Last week I wrote about how savvy motorists keep a mental checklist of which bathrooms are safe to stop at en route, and which ones are best avoided unless it’s a dire emergency and there are no convenient bushes around. It got me thinking about the many road trips I’ve taken over the decades, and the pleasure of finding hidden gems along the way: places that you look forward to stopping at during your journeys.
Many of these places are restaurants or other eateries, standalone businesses of the kind known as “mom and pop” outfits, and it’s a sad fact that while they’re often far superior to the cookie-cutter chain outlets in terms of quality and service, they tend to get short shrift from non-locals, and who prefer the known to the unknown. Say what you will about Timmies, you know precisely what you’re going to get from them at each and every location, for better or worse.
Some of these mom and pop outlets don’t do themselves any favours, if truth be known, with a bedraggled, forlorn appearance that makes them look like Norman Bates might work there when he’s not arguing with his mother. Generally, it’s been my experience that signs and flowers are a good indication of what sort of place beckons. Are the signs freshly-painted and clean, or do they look as if they were produced during the Reagan administration and not looked at since? If there are flowers in hanging baskets or planters, are the flowers well-tended and neat, or do they look as if they’re one short step away from becoming potpourri?
If it’s the former in both cases, you’re probably in for an enjoyable experience; if the latter, probably best to keep driving. (Also, is there something out front advertising “Live bait” and “Fried chicken” — or, worse, “Sushi” — on the same sign? Don’t stop.)
Before anyone can say “You can always look online at trip advisory sites,” I realize that those can be a good indicator, but they’re by no means perfect. A few years ago, food outlets in the Ashcroft and Cache Creek area were blanketed with scathing, one-star reviews on online forums that all came from the same, unidentified, person. Either “Anonymous” was spectacularly unlucky at every single place, or was animated by malice, and my money would be on the latter, particularly as I know the outlets in question.
People travelling through our small towns don’t usually know these places, however, so that negative review might sound legit to them, and they’ll keep going until they see something they recognize. It’s one of the reasons why local businesses frequently exhort locals to post positive online reviews in support of them, to give a more balanced and accurate account and counteract the bad actors.
Another thing to consider, when you’re weighing up where to stop, is that profits from small, independent businesses likely stay in the community, and that these same businesses are often the ones supporting the local sports teams with sponsorships, and providing items for the many times that they’re tapped up by good causes to give something for a raffle or gift basket. It’s not to say that big chains don’t do this too, but I suspect that, pound for pound, the independents punch way above their weight in this department.
There’s also the fact that some of my most cherished memories from road trips involve stopping at small eateries or emporiums that were overflowing with charm and warmth. They’re the kind of place where you enter as a stranger and leave as a friend, which could well be a saying painted or stitched onto something hanging on the wall inside.
We seem to be living in an increasingly transactional world filled with people who (to quote Oscar Wilde) know the price of everything and the value of nothing. The value of these roadside delights can’t always be measured in money, but the experience, and the memories, can be worth their weight in gold.
