Clear Lake, Iowa

After visiting the plane crash site, as shown in my earlier post, I continued southward to Clear Lake, Iowa, where Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson gave their past performances before their lives were tragically cut short.  They played on February 2nd, 1959 at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa, on a tour that was called the Winter Dance Party.  After I parked the temporary hybrid Bigfootmobile on Buddy Holly Place, I found the front of the Surf Ballroom.  The street is North Shore Drive, part of which has been renamed for Valens.

The next building to the west is the Surf Music Experience Center.

To the west of the center is Three Stars Plaza, centered by a scaled-up stack of three records on a cylinder.

From under the lowest disc, you can see the names of the three stars, as in Holly, Valens and Richardson.

As I wandered around, I could see that most of Clear Lake's property on its namesake lake is private.  However, I was able to find a space between two lakefront buildings and took this pic of a dock on the lake.

Yes, there is a lake in Clear Lake, Iowa.  I eventually found a place to eat and returned back to Minnesota.