Are We There Yet? I'm Hungry!!

Day 2 of our fourth trip to Oklahoma, 7/2

Waking up in Moriarty, we realized the time had moved up an hour….so our 6:00 AM is now 7:00AM….doesn’t seem to matter much, but it still puts us an hour behind. And knowing we will enter another state with a time change today, puts us two hours behind….but hey, we will get it back when we head home.

The breakfast buffet offered a nice variety of choices, so we thought we would try eating yogurt with fruit and nuts, instead of sausage, hash browns and eggs to see if we would get hungry sooner or later than usual. Which broaches an interesting subject. Anyone who has driven more than 400 miles (Approximately 8 hours at 55-65 miles an hour), must stop during their road trip to not only fill up gas, but to stretch legs, use the restroom facilities, and along with this, usually pick up a snack, something to drink or at the right time, have a full lunch.

Remembering how my parents handled eats and snacks in the 1960-70’s during a long road trip. And because availability to “Snack and Go” type eateries or fast food restaurants that serve burgers in a cardboard flip box with a bag of fries, were actually few and far between, Mom had several bags of food and a large green thermos of ice water. What do I remember her feeding us? Hard boiled eggs, grapes, bananas and sunflower seeds. Oh my gosh, she loved sunflower seeds, unshelled and shelled. I remember we would stop for gas, and go potty, but never would my parents buy food from a gas station. To their defence, back in the day, gas stations had gas, and auto repair garages, not quick snack shops. Most, if not all gas stations now, do not have a place to have your car repaired, but you can spend $50 on 2 bags of chips, some cookies, and extra large sodas.

It is so easy to stop for gas or a charge if you have an electric car, to step into the snack shop and grab something to eat on the road. Lunch usually happens at fast food restaurants, so the travelers can get back on the road as soon as possible. If staying at a hotel, often breakfast is offered for overnight guests, but more often, restaurants are inside of the hotel, and add to the cost of the night’s stay. When we first started traveling, that was our pattern: Stop for snacks during gas stops, fill up with snacks and drinks, and cruise through fast food, possibly tacos and burritos or cheese burgers and fries, depending on what was located close to the gas station.

Once we began traveling with our young children, which in itself is a brave undertaking of any parent, I reflected back to how my mom kept us fed on my road trips so long ago. Yes, we had conveniences peppered on the highway, but I mirrored my mom’s philosophy and filled up the ice chest with boiled eggs, fruits, vegetables, peanut butter, and bread. Drinks included lemonade, water and ice tea. As our children grew, we added crackers, power bars, pancakes and homemade cookies. Time passes quickly and now we travel without our children.

Now, as older adults, our diet is more sensitive, our body’s less forgiving, and mentally, driving can be more challenging. We must be aware of getting exercise more often, therefore we stop every two hours, instead of three. Being aware that we need to eat probiotics, prebiotics and postbiotics to keep our digestive system working properly. And hydration! Not to depend on only drinking sodas, coffee and lemonade, which are all diuretics, but drinking water to get proper hydration in and through the body to reduce common symptoms like constipation and fatigue. Of course, most people must balance staying hydrated, as opposed to stopping every hour to find relief from an extended bladder. And do your best to avoid fast food restaurants with three heavy meals a day!

If you are hitting the road, here are my top 5 foods to take with you, and your family.

1. Fruits. A variety is your best bet, bananas, apples, and grapes. And, if you like, prunes (you’ll thank me later for that suggestion. Just don't eat too many at once).

2. Firm Vegetables. Carrots, celery, broccoli, cauliflower. Finger vegetables that can be dipped easily into a (ranch) dressing or humus.

3. Nuts/seeds. Sunflower (shelled or unshelled), pistachios, walnuts. Easy finger foods, but be careful to not eat too many “salted” items.

4. Combination trail mix. This one is great because you can prepare it ahead of your trip, and custom make your mix. Peanuts, cashews, walnuts, dried raisins, cranberries or other dried fruit like apricots, pineapples. Add small candies like chocolate chips, or other candy coated chocolate candies, carob bits, peanut butter chips. Get creative!

5. Hard-boiled eggs. Simple, can be prepared ahead of time, hardy and a great source of protein.

Drinks: Water. Of course, that gets boring, so I dilute lemonade, or tea with ½ water. Carbonated water is good too.

Other honorable mentions: Peanut butter (for dipping or sandwiches), cheese sticks and yogurt, but be sure to have a cooler with you. We use a small portable refrigerator that plugs into the cigarette lighter, but have converted ours to a battery charger with solar panels.

Try to avoid: Deep fried foods & salty foods (chips), high caffeine drinks, sugary drinks. Watch “protein health bars” as sometimes they have just as much sugar as candy bars!

Other helpful tips: Take frequent breaks, no longer than 2-2:½ hours. Walk around stretching your legs, and whole body for that matter. Find picnic benches or patches of grass to have a picnic, as many gas stations have eating areas for people, (and dog parks too, if you're traveling with a pet).

While in the car (and not driving), I like to remove my shoes, and rub my feet, especially messaging the bottom of my feet to avoid thrombosis (pooling of blood) and calf area to help with blood circulation. Wearing compression socks is another way to help with blood circulation.

As you are driving for a couple of days, and the food and snacks begin to run out, it is easy to fall into stopping at fast food restaurants. We have picked up the habit of finding a local grocery store, and buying fresh supplies of fruit, nuts, yogurt, bread, sandwich meat and sliced cheese. Usually deli counters give away utensils and condiments, but we usually bring a squeeze bottle of mayonnaise and mustard because I am picky about my mayonnaise.

Using all these tips as I mentioned above, we continued to make our way to Oklahoma. It was a much longer day, but we stayed steadfast to our rule of switching drivers every two hours, stretching our bodies when we stopped for gas, walking around the store or outside of the gas station/stop, and eating snacks and lunch at picnic benches.

We finally made it through our longest day, and settled into our hotel at 8:30 PM (but our 6:30PM so it didn’t feel too late), but regardless, a very unusual occurrence for us to drive that long. By 11:30PM, the cat was settled, we were settled, and knocked out.