Travelling through the US in Fall has its charms. The trees are at their best, displaying their Autumnal splendour; the crowds have diminished so you can enjoy the attractions in relative peace; and lots of accommodation offers low season specials. One of the disadvantages though are the many signs that you see saying ‘Closed For The Season’.
The whole of the US is on holiday and open for business in July and August with many attractions and services open up to 20 hours a day. By the end of September though, a great deal of the USA has pretty much closed for business.
It’s Sad, So Sad
There is nothing so sad when you’re driving along the highway than seeing an ice cream kiosk that has shut up shop for the Winter.
Locked doors, boarded windows, empty parking lot. It signals the end of the Summer madness and the impending long, long cold Winter ahead. No chance to stop and refresh with a frosty root beer float or enjoy a seasonal scoop of apple pie ice cream.
I had been looking forward to visiting the Teton Valley Creamery in Driggs Idaho, at the start of our holiday. The address for the Creamery is given as ‘at the only traffic light in Driggs’. Small town America huh? Unfortunately, it had other plans and was already closed for the season. After taking a quick snapshot of the cute Art Deco building, we continued on our journey.
A Silver Lining
A few weeks later on a sunny Saturday afternoon, we swung past ‘A Taste of South Dakota’ in the main square of Rapid City. This small festival promotes local businesses in an afternoon of food and music for the locals. Front and centre of the action was The Silver Lining Creamery, with quite a queue. Despite the fact that we had consumed a rather large Indian Taco only a few hours before, we joined the queue to get our ice cream fix. The creamery makes small batch flavours in an ever-changing selection. That afternoon amongst others there was Loaded PB Cup, Huckleberry, standard Pumpkin, Candy Corn, Maple Bacon, Pina Colada and good old Vanilla. There was also a special Pumpkin Pie flavour with ‘a whole piece of pie in every cone’. Hilariously, I had seen a review of Silver Lining, complaining that there were not enough flavours. They may not have 31 flavours but what they lack in quantity they more than make up for with quality.
I had the urge to pair vibrant orange Pumpkin with bright purple Huckleberry as an aesthetically pleasing Autumnal tribute, but in the end I matched Pumpkin with Saltie Sailor. The Pumpkin was curious as it was most certainly made from canned pumpkin, given the only fresh pumpkins available were hard, flavourless monsters sold for carving and decoration. I closed my eyes and tried to taste the pumpkin but the cinnamon kept getting in the way. Tasting the non billed cinnamon reminded me of a recent article I had read about pumpkin spice not containing pumpkin. It was tasty enough but perhaps I should have gone the whole hog and opted for the Pumpkin Pie. The Saltie Sailor was a mix of caramel ice cream, graham crackers and pretzels. Delish! and at $3 for 2 scoops – quite a bargain. Finally, an ice cream vendor who takes their responsibilities to the travelling public seriously.
The Silver Lining Creamery
Main Street Square
512 Main Street
Rapid City, South Dakota
www.silverliningcreamery.com
I’m a traditional ice cream flavour person and the only unusual flavour I have tried is onion. We went to France over Easter and everything was closed for 4 days, including the supermarkets!
We were in France during a long weekend in May and it was the same thing. We were camping in Epernay with very little in the way of supplies. Thankfully, Carrefour was open on the Monday afternoon – the whole of the Champagne region was there!