Everybody loves ice cream.
That’s the central theme for a week-long road trip a Calgary man is planning to make with his daughter, blogging their experience visiting a series of ice cream makers, including three in the Penticton area: Ogo’s, Gorgeous Georgia’s and, of course, Tickleberry’s.
Richard Stroobant and his 11-year-old daughter Danica are setting out on July 19, aiming to visit more than 20 ice cream shops in 18 stops over a week-long journey.
Tickleberry’s may even get two visits, after Stroobant discovered via social media that they had opened a second location on Skaha Beach in Penticton.
“We were sitting over a bowl of ice cream one day and thought, wouldn’t it be cool if we went on a road trip and tried ice cream in a whole bunch of towns in Alberta and B.C. and see who has the best ice cream?” said Richard.
Social media is playing a big role in the Ice Cream Tour 2015. This isn’t the first time Richard has done a road trip with Danica, but ice cream seems to have caught people’s attention. A week before heading out, he’s already had tourism groups in both provinces tweeting and posting about the event, as well as ice cream shops along the way.
Though ice cream is one of his family’s favourite desserts — they have it up to five nights a week, winter and summer — Richard said creating memories with his daughter is a bigger part of the trip.
“I’ve had summers off with my daughter for quite a while. The reason I took this job is to spend more time with my daughter and watch her grow up,” said Richard, an instructor at Southern Alberta Institute of Technology. “We have always done fun little things in the summer.”
When it comes to ice cream flavours, Richard and Danica are heading out without any set favourites, planning instead to ask at each shop what their special flavour is.
“If you pinned me down and forced me to make a choice, it would be chocolate. Although salted caramel would probably come in a pretty close second,” said Richard.
Richard will be blogging his reactions and Danica’s at icecreamtour.wordpress.com.
“We are not sponsored by anybody. I am going to be honest about whether it is fresh, and it tastes good and it is creamy enough,” said Richard. “We are just going to give an honest critique of what one father and one daughter think of this particular store’s flavour of ice cream.
“Let’s be honest, any ice cream is a good ice cream, so I can’t imagine anyone is going to get a terrible rating.”