Kyle Meade will never forget the afternoon he drove into a restaurant in Belle Fourche, South Dakota, and someone immediately asked his girlfriend Julia Okitsu where he could purchase fentanyl.
“I mean, we had just come out of church, and we were headed to breakfast,” Meade replied. “We had the boy in the back, and her side window was rolled down.”
Meade seemed taken aback for a brief moment by the question. He wasn’t sure what to say.
“I mean, my jaw dropped and I’m like, ‘My child’s in the car here,'” he recalled. “What the hell are you asking me?”
It’s one of the reasons Meade and Okitsu believe society has gone insane recently. It has also prompted the city-weary pair from North Dakota to seek out a bit of small-town America where they can feel protected.
However, almost anywhere else would feel like a major city when compared to Aladdin, a little hamlet in northeast Wyoming with a population of only approximately 15 people.
They have a grand idea to repair the Liberty Belle Lodge, located next to the Aladdin General Store, and convert it into a viable company.
If they are successful, the number of companies on Aladdin’s main drag (Wyoming Highway 24) will double, from one to two. And it will allow the pair to start a new life in what they believe will be a far healthier environment.
“Cities are pushing people out because they don’t feel safe,” Meade told the crowd. “Like you’re just driving to get some bubble gum or whatever, and you could get shot for no good reason.”
They’re not the only ones. Both have acquaintances from their previous state who want to visit them in the region, if not Aladdin itself.
Okitsu, for example, has a retired military friend who wants to move to Sundance and start a storage business. She’ll start out in Aladdin while she gets her bearings.
“My best friend wants to move here desperately,” Meade added. “He lives in Orting, Washington, which was once considered a little town, but today there’s gang activity everywhere. “You know, people are shooting.”
Okitsu and Meade both stated that gunshots appear to occur virtually nightly, generating both panic and a desire to flee – for those who can afford it.
“I see that happening a lot, or at least people want to,” Meade told the crowd. “Even if they can’t afford it.”
Breaking The Chains
But for a devastating fire, Meade and Okitsu might not have been able to make a break for Wyoming. Like many people, they had a house payment that tied them to their jobs.
But then a horrific fire struck, radically upending life as they knew it.
“We lost our house in a fire, and we lost two pets,” Okitsu told me. “When it happened, my father informed me that he had stage-four liver cancer and was not going to receive treatment. So, everything happened at once.”
Their homeowner’s insurance only paid out a portion of their home’s value. Not enough to rebuild.
“It was probably 40% of the total rebuild cost,” Meade informed the crowd. “So, we were stuck.”
Meade was browsing real estate listings online one night when he stumbled across a Facebook post promoting a 16-bedroom mansion for sale.
“He’s like, what does a 16-bedroom, 16-bathroom home even look like,” Okitsu told me.
When they clicked on it, they discovered it was actually a motel, not a home. Ordinarily, it would have been worth a laugh or a shake of the head before moving on.
But now they needed a fresh start. They had a small amount of insurance money to try to start a new and better life, and Meade saw potential in this motel.
“I’m originally from Wyoming, but my family was in the Fremont County, Dubois area,” Meade told me. “And I’ve always wanted to buy into something over here, but the prices are just, beyond beyond.”
The motel, on the other hand, was reasonable, if in need of a lot of TLC.
Meade went to check out the property and speak with the owner in person. He was determined to see everything wrong with this plan and talk himself out of it if there was any hint of something fishy.
But the opportunities did not disappear after that. They grew stronger in his mind.
A New Dream Is Born
Meade has run man camp restaurants in the Alaskan North Slope, which are set up to provide affordable places for oilfield workers to stay and sleep.
People told him that the Aladdin motel had a restaurant that was full every weekend throughout the summer. It was a genuine diamond in the rough.
However, it was in very poor condition when he and Okitsu chose to purchase it.
Some of the rooms had been left open to the outdoors, and the plumbing was damaged in the majority of them.
“When we moved in and took this place over, it took us three weeks before we even had one room ready to go,” Meade told me.
Google didn’t assist them find their location on a map either. That made them inconspicuous for their first Sturgis, making it impossible to attract guests, despite the fact that they worked tirelessly to make everything ready on time.
Trent Tope, who lives next door, told Cowboy State Daily that he supports the resurrection of the lodge and its restaurant.
“It helps us when people have a nice place to eat and to stay,” he told me. “What will they do if they feel well after a delicious meal? They’re going to come over to the bar and have some drinks.
Perhaps even buy a few souvenirs, and then tell a few friends about the adorable and delightful village of Aladdin.
Looking Out
Tope has done a lot to help the couple when it comes to looking out. That’s been particularly helpful, given that when they first arrived, a rough crowd had been attracted to the motel, due to its condition.
“Before we came here, the county was here three or four times a week, pulling crackheads out of the rooms,” Meade told me. “There were also folks experiencing domestic violence. “That had been going on for years.”
Meade took a proactive approach to anything that appeared suspicious. He would approach the people and talk to them, trying to spread the news that there were new proprietors and that they would not allow any more drug deals.
Luckily, word spread quickly. Meade feels this is due in part to the fact that everyone in Aladdin, no matter how tiny the population, knows each other and is looking out for one another.
“That’s what I love about Aladdin,” Meade added. “I can’t say enough positive things about that. People watch out for each other. I know everyone. “I never need to lock anything.”
The Right Amenities
The fact there’s no movie theater or entertainment feels so much less important than a wholesome environment for their family, Okitsu said.
Everyone knows your name here.
“Knowing all your neighbors on a first-name basis, and just coming together as a town, as a community, to make something work,” says Okitsu. “It can take some guts, it can take some heart to do something like this.”
But it’s been worthwhile, Meade added.
“If anybody turns on Google News, it doesn’t matter what news, what you see is everybody’s mad at each other,” according to Meade. “And if you listen to any of that junk, you’ll eventually believe that no one is worth talking to and that you’re afraid of everything.
“That’s not community,” he added. “Community is what you get when you actually get out here in these small towns and start realizing almost nobody is as nutty as what they’re saying.”
Things in Aladdin aren’t great yet. The couple’s restaurant kitchen isn’t operational yet, which is an important part of their long-term survival strategy.
But there’s a calm, relaxed sensation when Okitsu and Meade watch the sun set over Aladdin each night.
“I don’t have to worry about my son being out here,” Meade told the crowd. “He grabs his motorcycle and goes for a ride with his buddy next door, who is the same age as him. This is simply a life that you cannot provide else.”
