Nightglow Window

Buddy Holly Summer

My cousin Joey -- who is 11 days younger than me and always will be -- is getting married in the great state of Texas this weekend. But he's not getting married just anywhere, mind you, but in the great city of Lubbock, the "Hub City." This, as everyone knows, is smack dab in the center of the largest contiguous cotton growing region in the world! The wonders! Christy and I are flying out tomorrow.

If you know me at all, you know that I'm kooky for maps. So last night we went zooming around Lubbock on Google Earth -- electronic hotrodding if you will -- figuring out where our hotel is and spotting rib joints with names like Tom & Bingo's Hickory Pit and Whistlin Dixie BBQ & Grill.

You can learn all sorts of things on Google Earth, like how Lubbock is the birthplace of Buddy Holly. We found this weird. After all, our other strange vacation destination this summer was Clear Lake, Iowa, where Buddy Holly played his final concert before his plane augured into a corn field.

So it's a summer like no other, a Buddy Holly summer. And don't you dare think that I'm not going to get my picture taken in front of that big Buddy Holly statue on 8th street.