Now that summer is upon us, I
am knee-deep in books to read, chores to complete, and a calendar of days to
fill. It is indeed thrilling to look
down a long line of days just waiting to be occupied with all the good things
that get ignored during the school year.
One of the things I did to prepare for this summer was take a trip to
the bookstore, armed with a gift card.
In addition to two novels by John Green, I found a book of 642 writing
exercises. I thought it would be fun to
try a random exercise each week, and here’s this week’s prompt: “Your most transcendent ice cream experience…” Since summer was practically invented for ice
cream eating, here’s my response:
State Highway 41 winds north
through several small North Idaho towns, closely flanked on both sides by
towering tamarack, white pine, and Douglas Fir trees. You’ll be lucky if your phone maintains cell
service for the full drive, and you need to be on the alert for deer and other
game crossing the road. The road slices
through mountains and forests, and in the winter months you would be wise to
watch out for black ice on the curves.
This is the kind of highway that is off the beaten path, taking travelers
through small towns, alongside pastures dotted with horses, cows, and red barns,
and past family-owned cafes. One of the
towns you will encounter is Spirit Lake, a little dot on the map with a
beautiful lake, rich history, and some of the best ice cream you will ever eat.
Turn onto Main Street and you
will find a town straight out of a film set for Little House on the Prairie.
Make your way down the street, past the Old West Hardware store, the
train and antique store, Joe’s Hole Saloon, The Funky Monkey Bar and Grill, the
White Horse Saloon, and the Linger Longer Lounge. There, across the street, you will find a
little building with a green-striped awning.
Tables with green umbrellas sit outside, inviting customers to rest a
while as they eat ice cream before the summer sun can melt little rivulets that
run down their wrists. Before you step
inside this quaint little shop, read the sign above the door: Spirit Lake Video. That’s right, your destination to the best
ice cream ever is inside a video store.
This video store also features fudge and ice cream; the goodies behind
the counter are part of Knick-Knack Paddywhack, though both businesses are
owned and operated by the same family.
As you meander past the
old-fashioned fudge counter and racks of DVD’s for rent, you will find yourself
staring into barrels of ice cream of all colors and flavors. It was the delicate yellow and white swirls
that caught my eye that fateful day I nearly cried in public when I took my
first bite of Cascade Glacier Lemon Meringue Pie ice cream. The young lady behind the counter took my
order, a single scoop in a waffle cone, and reached the scooper inside the
three gallon container. Within minutes
she had piled a mountain-sized mound of the gooey treat and pressed it inside
my cone. After my husband received his
equally monstrous cone, we headed outside to sit in the sun to enjoy our snack. The ice cream was thick and creamy. Tart lemon bursts were paired with sweet
vanilla undertones, and an occasional piece of pie crust was an added textural
bonus. Already the sun was causing small
drips down the side of my waffle cone, so I ate faster, pausing only to say, “Oh
my word this is good!” and lick the drips from my fingers. By the time I had dominated the mountain peak
of ice cream so that it was level with the cone’s edge, I had stopped speaking
at all, now just making little happy noises as I watched people pass by the
shop. I nibbled around and around the
waffle cone, enjoying the way the lemony-vanilla ice cream had softened the
cone to perfection. Finally, I came to
the best part, the “cone butt” as I like to call it, where the ice cream pools
for one final burst of ice-cream-and-cone heaven. My stomach was full and happy as we loaded
into the car, and sometimes I catch myself reminiscing about that delicious
drive up north one Saturday afternoon.
So this summer, if you are
looking for a little adventure that ends in pure bliss, make a 26 mile trek
north to a little lake town that offers a slice of heaven in a cone.
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