Our Challenge

The children and I haven't made a cross-country trek for several years.

Things were different then.

Fast food drive-thru is a very inexpensive way to feed a bunch of kids on a trip. Not to mention the speed factor.

On this trip the kids and I decided to eat locally the entire drive.

That seems so basic! Everybody used to eat that way. But as I boiled eggs yesterday, itching to get out the door, and popped popcorn, and filled mason jars with water, and fetched a cutting board, and scooped mayo and loaded homemade bread and smoked trout (Thanks, Jimbo!), I wondered if it would be a whole lot easier to buy off the dollar menu.

But earlier the kids and I discussed the impact of our food choices. How it would be better for the economy to spend our food dollars in one local restaurant along the way and eat home-grown food the rest of the way. We spoke about how healthy we would feel, feeding our engines with good food instead of junk. And as I loaded up mayo and seedy loaf and trout and locally grown apples and homemade brownies and cake and cookies, I wondered about how our meals along the way would taste so good! And would take more time, insuring we stop and picnic, stretching our legs, looking at regional scenery.

So far, so good. We also made sure to agree to enjoy food prepared or bought for us by friends and family, local or not. Don't want to be legalistic snobs if family wants to buy pizza for us. The kids were pretty darn pleased to see the boxes of pizza Uncle Mike bought to share with us. I was pleased to see that it was from a local pizzeria and not a chain. But we would have been just as happy to eat it if it were from Pizza Hut! Now we are going to eat some nice hot breakfast. Will let you know how our challenge goes as we travel the next 12 days.

One audio book down, several to go. Today, The Chronicles of Narnia.