Don't judge a book by it's cover!

Don't judge a book by it's cover!

By Allan Olson

Ludlow, SD (Pop. 6, at least until we arrived.) – I’m going to start the report with a story about a little town we happened upon five days into our vacation, near the end of a fun six days.

It was official; our journey across South Dakota was coming to an end. As we left our little cabin at a campground in Hermosa, SD about 16 miles south of Rapid City, our destination was the North Dakota Badlands in Medora. We ventured out about 7:30 a.m. from and headed off toward Rapid City in search of donuts and coffee. With a town that big and a GPS, it shouldn’t be that hard, right? In all honesty, the donuts were an afterthought. My brother decided he needed coffee, so his wife plugged “Starbucks” into the GPS and sent a message to my wife that we were heading to get coffee – I was definitely fine with that. The search for coffee was easy; my wife suggested that I grab some donuts, too – I had already thought of it. I looked at their prices and thought, “Man, I’m not gonna pay $2 for a donut” and my brother agreed.

There was a Walgreen’s across the road, so we went over there in search of donuts – no luck. Okay, there’s a gas station across the road from there – again no luck. So we ventured off on a donut search. After a few wrong turns and a few not-so-right traffic moves, we ended up at a “donut” shop, but its prices were right in line with Starbucks. We drove around some more and were ready to give up when my brother pulled into a regular grocery store, and they had a deli. A couple of the kids headed off for the bathroom, and while we were there we bought a few additional supplies – and some donuts, finally! I had promised the kids donuts, and I was able to hold up my end of the bargain. After all of that, nearly two hours later, we got on our way north.

For the entire trip, my brother and I both filled up at the same gas stations. We were driving identical vehicles and getting about the same mileage, so we should run low about the same time. We had just filled our tanks the day before, but I took my family on a geocaching run into Wyoming (another story later) and so used additional fuel. We were crossing the wide open spaces of western South Dakota and my fuel was getting low. I wanted to stop, but we kept going. I figured I still had 80 miles or more of fuel left, and I was outvoted on stopping – Bowman was only about 50 miles away, and we could get gas there. (Fuel wasn’t the only reason I wanted to stop, but I figured I would make it. We passed one gas station, and then I saw another. I thought “Okay, he’s going to stop,” but he didn’t. I found out later his GPS didn’t even acknowledge the town, and they didn’t realize it until they were passed it. Only one more town, and then we would be to Bowman, but as we approached that little town I called my brother. “I can’t wait, I’m stopping!” I told him. I pulled up to the bar and grill – the only public business in the whole town, it appeared – and one of my girls said she had to go. I looked at the place and didn’t know if I wanted my daughter to go inside. I opened the car door and saw that she had her shoes off. “Forget it,” I said. “You’ll have to go in with someone else,” and I bolted for the door.

I walked into to the poorly-lit bar area and immediately started looking for the water closet. I saw another wing to the building and a door labeled “Bucks” and headed straight for it. My brother had come in by that time, started talking to the owner. When I came out, nearly all the kids were in the building (for the same reason, more or less). We discussed getting an appetizer for the road or perhaps even having a quick meal.

Nikolai and my niece had discovered a dart board on the wall and started tossing the plastic-tipped darts, and before I could say it, my brother was telling them to leave it alone. The owner intervened on their behalf. “They’re fine,” she said. “In this place, kids rule and parents drool.” I’m not sure either of us knew what to think of that. In the back wing of the dining establishment she had a game room for kids, a pool table, a humungous rocking horse, a giant chalk board and much more. Soon she was talking with Abigail about dolls, and before long the two of them walked over to her house near the business to see her collection of dolls. Normally that would send red flag warnings “stranger alert, etc.,” but for some reason, way out here in the middle of nowhere, I didn’t panic or freak out. A few minutes later, they were back, and Abigail had a bag full of dolls to play with while we all ate there. The other six kids enjoyed the kid-friendly atmosphere.

We enjoyed our meal, had a friendly conversation with the owner, and the kids weren’t cooped up in a little booth having to sit still. “The kids will be fine, let them have fun,” she said. “They won’t hurt anything!” She was right, they did have fun, and they didn’t hurt anything, and that was the best dining experience and one of the most enjoyable stops of our entire 2,000 mile trip.

While there, my sister-in-law suggested that I check to see if they had a geocache. I said that was not very likely, but I checked my phone. Sure enough, less than a 100 feet away was a geocache – cool! The owner heard us talking about and directed me to the right location and my sister-in-law went with me to find it. The coordinates it showed me were considerably different, but with the help of the owner of the business I was able to make the find. One thing I was told before I headed out to find it threw me for a loop for a bit: “Watch out for snakes,” she said. That made me a little nervous, but thankfully, I didn’t find any snakes.

If you ever find yourself traveling on U.S. Highway 85 between Belle Fourche, SD and Bowman, ND, I highly recommend a visit to the Crooked Lake Bar and Grill in Ludlow, especially if you need a bathroom break or the kids need a travel break. As the friendly owner said, “If I hadn’t started talking with you and your kids, you probably would’ve just left.” She was right. As the old saying goes, don’t judge a book by its cover unless you’ve cracked the book and read a few pages, or in this case, stepped inside and talked with the folks who run the place. It just might be a diamond in the rough. If you do stop by this lonely-looking place, see if you can find Abigail’s and my signature on the counter, written in black marker, near the wall to the left. Perhaps someday we will be going back to Ludlow, SD. This time we know that it’s a great place to relax, have a great meal and let the kids be kids.

P.S. More on our six-day vacation in next week’s column.

Thanks for reading, and remember to be safe on the lakes while enjoying what’s left of the summer. Be sure to spend some time with kids! Thanks for reading, and have a great and safe weekend. For more of my columns visit: http://allan-crazykids.blogspot.com.

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