Idalia is a curious little town, covers maybe 6 square blocks. Main street is empty, at the end is the school. The glue that keeps the town going. The grain elevator is still in operation and there is a convenience store/gas station and garage that sits on the east edge of town. Then there is the curiosity, a motel.
Highway 36 is not a major road and Highway 385 is that a way some distance. So how does a motel stay open in a dwindling country town.
Yet… there it is, on the eastern edge of town across from vacant land. Next door is an abandoned gas station indicating there had been a fair amount of travel at one time on the road.
Its better days are someplace in the past an era of long ago. The nearest towns of any size are 30 some miles that a way or that a way. Stores and shops sit vacant next to empty lots.
It is farm country and the grain elevator stays busy throughout the year and the convenience station gets a few of the truckers and the occasional traveler.
The prairie icon, stoically stands, overlooking the land that feeds it. It is a considerable distance to the nearest railroad. Trucks rumble in and out at various times of the year. Otherwise the ghosts of other days silently repose on the vacant streets that are briefly interrupted when school is out.
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