Darlene's Place

Darlene's Place among the more remote bars I have visited, 17 miles from an interstate and 7 miles from the nearest major highway, down a twisting, turning maze of gravel roads in a town with only a handful of buildings.   I have to give it an extra star just for existing for so long! :)

We sat at the short end of the L-shaped bar under the watchful eye of a mounted goat head smoking a cigarette.  To our left a couple of weathered farmers were having a drink.

"We've got a population of, oh, about forty," one of the farmers told us, "so we're awful lucky to have this place."

This is one thing we love about this area of Iowa. No matter how far it is from the main highway, no matter how small it is, you can almost always count on finding a place to stop and share a drink with the locals.