Our morning at the ‘Little Hotel on the Prairie’ in De Smet, South Dakota began when Tom’s alarm rang at 7:00am on Wednesday September 20, 2023. My two companions weren’t in a huge hurry as Vicki wanted to visit The Loftus Store when it opened at nine o’clock. My photographer knew his wife wanted to buy a couple of books for their granddaughter Reese. But he also knew the early morning delay could force them to drive in darkness to that night’s hotel, which for the first time on the trip, they didn’t have advanced reservations.
The three of us entered The Loftus Store just as the owner unlocked the door – we were the first customers of the day. Twenty minutes later, my companions and I were back in the van with a few children’s books for the grandkids. With Tom’s GPS set for a Winter Dance Party site in St. Paul, Minnesota, we began the laborious 260-mile drive across the vast wasteland of eastern South Dakota and western Minnesota.
Just ninety-five miles into the ride, our boredom was interrupted when I listened as Tom and Vic bantered back and forth about an object they saw in the sky over Marshall, Minnesota. My photographer described the object he saw as a fast-flying, white Tic-Tac shaped craft with no apparent wings, tail, or exhaust. He also estimated the length at about 30 feet. At the same time of the sighting, however, Tom also noticed they had just passed the Southwest Minnesota Regional Airport in Marshall, which would’ve given a normal person reason to suspect the craft was likely an airplane. But Tom was convinced otherwise and offered his theories to his wife – who I imagined rolled her eyes while scoffing at the notion they had seen another UFO. “First of all, that so-called plane wasn’t very far away when both of us noticed it – could you see any wings on it? What about a tail assembly sticking up? Did you notice the craft was a pure white cylinder, with no exhaust, and was flying at an extreme rate of speed when it disappeared into the clouds? I’ve never seen a small airplane fly that fast right after takeoff. If I had to guess, since we were going about 45mph in the same direction, I’d say it was ‘booking’ over five times faster than we were driving. That damn thing had to be going at least 200mph. And the last piece of evidence I have is the object was flying parallel to the road we’re on, while the two runways of the airport were on 45-degree angles to the road.” I was surprised when Vicki said she agreed the object was flying at an unusually extreme rate of speed with no visible exhaust, but she followed up by adding, “There has to be a logical explanation besides it being a UFO or alien spacecraft.” In my unbiased opinion, even though I was napping in my camera bag and didn’t see it, I agreed with Tom, based on his eyewitness testimony. He saw his fourth lifetime UFO, and the second unidentified craft within the past six days.
It had been well over a week since my companions last experienced hectic city traffic, but that changed when we arrived in the Minneapolis – St. Paul area. The Twin Cities are known for horrible traffic jams around rush hour, but thankfully we were able to get through Minneapolis and into St. Paul before the rush hour nightmare began.
When Vicki pulled our van into a parking lot along University Avenue at roughly 1:40pm, I expected to see the Minnesota State Capitol Building. But instead, all I saw in front of me was an auto collision shop. Had we been in a fender-bender without me knowing it? The shop turned out to be Caliber Collision, and was built on the site of the Promenade Ballroom, located in the Midway section of St. Paul.
The Promenade Ballroom, or Prom as it was called by the locals, opened in 1941 with a performance by two acts – Paul Moorhead from Omaha and Kansas City’s Royce Stoenner. At the time, and through its hey-day in the 1950s and 60s, the Prom was considered one of the most prestigious clubs in the Midwest. The show that put the Prom into the Rock and Roll history books, however, came on January 28, 1959. On that frigid and blustery Wednesday night, the Winter Dance Party stars were in town to perform before an overcapacity crowd of more than 2,000 people – most of which were screaming teenaged girls anxious to see some of the biggest recording stars in the country. The show, which was the sixth of an energetic 24-date Midwest tour scheduled to end in Springfield, Illinois on February 15th, was emceed by legendary DJ Bill Diehl of WDGY radio and kicked-off by a local band known as the Del-Ricos.
But like so many venues from days gone by, the Prom met its fate on September 29, 1987 when a demolition crew’s wrecking ball took center stage. Within a short matter of time, the historic ballroom was reduced to a pile of rubble.
Tom carried me into the Caliber Collision parking lot where the Prom once stood. For my photographer and me, the visit to the Prom site was a memorable moment. The two of us had now visited the sites of all eleven of the venue locations where the 1959 Winter Dance Party entertainers had performed before the plane crash which ended the lives of Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. Richardson. And even though the Promenade Ballroom was gone, its contribution to Rock and Roll history, along with the music of Buddy, Ritchie, and The Big Bopper, will never die.
When my photographer and I were finished at The Prom site, the two of us rejoined Vicki in the van where she sat and watched influencers on her cell phone. Thankfully it didn’t take a lot of persuasion for Tom to influence his wife to drive us to the State Capitol Building, which was less than three miles down the road. Moments after we were parked near the expansive and lush State Capitol Mall, we headed out on foot towards the magnificently beautiful Capitol Building. And the closer we walked towards the building, the more spectacular it looked.
The cornerstone of the Capitol, which was the third Capitol building in the state’s history, was laid on July 27, 1898. The building was massive – stretching out east to west for 430 feet, while the dome rose above the ground some 200 feet. Although the Minnesota State Capitol wasn’t in the top ten tallest capitol buildings in our nation (it ranked 23rd), it did feature the second largest self-sustained marble dome in the world.
The three of us spent some time exploring the grounds of the Capitol before Tom carried me through security and into the building. Once inside, a few things surprised me – I wasn’t able to stand in the center of the Rotunda due to it being roped off; plus, the governor’s office door was locked shut. Not being able to meet Governor Tim Walz, nor Lieutenant Governor Peggy Flanagan, wasn’t a huge disappointment to me. After all, neither had the strikingly good looks of South Dakota Governor Kristi Noem, nor were they in line for a run at the Presidency or Vice Presidency.
There was another surprise while I stood near the center of the Rotunda. I looked up and saw a young man, who had a hard hat on his head and a guitar in his hands, standing near the second level barricade. The guy was singing and reciting some gibberish about the 2020 election, plus he was shouting out other volatile political items that were on his mind. Then out of nowhere, the protestor stopped playing his guitar when I heard him say to my photographer: “Hey, who is that bobble head? Is that George Washington? What’s George doing down there? Can I hold him?” I knew Tom was instantly irritated when he answered back in a sarcastic tone: “I’ll tell you what George is NOT doing, and that’s bothering people who came here to visit the Capitol; and didn’t come here to answer stupid questions. And no, you’re not going to hold him – that’s about as close as you’re going to get.” I heard the guy mutter something before he went back to playing his guitar and singing offkey.
I nearly laughed out loud when we met up with Vicki, who was on the other side of the Rotunda when that exchange occurred. I heard my photographer say to his wife: “Why do I always attract those type of people in places like this? I was minding my own business when out of the blue, that Bob Dylan wannabe started asking me questions about the bobble head – who he thought was George Washington. I didn’t want to get into a verbal altercation about his political beliefs or his lousy singing voice. I know he has a right to protest peacefully, I just wish he would’ve exercised his right to remain silent instead.”
It was 2:45pm and my two friends hadn’t eaten much all day – but there was a good reason for Tom and Vic’s decision to postpone their feedbag until now. It was time for the three of us to head for the Nook. That’s right, Casper’s & Runyon’s Nook was a burger joint featured on the Food Network’s show ‘Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives’ and it was located less than four miles south of the Capitol. When my two companions travel together, they strive to eat in places featured on Guy Fieri’s show and the Nook was the second diner scheduled for the trip. Ten days earlier, they found a Triple D pizza place in Fargo, North Dakota, but it was closed on Sundays. Like I’ve said in the past, the next best thing to visiting Presidential sites is watching my photographer stuff his face with the same food Guy Fieri has eaten on TV.
After a fifteen-minute drive along the crowded streets of St. Paul, Vicki parked the van across the street from the Nook. Even though it was late in the day for lunch and early for dinner when Tom carried me through the front doors and towards an empty table near the back of the diner, I noticed there were a lot of customers already enjoying their meals. While the building looked like a potential “Dive” from the outside, its cozy interior offered an ambiance filled with local history and pride.
The Nook was founded in 1938 and became a staple for cheeseburgers and hand-cut fries ever since. On October 1, 2000, the Nook was purchased by best friends Ted Casper and Mike Runyon, who together attended Cretin-Derham Hall High School, located across the street from their diner. While Ted and Mike kept the same hand-cut fries on the menu, they’ve added a huge variety of gourmet burgers to the five original choices featured in the second half of the 1900s.
Guy Fieri has visited the Nook twice – the first visit came during Season 2 of Diner’s, Drive-Ins, and Dives in an episode called ‘Burgers, Rings, and Fries’ that aired on January 21, 2008. Visit number two was featured in a Season 14 episode called ‘Serious Sandwiches’ and aired on June 11, 2012.
I had to admit, as I watched Tom devour his ‘Guy’s Big Bite’ burger, which was a Pepper Jack stuffed burger with roast beef, shredded cheddar and bacon, and named after the Triple D star, I saw pure enjoyment all over my photographer’s face – not to mention, half of his burger. After Vicki ate her Patty Melt, she asked the server what their secret was to the best hand-cut fries she’s ever eaten. Vic was told they cut the potatoes the previous night and let them soak overnight in ice cold water with splash of distilled white vinegar – it’s a Nook recipe that’s been handed down since 1938.
We had spent the past two hours in St. Paul, Minnesota and it was time to continue our journey eastward. The next site on Tom’s agenda was one we had visited in Eau Claire, Wisconsin on February 3, 2022, but my photographer wanted to go back without three-foot-high snowbanks to contend with.
The 87-mile drive along I-94 from St. Paul to Eau Claire was uneventful and we arrived in the parking lot of the Eau Claire County Courthouse at a few minutes past six o’clock. Although Tom and I had no interest in the courthouse or surrounding local government buildings, we were, however, very interested in the parking lot.
Fournier’s Ballroom got its start as an armory when it was constructed in 1887 and was transformed into Fournier’s Dancing Academy and Ballroom by 1900. While Fournier’s hosted a countless number of famous acts during its heyday, including Glenn Miller, Lawrence Welk, and Louis Armstrong, the ballroom’s claim to fame in Rock and Roll history came on the night of January 26, 1959. Having played just three other venues before that one, the Winter Dance Party troupe arrived in the frozen town of Eau Claire where their show at the Fournier’s Ballroom began at seven o’clock. Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, Dion and the Belmonts, The Big Bopper, and Frankie Sardo played to a packed house of teenagers, who paid only $1.00 in advance or $1.25 at the door to see some of the biggest recording stars in America. When the show ended at 10:30pm, the performers headed over to Sammy’s Pizza where they ate and hung out with their fans before boarding their bus that would take them to Montevideo, Minnesota.
It seemed great to be back at the Fournier’s Ballroom site, and this time I wasn’t freezing my breeches off like I did in 2022. Not only did I pose for images near the historical marker that had been placed near the site in 2006, but Tom also placed me in the very footprint where the ballroom once stood for over 80 years. As always, sadness filled my resin heart at the Fournier’s Ballroom site – like it does whenever I visit a site associated with the ill-fated tour. When Buddy, Ritchie, and The Bopper performed on that cold Monday night in Eau Claire, they had no idea what fate laid ahead of them a week later.
For Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens, and J.P. (The Big Bopper) Richardson, their music was said to have died on February 3, 1959. But while their hit songs still resonate with Baby Boomers and other Rock and Roll enthusiasts to this day, the music died for Fournier’s Ballroom on February 27, 1971 when its doors closed for good. The historic ballroom was demolished just ten months later.
For fifteen minutes after Tom finished his last photo at the Fournier’s Ballroom site, my photographer and his wife sat in the parked van and deliberated about where they planned on spending the night. For the first time on the trip, my companions had not made advanced reservations for a hotel – primarily because they weren’t entirely sure how late they’d be in Eau Claire. They had two choices – one was to find a place in Eau Claire; or two, they could try to get closer to Green Bay where Tom had us scheduled to visit the Riverside Ballroom at nine o’clock in the morning. After Vicki made an unsuccessful attempt at securing a room in Eau Claire, and since Green Bay was still three hours away, my companions decided to reserve a room at the Cobblestone Hotel & Suites in Mosinee, Wisconsin, which was just over 100 miles to the east.
The last thing Vicki wanted to do was drive in complete darkness, but that’s exactly what she did after the sun set at 7:05pm and we still had an hour left on the road before we’d get to the hotel. When we saw the sun’s final rays as the orange ball disappeared behind us, Tom and Vic were on high alert for wayward woodland creatures who might walk out onto Highway 29. As for me, my painted eyes were peeled for wayward flying objects in the sky. After all, the last time Vicki drove along a highway at night, we saw an orange UFO outside of Glacier National Park.
With no cops in sight and hardly any other cars on Highway 29, Vicki drove the Truckster like a Bat out of Hell towards Mosinee. But then it happened, my photographer’s wife’s worst fear came to light just twenty miles west of our final destination. While the encounter wasn’t with an alien, or a Sasquatch, it was with a huge buck that crossed the road just in front of our 70mph speeding van. Visibly shaken by the extremely close encounter, Vicki remained on edge and white knuckled the rest of the way to the hotel parking lot. It was nearly 8:15pm when the never-ending drive was over. We made it unscathed – and my photographer’s wife definitely had enough fun for one day.
By the time the three of us were registered, unpacked, and were in the room, Tom placed me alongside the TV set without ever turning it on. Instead, my exhausted companions got undressed and were into bed without any conversation or fanfare.
Throughout the night, I stood alone in the darkness and listened to my photographer snore and digest his ‘Guy’s Big Bite’. But even with that horrible distraction, I had one moment from the past that kept flashing in my mind. That significant point in time had occurred on February 1, 1959 in Green Bay, Wisconsin – which was our first destination in the morning. In my mind, I saw Buddy Holly, dressed in his winter coat, as he relaxed on a set of wooden steps located backstage at the Riverside Ballroom. I was 12 hours from reliving that moment. When that image was captured in 1959, Buddy had roughly 24 hours to live.
