The Day the Music Died

After leaving South Dakota, we continued our travels eastward toward Wisconsin, but as we worked our way across Minnesota, we turned south and headed down into Iowa. We were close to Clear Lake, Iowa and if you at all familiar with the town, you know that's where Buddy Holly, J.P. Richardson, aka the Big Bopper and Richie Valens met their demise on February 3, 1959 - the Day the Music Died.

Tired of riding in cold busses, the three up and coming singers decided to charter a plane after their concert in Clear Lake, Iowa and fly to the next city on their tour. Unfortunately, sometime around 1 in the morning, the plane crashed in a cornfield just out of town and all three singers plus the pilot Roger Peterson perished. Holly was 22, the Big Bopper was 28, Valens was 17 and the pilot Peterson was 21. Adverse weather conditions and the inexperience of the pilot were both contributing factors in the crash.

As we came into town, we had several spots we wanted to visit, all of which were centered around the crash and geocaching. The first spot was a cache that took us to the dirt road that led to the crash site. There's a large monument of Buddy Holly's signature glasses at this spot. The next stop was a virtual cache a short quarter mile walk in between fields to the shrine that has been erected over the years in memory of the singers. 

At the shrine, both my son and I took each other's photos. Usually when crashes like this happen, the big name star or stars are listed, but no one else is reported or very rarely mentioned at spots like this. How many of you can name all of the people who died in the Kobe Bryant helicopter crash? I can probably dredge up a couple of names, but most of them are already lost due to Bryant's fame. At least at this shrine, there is mention of the pilot who also died in the plane crash, which I liked to see.

Following our stop there, we walked back out to the car and then headed into downtown Clear Lake to the Surf Ballroom, where there is another small area dedicated to the last concert the singers gave the previous night of February 2, 1959. After that, we left and headed east to Mason City, Iowa where we would spend the night.

The next morning was the first Saturday of the month and as is my custom, I host a monthly morning coffee event. It's a nice way to meet and greet the local geocachers. Almost exclusively, they are held at local coffee shops near where I live, but I was out of town on this road trip, and so I planned one for that morning in Mason City. It was the first geocaching event ever held in Mason City. I've hosted a couple of other out of state events when I've been out and about, and it's always fun to meet the local cachers in a particular area, this one being no exception to that rule.

We talked geocaching for about an hour or so, then went our separate ways, us heading eastward to Wisconsin. Our timing was impeccable  as we ended up meeting up with another group of geocachers in eastern Iowa for lunch that day as well.

I've always enjoyed attending geocaching events and as soon as this virus pandemic has eased and it's safe to attend or host events like this again, I plan to enjoy them in the future. As of this moment, we've only been able to connect with our geocaching friends on-line via Zoom meetings, but that will change hopefully in the near future.

By mid afternoon, we pulled into my sister-in-law's town of Beloit, Wisconsin where we'd spend a couple of days just relaxing. It felt good to visit with family and not have to drive anywhere for the next two days.