Here I am sitting in our hotel room in Council  Bluffs Iowa. But unlike last night I am sitting here alone.  No my wife didn’t get mad and leave me; she is instead in a casino about 100 yards from our hotel room.  Unknowingly I chose a hotel for the night in a casino complex. Gambling is just not my thing but Yvonne does like to play the nickel slots when she can. I’m not sure when she will be back. She said I wore her out today so she doesn’t think she will stay long.  I don’t worry about her losing too much as she has more sense than that. But if she is not back in a couple of hours I will likely go searching for her.

Now on to today’s adventures. As was the case yesterday most of the day was spent in the car. But after my post last night about all the small towns we went through yesterday we decided to explore a little deeper on two towns that were on our trip route.  The two towns we chose were Shelbina and Clarence Missouri.  They both have a population of around 800 people and are about ten miles apart.

Shelbina still has some signs of life as shown in these pictures. There are about four streets in town with a still existing business on each street.

Clarence has pretty much had its vitality snuffed out without much hope for any real revival. About the only thing still open is a bank and a restaurant. Everything else is pretty much abandoned.  Most buildings still are filled with the stuff from the last business.

I would write more here but it is just getting too depressing. It is a shame what has happened to small town America.