Gas prices only take small bite out of summer traffic

Kathy Howard of San Francisco smiles for the camera in front of the Ice Cream Capital of the World Visitor's Center on Thursday. Howard and Allen Kennedy, also of San Francisco, are some of the travelers that pulled in for a scoop of ice cream despite high gas prices and the Highway 75 bypass around Le Mars. [Click to enlarge]

By 10:30 a.m. a man from Charles City had already finished his breakfast: a vanilla cone at the Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor.

Before 5 p.m. that same day, a woman from San Francisco, Calif. was posed outside to get her picture taken with the old fashioned milk truck.

Just another August day in Le Mars.

Despite high gas prices and a bypass around town, ice cream is still selling like, well, ice cream on a summer day.

While tourist-friendly stops in Le Mars were bracing for a slower summer due to higher gas prices, cars kept rolling in.

"With gas prices I was gritting my teeth quite a bit wondering how it would affect us," said Kathy Faber, the manager of the Ice Cream Capital of the World Visitor Center. "But all in all, the summer was good."

Gary Susemihl, manager of the ice cream parlor next door, agreed.

"I went into the summer knowing it would be a challenge to meet last year's sales, but overall we're pretty happy with how things turned out," he said.

During the summer, the majority of their customers are travelers.

"We had people from Singapore, China, Europe, Canada, Mexico and Great Britain," Faber said. "And people came from all of the United States: Hawaii, Alaska, the East and West Coast."

She noticed more people coming in from central and eastern Iowa who decided on a summer "staycation" -- a vacation that involved not traveling far from home.

"Several told us quite frankly that they were cutting back on their driving, but they still wanted to do something fun," she said. "Especially the people who had so many problems with the floods. They wanted to get away."

She did see less motor homes, she noted.

At Bob's Drive Inn, the famous hot dog joint across the street, co-owner Nathan Kass said the restaurant's numbers this summer were comparable to last year, even with higher gas prices.

A lot of visitors were Iowans, he said.

"I think we had a little more Lakes traffic this year, and Memorial Day ended up being bigger than last year," he said.

More people stayed closer to home.

"I know a couple of local people with families in Florida and Texas, and this year both decided they weren't going to make the trip," he said.

On top of gas prices, Le Mars businesses faced another challenge throughout the summer.

The Highway 75 bypass has pulled traffic off Le Mars' main thoroughfare: the former Highway 75 running north and south near Bob's and the Ice Cream Capital of the World Visitor's Center.

From 2003, before the bypass was completed, to 2007 when it was finished, traffic decreased by about 4,000 vehicles to the north of the Highway 3 intersection and 5,000 to the south, according to a study by the Iowa Department of Transportation (IDOT).

But Faber said she didn't think the bypass negatively impacted the visitor center's summer draw.

"People told us they planned on coming or they saw the sign and pulled in," she said.

At Bob's Drive Inn, Kass said the bypass didn't seem to hurt their sales either.

"It seems like this corner is as busy or busier since the bypass was added," he said.

And he's partially right.

From the east and west, traffic at the Highway 3/Business 75 intersection actually increased.

From 2003 to 2007, the traffic count jumped by more than 1,000 vehicles on the stretch of Highway 3 running from the bypass into Le Mars. The average daily count went from 3,370 to 4,950. East of that intersection the count rose by several hundred, according to the IDOT.

Both Bob's and the ice cream spots didn't rely on people just chancing by.

At Bob's Drive Inn, Kass said they rely on 59 years of notoriety to keep people coming back.

"People who've moved away still make it a priority to stop here and eat," he said. "I just had a guy from California call me this week making sure we were still open. People plan their vacations around when we're open."

At the ice cream parlor, Susemihl agreed.

"After nine years of being open, people are familiar with us, and they do make it a stop," he said.

The ice cream parlor and visitor's center did some extra advertising this summer to bring people in despite high gas prices.

"We promoted 'staycations,'" said Wells' Dairy spokesperson Liz Croston. "We focused on the major newspapers within a 90-mile radius."

The ad encouraged families to have fun but stay closer to home by taking a road trip to Le Mars. A coupon for the visitor's center came with the ad.

"Based on coupons, we had a good response to that," Faber said.

Other travelers, like the woman from San Francisco, heard about the Ice Cream Capital of the World on a TV travel show and decided to stop.

And for some, the call of a fully-loaded Bob's dog or a double dip waffle cone keeps them coming back year after year.

Don Hibner, the Charles City man who had ice cream for breakfast Thursday, is one of those. He chose a vanilla cone instead of Wheaties or pancakes.

"It's hard to beat good vanilla ice cream," he said.