In a few posts, I’ve mentioned my quest for frozen custard. After seeing the first billboard, I remembered it was something I had heard about years earlier and wanted to try. Then I became obsessed. Each travel day would go like this:
Me: There. I see it there. On that sign. Frozen custard!
Philip: Where?
Me: You just passed it.
Philip: Next time, we’ll stop.
Next time…
Me: There’s a place. Right there. Do you see it?
Philip: We can’t get in that parking lot with this truck and trailer. (Or some variation of that statement.)
Eventually, the stars aligned and we found a Culver’s, which I had never heard of until we got into the middle of the country. Billboards proclaimed it as being known for its frozen custard. They were popping up everywhere like dandelions in my backyard.
Eventually, we found one in the front corner of a big strip mall with a supermarket and a Home Depot. We were traveling that day between Iowa and South Dakota, and I honestly cannot recall which side of the state line we were on. In any case, Philip was correct — the parking for Culver’s was too tight. But since he’d agreed to stop, I wasn’t letting this opportunity pass me by, insisting we park in the large parking lot behind.
“We can make it. Turn in there, please. Ok, over there. Watch out for that curb. That tree. Go there. Stop. Stop!”
While Philip walked Murray, I went in and bought three types of custard. Strawberry and chocolate for us to eat right then, and peach for later. Yes, I was a piggy. 🙂
“Welcome to Culver’s.” After I gushed excitedly, “It’s my first time having frozen custard,” he was so kind. He was the level of professional friendliness that indicated he could have worked at a Chik-Fil-A. I am talking about a level of welcoming niceness you don’t find at every fast-food place.
He explained how they had a flavor of the day and then the two regulars of chocolate and vanilla. Strawberry was the flavor of the day. While I was waiting for my order, I found a freezer of prepacked custard, too. Peach!!
Long story short, frozen custard is delicious. Like thick soft-serve ice cream, we enjoyed all three flavors.
The other first at Culver’s were the fried curds. These are also delicious and turned out to be fried cheese cubes. However, upon feeling my arteries hardening with each little nugget, I ended up putting the remainder in the freezer with some of the peach custard. This precious cargo made it the rest of the way to Bozeman, Montana, where we visited my son. But that’s another story.