics, simpler times.

Keep It Simple! ~ Indy and Lucy