The Bar Book

Ahhhh...The Bar Book - that little black address book in the glove compartment of my car that contains a huge chunk of history. A history of Iowa’s small towns and big cities and the bars, taverns, and lounges that we’ve found on countless trips over state highways, county blacktops and gravel road shortcuts. I guess you could say we like to take the back roads.

From A….

To Z…

…we’ve stopped in at 487 bars in 117 towns in Iowa. Well, so far anyway. The date we started the bar book and the reason we decided to record this sometimes hilarious information is unknown. Our best guess is around 1994 we thought it would be fun to see how many bars we would visit that year. Since I am usually the driver for these adventures, after we would stop in somewhere, Grant would haul out the Bar Book and add the bar’s name, the date we stopped there (when he remembered) and something interesting about the place (or not, see “when he remembered”). The only rule was we had to have visited the place together.

The entries can be quite entertaining.

Some are hard to read depending on how ‘friendly’ the bartender happened to be.

But mostly, they are an amusing record of some really fun times we’ve had in Iowa. 

We’ve met some of the nicest people by sitting next to them on a bar stool in a little hole-in-the-wall tavern. We’ve gotten some of the best recommendations for restaurants, both “You’ve got to go to ____” and “I’d pass on _____.” We’ve watched many a Cubs game with other diehards that refuse to give up on ‘our’ team.

In fact, we’ve had so much fun with the Bar Book for Iowa, that we’ve now branched out and started The Bar Book – Wisconsin. We spend a lot of time hanging out in Wisconsin and if you know that state at all, you know we’ll never in our lifetimes visit every bar and tavern there! Maybe we should add The Bar Book – Minnesota, too?

So while some people may think we’re just a couple that drink too much (are you reading, Mom?), we prefer to believe that you can have some of the best experiences in your life by plunking your ass down in a bar and sipping on a cold one. Amen.

Anyone else have a bar book? C'mon, we can't be the only ones.

Comments

[Darlene]

Yes, I am reading your posts every week! I'll send some wild rice next week..your supply must be getting low..

[Tod]

Me, too.