Fort Dodge, IA - Bunny Tracks

Hmmm. The last blog I published was August 17. Today it is September 29, looks like I’ve been asleep. Nope, just a bit tired from all the travel and needing a bit of a rest. But, then, most of what we’ve done this last month is visiting with our family in central Iowa, maintenance and repairs on the RV, bookkeeping, medical appointments, trip planning for next winter and summer along with a few miscellaneous things. We haven’t bought anything for the RV nor for us for a long time - and I’ve been ordering from Amazon and buying somethings from local stores. We need raincoats, I need some new house shoes, Gary wants a new sewer hose holder - you know, all the exciting stuff. I’m can’t get excited about writing about such mundane things and how can I expect someone to want to read about this? Not hardly. However, I’ve found some things that are a bit more than mundane so have a few days worth of blog written up.

Here goes.

We plan to arrive in Fort Dodge, IA and stay in Kennedy Park, north of the city about several miles. Because it was summer, we were a bit worried about getting a site since it is a terribly popular campground. But, we had a plan. Some friends of our were already there and called us in the morning to tell us if there were very many spots available. Then, if there were very few spots, I was going to call my brother to ask him is he would take his truck up there to mark a spot and then ride his bike back home. Anyway that was the plan. Our friends called us and told us that there were about 9 spots available in the full service hook-up section but the dry camping section was wide open. We then decided to take a spot in that section since it was only 2 nights, thanked them and told them we’d see them when we got there, called my brother and told him that he wouldn’t need to drive the truck up there and took off.

Back roads most of the way and even a detour or two. When you have an RV and are told to take a detour down a small county road: hmmm, how much weight can that little bridge take? hmmm, how tall is that bridge we have to go under? hmmm, where is this road taking us? But, it was fine and I’m sure that semis take the same detours that we take.

We stopped in Le Mars, IA. Probably doesn’t mean much to you but I’ll bet that if I say ‘We stopped in the town where Blue Bunny ice cream is made’ you’d recognize that. We’ve been all over the west coast over the last few years and have found Wells Blue Bunny ice cream everywhere. We even found it in Texas Blue Bell territory. Good ice cream: Bunny Tracks: chocolate-covered peanuts, peanut butter-filled chocolate bunnies, and ribbons of peanut butter, caramel and fudge in vanilla ice cream. Can anything be better? Well, Gary thinks that Mint Chocolate Chip is better but then ...

How can you not like ice cream with peanuts, caramel, fudge and little peanut butter-filled, chocolate-covered little bunnies? Me, can’t resist it - except when I’m in Montana and Huckleberry is king.

But, back to Wells. It is the largest family-owned ice cream manufacturer in the US and third largest ice cream maker in the US behind Nestle (Haagen Dazs, Dreyers) and Unilever (Ben & Jerry’s and Breyers). (Interesting that there’s an ice cream named Dreyers and one named Breyers. Are they trying to confuse us so we buy the other?) Now Wells has only 5% of the market but that gives it 3rd place. A pretty fragmented market but then, in some places in the US, there’s a family-owned ice cream stand on every corner. Oh, by the way, Wells also produces Weight Watchers brand ice cream (are ‘Weight Watchers’ and ‘ice cream’ a contradiction in terms?).

Every town has its symbol and this is the symbol in this town.

It all began back in 1913 when Fred H. Wells opened a milk route with $250 to buy a horse, a delivery wagon and a few cans and jars. He and his sons built the business and began manufacturing ice cream and selling it locally. Then they sold out - oops. Later, they wanted to re-open but they had sold the name and license. There are always ways around that so they held a contest to name their new company and gave $25 to the winning name: Blue Bunny. And, the growth was up from there. Now they are sold throughout the US and abroad. I read that they have a 12-story freezer. Whoo-eee. Imagine that much ice cream.

Since they have their manufacturing all in one place, Le Mars calls itself the ‘Ice Cream Capital of the World.’ Sounds like a worthy stop on an adventure. And, stop we did. We pulled into town, found a spot to park on a side street and walked around to their shop which had a museum on the second floor. Oh, yeah, they sell loads of merchandise, too. Of course.

We were a bit disappointed in the museum since it really didn’t have much but we still toured the display cases. Remember these slips that you filled out and left in the milk box by your back door. It told the milkman what you wanted that day.

We also took the opportunity to get a picture. Pretty neat set-up they have. You can take your own picture since they have a computer with a delay feature on it. Then, of course, they e-mail it to you. Here’s ours.

Then for the treat of the day. I’ve never seen so many flavors but never being at a loss in the ice cream store, I was able to choose.

You can eat ice cream any time.

We then headed on towards Fort Dodge where we found my brother sitting on his front porch waiting for us. What a guy. He must have missed us since we haven’t seen him since we left last September. Actually, he ’s got a project that he’s been waiting for help with - and Gary’s just the man. We talked with him for a while and planned to return tomorrow for the project.

Then to the campground where we found a spot, got the slides out and then went over to visit with some friends, Shirley and Jerry, who were also there. I worked with Shirley at Wells Fargo and we both retired in the same year, 2008, a good year. We both bought RV’s and planned on snowbirding over the winters and returning to Iowa for the summers. We never seemed to be heading the same direction at the same time but we always talked on the phone and saw each other (and husbands, natch) over the summer. Last year, after we had gotten our home sold and were living in our RV full-time, they told us, again, that they had absolutely no plans to do it, that they liked their home in Fort Dodge and didn’t want to go full time. Well, guess what? This year they sold their home, had more yard sales than you could count and they are now full-timing in their Winnebago Tour.

Dinner was great. It was wonderful seeing them again and their meal of tenderloin sandwiches and fried zucchini went down perfectly. But the conversation was even better and we look forward to seeing them more often on the road.

Back at the RV, we set it up for 2 nights stay, showered and relaxed - we’ve got medicine cabinet and bonding for tomorrow.