Our journey from NY to CA

Yes, indeedy. We did it and the funny thing is that we didn’t even try to avoid a chain restaurant. The only time we purposely went into a chain restaurant was to use the bathroom. I have to say McDonald’s generally have the cleanest restrooms across the country.

In 2008, we traveled from NY to CA, the long way as it took a month and a half and traveled  7,000 miles. So how does a family of three travel cross the country, eat well, and not pay a fortune for food while sidestepping all chain restaurants? First, some planning is necessary as well as intermittent access to the internet.  When we go on road trips, we travel with a cooler packed with staple foods, and generally stay at a place that we can enjoy some aspect of breakfast and eat lunch, snacks while traveling. Dinner is typically the only meal we eat out daily.

What’s in the cooler?

• Orange juice – for breakfast as most places provide reconstituted OJ – yuck!
• Milk – for coffee and cereal
• Cider
• Peanut butter and jam
• Cheese – for snacking and sandwiches
• Fruit – apples, oranges, grapes, and bananas travel well
• Yogurt
• Salsa
• Hummus
• Carrots
• Maple syrup – for pancakes, waffles – we rarely find real maple syrup at a hotel’s breakfast area

Other food

• Bread
• Crackers
• Cereal
• Dried fruit
• Oatmeal
• Pretzels, tortilla chips
• Lots of water

Before we left, Mike was addicted to Anthony Bourdain’s “No Reservations,” TV show that happened to have been exploring the south’s amazing BBQ joints. Each location was immediately put on our must visit list. About the same time we also found out about a great website, Roadfood.com. It focuses on the best regional specialties, inexpensive, non-franchised food made by America’s culinary folk artists. We found amazing BBQ, in the middle of nowhere packed with customers who were in the “know.” Since we spent most of our trip traveling through the south; it only made sense to search for the best BBQ. And boy did we find it. It was also great that Mathew loved pulled pork so there were no complaints from him.

When we traveled through an area that had no suggestions from Roadfood.com, we used Yelp.com. It is a very helpful site, which gives you a good sense of what restaurant to visit and which ones to stay away from. Recently, I heard that some reviews have become suspect, so beware.

Along the way, we also visited friends and family who fed us as well as make suggestions of where we should eat next. So that is how our family traveled from NY to CA without visiting a chain restaurant, easy peasy. What does your family do on a road trip to eat inexpensively?