It’s a hot day like today that makes a huge cone of twist ice cream from Belts sound absolutely delicious! To be fair, it sounds delicious any day of the week, but especially on hot summer days. Although, to get an ice cream cone from Belts, you have to stand in a (usually) long line outside in the sun with no shade to speak of until you reach the window.
My sister and I both love Belts ice cream and sometimes people question why we think it’s so fantastic. I can’t speak for my sister, but for me it’s the experience of Belts. The ice cream is your typical soft serve (except for the fact that they still serve twist, which is hard to find now, at last in Minneapolis) but it’s the experience of sweating it out in the sun for a huge ice cream cone that makes it so special. The cone pictured is a medium, and there is more to it than was included in the picture.
Belts is an ice cream stand located in my hometown in Wisconsin. I was there for a day early in June to attend a graduation party. It was so great to spend some time there, even if just for a few hours. Though I don’t visit often, I love going back to the town that inspires the setting of so many of my stories. Most of my stories are set in a small town and when I create the world I take a certain part of hometown and build the rest around that feature.
I’ve often thought that I should move back to Stevens Point for a certain period of time. When I moved, I was nine-years-old. I visited often during middle and high school, but because I was so young, I still had a very limited view of the town. I would love to go back and spend an extended period of time there now to see the town from a new point of view–and to see the different ways that it will inspire me.