On a sunny afternoon in south Bismarck, some lucky park-goers may hear the sweet chime of an ice cream bell.

Around the corner comes Vince Barnes, wearing a bright yellow shirt, huffing and pushing and getting his workout in on his bright blue, four-wheel bike with its blue and white striped canopy, pulling a large ice cream cooler full of treats and balloons waiting to be twisted into animals.

Talk about pedaling your wares.

Barnes, who works as a psychologist for the state, said he'd been looking for a way to get motivated about working out. And he'd been wanting to do a part-time, fun family business for years. He started Happy Face Ice Cream, an ice-cream bike business.

"It came down to, 'Boy I wish I could exercise more,'" he said.

A trip to Disney World inspired him, where they have four-wheeled bicycles with benches. His bike - a close cousin to the Disney World bikes - can hold about three people, has two spots for pedaling and a front basket that his youngest, Parker, fits into perfectly.

Barnes found both the bike and the ice cream cart on eBay. He had the two welded together and he was in business - just add ice cream.

Well, almost. He had to figure out if the workout would work out, so to speak.

Like any bike, it's as simple as pushing two pedals and moving forward. But attach a large cooler on the back, a steering wheel, possibly three small children, and it gets a little challenging. It doesn't speed up as quickly as a bike with gears, so when he crosses major streets, such as Bismarck Expressway, he has to get off and hoof it from behind.

On his first day out, he rode around parks near Wachter Wave Pool, then headed over to Sertoma. He tends to say in the parks south of town, he said.

He was beat by the end of day one, but encouraged.

"We're pulling into a street towards home, and two teenaged boys stopped me. I was looking pretty rough at that point. Finally got home, and two kids pulled up on their bikes right behind me,"he said.

The response was great, is the point.

"It really was a good day,"he said. "It kept me motivated to think this is kind of going to be a fun deal."

The cooler is commercial grade, and he has a permit for it. He makes sure he doesn't sell around other concession stands that have contracts with the city.

His product:ice cream treats purchased at Sam's Club. He sells them for $1, and everyone gets a free balloon-animal with it.

"Iused to be a magician before Ibecame a psychologist,"he said, adding that one day, he'd like to put on magic shows in the park alongside selling ice cream.

His goal is to simply enjoy himself and the time with his family, and save enough money to go on some kind of family vacation.

And of course, to get buff by the end of the summer.

He jokes that either he'll get huge by eating all of the ice cream he doesn't sell, or by building up muscles by trekking through the bike trails every weekend.

"My legs are going to be huge,"he said.

The unseasonably cool weather kept him inside for the first couple of weekends this spring, but warmer weather may bring the pedaling peddler out to a park near you.