Santa Fe - Lubbock - 22/1/13

Up at 7.30, had breakfast (waffle machine! Awesome!); sorted out our accommodation for Lubbock and set off at 9.30.

We arrived at Lubbock around 2.30pm, after only stopping for a 15 minute break on the way. Today was the day that we realised that you get a lot more done by starting at that sort of time rather than fiddling around until 10.30-11. Seems obvious in retrospect.

The road we were travelling on was pretty much in a straight line, and was very easy driving. Upon arriving in Lubbock (much bigger than we thought) we headed directly for the Buddy Holly museum. This was $5 to get in - a 15 minute introductory film about his (short) life and a memorabilia room containing his specs (recovered from the crash site) clothes, records, contracts, information, his guitars and so on. So here goes some Buddy Holly facts: we hadn't realised he was quite so young when he died and was touring with Richie Valens and the Big Bopper after falling out with his band (The Crickets). The tour was taking place around the northern states in the winter months, and was a pretty bad winter by all accounts. The tour bus had been freezing and broke down a lot - most of the people on the tour ended up with colds or 'flu. In Iowa, Buddy had decided that he would charter a plane (light aircraft) to take him to the next gig and get there ahead of time. Within 5 minutes of taking off, the plane was flown into the ground due to the bad weather and the pilot being blinded by snow. All 4 occupants were killed. His career had only spanned 18 months, however had changed the history of popular music forever. He was extremely innovative in his sound and techniques and pushed boundaries with every area of his music. He was not afraid to be different and directly influenced some of the greatest bands of the 20th century - The Stones, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, Bruce Springsteen, Elton John, The Grateful Dead and the The Byrds. He was the first person to tour with a band (The Crickets) and set the mold in that way too - effectively changing the way that Rock'n'Roll was performed to live audiences forever.

He had in those 18 months toured the US, UK and Australia - an impressive achievement in itself at this time. A young McCartney and Lennon would see him in the UK and watched carefully how he played so that they could attempt to mimic his sounds and play-style.

One wonders - if he had not died in that plane crash - would The Beatles & The Stones have been as big as they were? Would they have been overshadowed by him continually?

The two things that stuck in B's mind from the museum were how the fashion hasn't changed much in some ways - i.e. Levi's denim jackets, white converse trainers and preppy cardies were as popular then as they were now. Also a letter that his mum and dad had written to the editor of the NME just a year after his death. They imparted a little bit of context to his upbringing, the type of family that he came from and the young man that he was - i.e. not really tarnished by fame and still the unassuming, down to earth character that he was while growing up.

It was well worth the $5 and reminded both of us how much we like his music.

We left the museum around 4 to drive to the local graveyard to see his, erm, grave. The cemetary was in a pretty poor area of Lubbock, looked a bit depressing and probably not so savoury at night. The grave had flowers on so it that looked fresh - you get the impression that a lot of people visit and keep them that way.

Leaving there, we got to our hotel around 5, checked in and tapped up the chap in the hotel for good places to eat. The room was lovely, and again a massive bed - for a 2* place, it was really decent!
The recommended place to eat was more or less in the centre of Lubbock - in the student area. The streets were pretty nice (paved, which is unusual here) and the buildings far nicer than the outskirts, containing a few independant businesses, clothes shops and bars. The place that we had been recommended wasn't yet open - the boss was late for work, to his employee's irritation. 2nd choice was a student place called 'Crickets' - the food though was very tasty and between the two f us plus drinks, came to $16 - not a great deal. B wanted Ice cream and we were sent to a place called Kaleidoscoops.

On the way there, we were stopped for speeding - 50 in a 40. The policeman was a little confused when presented with a UK driving licence, and then came back and said that it is not valid in the state of Texas. A little unusual. Then said that he would 'cut us a break' and let us go - not sure what would have happened if he'd decided to enforce that particular law. Remember thinking at the time that it was a little strange - Texas does it's own thing a lot of the time, so it *could* be true - but other thoughts were that he was alternatively trying to scare us/cover for himself being confused and not wanting to lose face. The chap also turned out to have trained in the UK about 5 miles from where B grew up.

The ice cream shop was closed. B was gutted.

Back to the hotel and a mutual decision to stick to speed limits in Texas (and beyond), as if there was a next time, we might not get off so lightly. (Have since spoken to a few people about this, and none of them have heard about it, or think that he was correct. National (car hire co.) certainly never mentioned anything like that.)

Distance - 313 miles and about 6 hours.


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