TREATS FROM BROTHERS' BOAT ARE COLD COMFORT ON LAKE |
| Their usual route takes them about 50 miles each day, ducking in and out of bays and coves. |
By Kathryn Orth
(This article was printed in at least 26 different news papers)
The Richmond Times-Dispatch
MONETA - You can hear the Ice Cream Float boat long before you can see it.
The tinkling strains of its music echo around the points and into the coves, sending children running for the docks, waving their arms for the boat to pull over and hand out ice cream sandwiches, Popsicles and nut-covered cones.
The children aren't the only ones eager for refreshment. Fishermen and boaters signal the Ice Cream Float, and dogs race along the bank of the lake, barking for the biscuits they know Travis and Ryan Burke keep on the boat for them.
It's the fourth summer of selling ice cream on the lake for Travis, 19, and his brother Ryan, 15, who started their business with a loan from their dad, Bill.
As summer jobs go, selling ice cream from a boat is interesting, but makes for a long, hard day, said Travis, a sophomore business major at Longwood University.
"It's fun. We get to choose our own hours and take a break when we want, usually when it rains," he said. "But you can't make a living selling ice cream from a pontoon boat."
The brothers work 10 or 12 hours most days, leaving their lakeshore home before noon and arriving back home for supper at 9 or 10 p.m.
Travis drives, Ryan steadies the boat alongside docks or other boats, and both, along with their father, hand out the ice cream.
After supper, they clean the boat and restock the ice-cream freezer on board, often finishing after midnight.
They work every Friday, Saturday and Sunday and most weekdays, trying to take off a day or two every week. Those days off are often spent driving into Roanoke to replenish the ice-cream supply in their four storage freezers, or doing maintenance on the boat's engine and the generator that powers the freezer while they are on the water.
A cloudy day can cut down on the Ice Cream Float's business, but there are regular customers the brothers hate to disappoint. The boys know every house and dock from Indian Point Marina, near mile marker R37, to Smith Mountain Lake State Park, 20 miles away. Their usual route takes them about 50 miles each day, ducking in and out of bays and coves, selling frozen treats midlake to other boaters, always looking for the waving arms that mean somebody wants ice cream.
Occasionally they miss the wave. They often hear about it later.
"That is so sad," Travis said. "We'll run into somebody and they'll tell us we missed their grandkid, and we feel just terrible."
The Ice Cream Float's signature tune is "Music Box Dancer," which plays over the boat's speaker system hundreds of times each day.
"It's the only one that really sounds like it's an ice-cream truck coming," Travis said. If a child is celebrating a birthday, the brothers play "Happy Birthday" as well.
Dogs hear the music before people do and run to the docks, the brothers said. They give out 5 pounds or more of dog biscuits a week to their canine regulars.
But the best thing about the job "is when a little kid's eyes light up," Travis said.
The Ice Cream Float's season runs from June until Travis has to return to college in late August, but he returns home to work on the weekends until October.
"It's hard work, but when it's over, I miss it. I hardly know what to do with a weekend" in the winter, Travis said.
Ryan, who will enter 10th grade in the fall, looks forward to running the business when Travis graduates to a regular job after college.
Information from: Richmond Times-Dispatch