Visiting the Oldest Dairy Queen in Minnesota

One of these brings delight to children big
and small. The other is an ice cream shop.

It turns out I'm terrible at saying "Today I shall ride that-a-way," pointing in a random direction, and then just going. While, ultimately, my destinations are just excuses for the ride, picking a destination forces me to sit down with a map and figure out a route. That way I can go to places I haven't already been, and I can pick the squiggliest looking lines on the map to work into my route.

As such, I have a small mental list of destinations to ride to, and I regularly peruse the Roadside America and Atlas Obscura sites looking for intriguing entries. One of the places I've been meaning to get to is the oldest Dairy Queen in Minnesota.* Located in a scenic parking lot in scenic Roseville, not terribly far from the actually scenic Como Park in St. Paul, it's the kind of roadside stop I couldn't resist.

It's a pretty neat building. I would like to see it lit up at night.

I think up above I mentioned sitting down with a map and figuring out my routes? Well, access to a map and clearly written directions or not, I have a talent for getting way off course and entirely lost in the wrong Twin City altogether when I just want some damn ice cream finding interesting alternate routes due to happy navigational accidents. As such, I found myself riding past the famous trolley-themed noodle parlor: The Old Spaghetti Factory. I waved as I rode past - there was no time to stop for OK pasta, there was a Dairy Queen to visit!

ATGATT. Well, almost.

Soon enough, I had Triumph pointed in the right direction again, and enjoyed a leisurely cruise along Lexington Avenue. Lexington weaves through Como Park for a few blocks, which was a nice change of pace after hurrying along I94 amidst all the drivers who seemed to think I wanted to race them.

It didn't take long to reach the Dairy Queen, which was a good thing, because by that time I was in serious need of soft-serve ice cream. Thankfully, they still had some for me.

Ice cream cone in hand, I noticed a Music-Go-Round nearby.  If you're not familiar, they're everyone's favorite overpriced-used-guitar shop. In the window, I saw several pretty things covered in lustrous, orange Tolex.  It was a very good thing for my wallet that I was on Triumph that day, because otherwise the temptation to head inside and perhaps leave with a fine British guitar amplifier would have been hard to resist. I didn't dare go in.

I wasn't sure if the anthropomorphic ice cream cone
was trying to lead me, or chase me away.

After enjoying some ice cream and a stretch, I hopped back on the bike and had a pretty uneventful ride home again.

Now I just have to figure out what roadside curiosity I should ride to next.



*Apparently this is somewhat open to interpretation. In my more recent research, I've discovered that there is a Dairy Queen the same age in Rochester. Hmm. Maybe I need to visit that one too. You know. For science.