A scoopful of goodness

With the cold settling in around us, we're missing our ice cream days. Don't get us wrong, fall time is king around here, but the summer in the truck gave us a new season to love. 

Our ice cream truck is an old cable splicing truck, refurbed to Scoops on Wheels, and the generator, which powers everything from the dipping cabinet to the air conditioning, SOMETIMES works. On a hot summer day without the A/C, it can get to a 12 on the heat scale. Even if the air conditioning was working, the best we got to was about a 6. 

We had some hot days in the truck, but you all made them so worth it. The superb crew that worked the truck this year did have their share of frustrations with the heat, but they found such joy in scooping up ice cream, that even the "12" days faded quickly, leaving only the good stuff behind.  

Meg, who was a foundational member of our newly formed ice cream crew, and whose flavor matches mine (mint cookie pals!), absolutely loved when daycare kids visited the truck and she got to see their eyes light up when they see that first scoop of ice cream. She spent the summer perfecting the perfect scoop to top off that little sugar cone, and is not lobbying hard for Kyle to add a peanut butter and chocolate choice that, for her, will edge out the mint for good. 

For Eric, who mixes cookie dough and cookies and cream for cookie ice cream nirvana, the best experience he had was serving a sweet family of four who, while huddling under the awning in the rain waiting for their ice cream, were so sweet and smily and wonderful even through the rain and internet connection issues and Eric's slightly slower scooping (due to some very frozen ice cream). On other days, he learned that generators are finicky and that the truck can probably get up to 212°F (but who's measuring), but the smiles he got when he handed kiddos their cones kept him scooping away. 

Bri, who in a very sincere but also very punny move, quickly realized that she had one of the coolest jobs when she told her 4K kids that she's an ice cream lady. She also was almost always in the truck when he had pay-it-forward kindness chains happen, which was seriously one of the amazing things to watch happen in the truck. To those people who started, continued, and supported a kindness chain, we are in awe of your service to others. It was awesome. 

Bri also learned that a few hours of scooping give you Hulk-like arm muscles and that there's really only ONE solution to everything: Generator quits working? Call Kyle! You forgot the window key? Call Kyle! You ran out of ice cream? Call Kyle! You broke something that you shouldn’t have! Call Kyle! Just always call Kyle! And she's still calling him! But this time it's to convince him to finally make a the cookie jar ice cream that her and Eric are REALLY hoping to see: mix up cookie dough and cookies and cream, but then add some M&Ms because...why not!?

Our intern Bridget quickly learned to double and triple check that she had everything she needed after a few little incidents, like having to drive back to get the key to open the serving window and spending a few hours without the iPad, on which we take all the orders, because, boy, that was a lesson in basic math! Her favorite thing was the dogs! Bridget went a little crazy every time a dog came by the truck. :) A big fan of the brownie fudge, Bridget is hoping for a black cherry flavor some day. 

The truck was really a beautiful experience, and we just can't explain how much we loved scooping for you all this summer...nor can we explain how much we want Kyle to start serving up our favorite flavors! We will see you, friends, next year!