Vacation Day 9

Thursday, July 8, 2010: We woke up about 8:00 this morning and ate breakfast at the hotel before getting on the road. Our first stop was in Clear Lake, Iowa at the site where on 2/2/59, a plane went down which was carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and the Big Bopper. They were young musicians at the time and had performed that night along with Waylon Jennings, who chose not to ride the plane to the next stop. All 3 musicians and the pilot were killed in the crash and the song "American Pie" by Don McLean was inspired by this tragedy. The site that we saw was in the middle of a corn field but there was a marker at the edge of the field and a pathway which led to 2 small memorial markers at the site. We then drove into town and got lunch at McDonald’s (Bruce and me) and Casey’s (the girls). We ate in the car while we drove towards Dyersville and the Field of Dreams. We arrived there at about 2:45 and there were probably 20 cars in the parking lot as well as some bicycles. People were playing ball on the field, playing catch, and taking pictures. We did all of those things and took pictures of the 4 of us standing at the edge of the corn field too. We stayed there about an hour or so, bought some souvenirs, and then left. We drove as far as Rock Island, IL where we found a Holiday Inn to stay at for tonight. We got here at about 6:30pm. There is a Bennigan’s Restaurant attached to the hotel so we went there for dinner. We all went to the pool at about 8:30 and swam until 10:00, then came up to the room and Bruce and I began to teach the girls how to play euchre, which went pretty well! It is now almost 11:30pm and we are heading to bed.