I’m in the midst of a cross-country adventure. After almost a decade in Utah, my family is moving to Pennsylvania. It promises to be an interesting experience all around. But right now, I’m more worried about actually getting to Pennsylvania, since it involves a cross-country trip. This isn’t a bad thing, but it does require planning.
For part of the trip, my son and I (my husband is already out there, starting his shiny new job) are doing some fun things. We went for a couple of hikes, and saw a few new things. That’s been fun. However, we are also on a timetable, so there is one day where we are making up for all the fun by doing some extra traveling.
In order to make things work for that day, I’ve got a cooler of food. That way, we don’t have to stop to eat. Instead, we can just get food from the cooler. I’ve packed it with healthy options like baby carrots, apples, oranges, cheese, and whole wheat bread. We should have plenty to allow us to remain fed without the need for long stops for food (or short stops for unhealthy fast food).
Not only is this option time-efficient, but it should also save us money. In fact, it already has. We didn’t buy food at all the first day, thanks to the cooler for the road. We also didn’t have to worry about where we were stopping, since everything we need is with us. This is a great help when you’re forging through roads with little to recommend them. In fact, it’s been a great help, since we can make sandwiches on the go and enjoy apples and other food. No need to stop, and no need to alter our plans in order to try to find food.
Keeping the food from spoiling
I do try to make sure that most of the food is of a kind that is easy to store and transport, and that won’t go bad easily. However, since it is a cooler and I am on a multi-day trip, I need to make sure the food doesn’t go bad. This isn’t too hard to do. All I need is to replenish the ice in the cooler at the hotels I stay at. It does a require a little work, since I have to empty the cooler and dump out the old ice/water, but it’s really not too hard, and it’s been fairly simple to take care of. We can get it all done in less than five minutes. And, of course, as we progress and there is less food (as we eat it), it takes less time to replenish the ice.
Even so, I still try to avoid particularly sensitive foods, since I don’t want to run into problems. So far, it’s worked quite well for us. We’ve been able to ensure we have what we need, and it’s been much less expensive and time-consuming to keep up with what we need.
What do you do when you bring food for a road trip?
