We eat a lot and we ride a lot on these road trips, but on our travel days we try to visit places of interest along the way. You know, tourist traps! However on the day we drive from Wisconsin to Ankeny, Iowa, we stop in Clear Lake, Iowa which is far from a tourist trap. For those who say that’ll be the day that I visit Clear Lake, we will point out that it’s the town where Buddy Holly played his last concert in February of 1959.

The brown-eyed handsome man did a 12-song set at the Surf Ballroom, which is still standing.

Eve’s sporty new minivan looks pretty sleek outside of the Surf. The Surf was built in 1948 and hosted more rock and roll history than you can imagine. In the 1980’s it fell into disrepair, but it was saved in the 1990’s and restored to its original splendor before it was gone. Admission is free when there is not an event.

If you have a heartbeat, it’s so easy to imagine the blue suede shoes slippin’ and slidin’ as they rip it up on the dance floor while Peggy Sue and Dolores rock around with Ollie Vee.

The dance floor is surrounded by two rows of booths, where the kids used to order soda and burgers. Nowadays, they order beer and nachos. I swear you can still smell the cigarette smoke in the air. Anyway, Buddy was playing the midnight shift and when his set was over, he decided to fly to Fargo for his next show. Along for the ride were Richie Valens and JP “The Big Bopper” Richardson. The weather was horrible, and the 21 year-old pilot did not think it over before taking off. If you are crying, waiting, hoping this story will have a happy ending, it does not. And that’s where Don McLean joins our tale. Many years later, Don recorded a song about the plane crash, American Pie.

This sign sits on a gravel road about three miles north of Clear Lake, near where the plane went down. Oh, boy–they didn’t get very far. There is parking (is that Eve’s car again?!) and a marker where the trail to the crash monument starts.

People write their words of love to Buddy on the concrete pillars that hold the glasses. The trail is about half a mile long and goes through a large corn field.

There’s not much to it, but here’s the monument to where the plane crashed early in the morning on February 3, 1959, the day the music died.

The memories around Clear Lake will not fade away. Well all right, but maybe baby you will visit some day.

*I made it easy for you: there are 20 songs that Buddy Holly recorded highlighted in BOLD in this post!