By Miles Flynn | Southern Indiana Business Report
BEDFORD — If eating ice cream and exploring scenic Southern Indiana aren’t enough to get you on the road, then how about a free hat? Discover Southern Indiana, the tourism arm of the regional economic development group Radius Indiana, rolled out its ice cream trail for 2021 on May 28, and included are more than a dozen much-loved establishments across eight Hoosier counties.
“Last year was the first year,” noted Blaine Parker, director of tourism and quality of place for Radius.
She said organizers originally proposed the idea as a potential target for grant funding from the Indiana Office of Community and Rural Affairs as part of that agency’s call for projects to bring together people from multiple counties. (While she wouldn’t say Radius “stole” the idea from a popular doughnut trail in Butler County, Ohio, she did laughingly say local organizers were “inspired.”)
When OCRA passed on the concept, Radius decided to move forward anyway. The trail kicked off July 4, 2020, with 14 locations, and the idea was that participants who got their blue passports checked at all 14 shops before the event ended in October would receive a free commemorative T-shirt.
No one was sure what the response would be like that first year, Parker said. Estimates at the office were they might get back 50 completed passports.
“We ended up having over 350 turned in,” she recalled. “It definitely exceeded expectations.”
Enthusiasm is great for 2021. Parker reported the Radius office on the east side of the square in Bedford gave away some of the new red passports the first day the promotion launched.
That anticipation extends to the ice cream sellers, too.
“The shops were excited and happy to do it again,” Parker said.
In fact, she said Radius was getting calls from owners this year asking when the event would return. All 14 of the participating locations for 2020 are back this year.
- Jiffy Treet – 389 A St. NE, Linton
- Yoho General Store – 10043 E. Tulip Road, Linton
- Let It Snow Creamery – 618 W. Elnora St., Odon
- Bo Mac’s Drive In – 408 Fourth St., Shoals
- Zax Creamery – 2603 N. Newton St., Jasper
- Windmill Chill – 903 N. Meridian St., Holland
- The Happy Hive – 2834 S. State Road 66, Marengo
- Stephenson’s General Store – 610 W. State Road 62, Leavenworth
- French Licks – 469 S. Maple St., French Lick
- Superburger – 600 W. Main St., Paoli
- Dairy Bell – 2478 E. State Road 60, Mitchell
- Jiffy Treet – 142 16th St., Bedford
- Little Twirl Dairy Bar – 58 W. Main St., Livonia
- Six Scoops – 200 N. Water St., Salem
And newly added for 2021 is Scoops Homemade Ice Cream, 420 S. State Road 57, Washington.
Cory Scott, who owns Superburger in Paoli with his wife, Miya, said his crew is definitely excited.
“I think it was fun for our staff to get to meet a lot of people,” he said.
Along with hand-dipped ice cream and hand-spun shakes, Scott noted, Superburger’s signature ice cream sandwiches might tempt visitors. The treats, a house specialty back just in time for this year’s event, make use of homemade chocolate chip cookies or brownies to hold the ice cream.
Passports are available at all 15 participating locations. Passports and maps can also be downloaded at https://discoversouthernindiana.com/icecreamtrail/, and the prize for completion is a hat. (Parker said participants with partially completed blue passports from 2020 can still get those filled and turned in for a T-shirt, too.)
Radius leaders hope to continue the event and make it an annual happening. Maybe one day it’ll catch up to that inspirational Ohio doughnut trail, too. According to published reports from the Butler County Visitors Bureau, that six-year-old program has now drawn 28,000 participants from all 50 states and 23 countries, resulting in a local economic impact of more than $3.5 million.