Todd Swank: The 4th of July in Clear Lake, Iowa

July 9, 2023

The 4th of July in Clear Lake, Iowa

Todd Swank's Diary Entry for July 9, 2023

On Sunday, we headed down to Clear Lake, Iowa to spend the 4th of July holiday in the town where I went to high school.

Luke joined Miss Sheri and I for the trip and we connected with Krazy Kory and Harli for a couple nights of fun.

Avery's girlfriend, Abby, is a flight attendant so he jets off with her on a pretty regular basis. He's been all over the country the past couple of months, so we don't get to see him as much as we used to. They spent the holiday in Washington state. Unlike my son, Abby likes to post pictures as much as I do so at least I can get a glimpse into their adventures.

We headed to the Surf Ballroom for a concert. The Surf is celebrating it's 75th anniversary this year which is a pretty amazing achievement. For such a small town in Iowa, this place has had so many music legends play on it's stage it's pretty incredible.

We were there to watch the Guess Who play some classic rock from the seventies. The drummer Garry Peterson is the only original member of the band still playing with them, but the current members play all their hits the same way I remember them from my childhood so it was still awesome.

I really enjoyed the concert. They have a lot of classics I remembered from being a kid. Undun, American Woman, No Sugar Tonight, and several others kept us rocking all night long!

Not a lot of guys can make playing a flute seem cool, but Leonard Shaw blew me away in more ways than one.

When we weren't rushing the stage to jam with the band, we were out in the crowd having a good time meeting up with old friends.

Here's some videos I shot of the band playing:

@toddswank The Guess Who Live at the Surf Ballroom on July 2, 2023. #TheGuessWho #TheSurf #ClearLake #AmericanWoman #Undun ♬ original sound - Todd Swank

@toddswank The Guess Who. No Sugar Tonight. Live st the Surf Ballroom. July 2, 2023 #theguesswho #thesurfballroom #thesurf #nosugartonight #4thofjuly ♬ original sound - Todd Swank

@toddswank The Guess Who sing These Eyes at the Surf Ballroom in Clear Lake, Iowa. #theguesswho #theseeyes #surfballroom #clearlake ♬ original sound - Todd Swank

We spent a lot of time visiting the carnival while we were there. It's a classic 4th of July tradition for Clear Lake.

Hitting the Bingo tent is a popular destination for us. We actually even won some money this year which is a nice change of pace.

On Monday, we went golfing at Oak Hills which was about as busy as I've ever seen it. We'd planned to play 18 holes, but ended up only doing 9 because of the crowds.

Uncle Jerry was in town for the holiday so he joined us for the game. It's always good to catch up with uncle Jerry!

The 4th of July Parade is another favorite tradition where we like to participate. Typically we watch farther up on Main Street, but this year we thought it would be fun to watch from town.

This is another great opportunity to see old friends like the Anderson Family.

Since Iowa is traditionally first to select presidential candidates, we're used to seeing some come for the event. We'd heard that none showed this year, but were pleasantly surprised when Asa Hutchinson suddenly appeared and gave us a wave. Best of luck to you, Asa!

I'm assuming these planes were a planned part of the event otherwise it was a pretty wild coincidence that they all flew over us at the same time.

On Friday night, we had the opportunity to see Jason Hornbuckle and Jen. They've been living in Arizona for the past couple of years, but came back to Minnesota for a visit. It's always good to see these crazy kids!

Since we just officially passed the halfway point of the year, I thought it would be fun to make this video: