Clear Lake, Iowa

The RV is now in negotiations to change it's name to Celebrity Death Machine. It seems as though every time we start the engine another beloved American star bites the dust. Starting with Health Ledger on our first "preblog" trip to Florida. Our big trip out east Travis Barker and DJ AM were seriously injured, and lost the lives of their loved ones in a firey plane crash. Also, Paul Newman, which I commemorated by eating a whole jar of his pineapple salsa. Mike recently took the rv on a fishing trip to Canada and with that, went David Carredine. And finally, with the news of Ferrah Fawcett losing her battle with cancer playing over the radio we packed the rv for another short trip. As we pulled out of the rv storage unit, the news turned it's attention to the King of Pop.

I suppose it was only fitting that we passed through Clear Lake, Iowa just as the news stations were confirming that Michael Jackson has indeed died.

We walked a half a mile through a sweltering hot farm field....

...that was suspiciously chalked full of these funny little plants...

We finally came upon the 50 year old crash site of Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper's single engine aircraft.

Waylon Jennings lost the coin toss to join the flight. As, he was boarding the tour bus with the broken down heating system that had given the drummer frost bitten feet, Buddy joked that he hoped the bus crashes and Waylon then wished the same for the small plane. He has said that these are the words that still haunt him today.

Around 1:05 on the blistery cold morning of February 3rd 1959, in the cornfield belonging to Albert Juhl in Clear Lake, Iowa...

...was the Day the Music Died...


Say whatever you will about Michael, but never forget that he has helped change the face of music as we know it, today.
He is a superstar, an American icon and he will be missed.


May peace be with you, Michael