Today I was going to give you a travel tip, but it’s turned into tales from the road. Perhaps it’s because I’m too road weary to focus. In the past month, I’ve driven more than 6000 miles and visited every time zone in the US. In fact, I’m still on the road due to storms along my route. The unintentional extension of my trip means I have few clean clothes left. In fact, I’ve decided to wear swimsuit bottoms instead of pants today.
Okay, okay. Don’t worry. These particular swim capris come from Coolibar and look like this:
See, they’re cute, comfortable, and provide plenty of coverage for a road trip.
Some of you may still be asking why I didn’t just wash my clothes? It’s a valid question given that many hotels now offer do-it-yourself guest laundry rooms. In fact, there’s one right down the hall in the Homewood Suites where I’m staying. I’ve also seen them in Holiday Inn Express, Hampton Inn & Suites, and Springhill Suites in various cities.
Not only that, there’s a Wal-Mart two blocks away that sells travel size liquid Tide for 97¢. I could use a portion of it to hand wash in the sink even if there were no laundry room here. But here’s the thing…I’m tired. One of my driving days this week covered 12 hours and two time zones. Losing two hours added to my fatigue.
I suppose this is the point at which I could say it’s also been difficult to stick to a gluten-free regimen, what with all the planning and extra driving required to search out food I can eat. Fortunately, this hasn’t been the case. I’ve enjoyed some incredible food bookended on the east with a bowl from Crafted in Greensboro, North Carolina and on the west with a gyro plate from Greek House Café in Simi Valley, California. Both were delicious! In between I had a scrumptious California burger at the tiny Coyote Bluff in Amarillo and amazing Brussels sprouts at Limones in Asheville, North Carolina.
Last night I wanted to eat in my room and nod off early. A 15 minute stop at the ubiquitous Wal-Mart provided this dinner of microwaveable GF chicken strips, carrots & broccoli with Ranch dip, fresh blueberries, and tortilla chips with guacamole.
I cooked the whole bag of chicken strips and threw the extras in my ice chest for lunch on the road tomorrow. I also grabbed some prepackaged combos of fruit, nuts, cheese, and vegetables from the produce section. These make great road snacks.
Even in a rural Oklahoma gas station near where Troy Aikman attended high school, I found portable protein packs filled with different combinations of meat, cheese, and nuts. With all the healthy snack options now packaged in convenient trays showing up here there and everywhere, I can’t really say the trip back required any planning at all – well, no food availability planning anyway.
Storm avoidance planning, on the other hand, has been critical. After I got caught in the snow with sandals on my feet, I started to pay attention to the weather radar and made sure to stay well behind the storms. I hear that back home, my office building has flooded. And so I’ll return healthy, happy, and tired to a project needing immediate attention. And while that may not be my first choice of activities upon returning home, I’ll have the energy to tackle the problem. That’s one of the benefits of sticking to my regimen even when I’m on the road.
http://homewoodsuites3.hilton.com/en/index.html
http://hamptoninn3.hilton.com/en/index.html
http://craftedtheartofthetaco.com/
http://www.greekhousecafe.com/
http://www.limonesrestaurant.com/
http://www.proteinproteinprotein.com/
Disclosure of Material Connection: I have not received any compensation for writing this post. I have no material connection to the brands, products, or services that I have mentioned. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255: “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”
