It's easy to forget how much of a challenge a road trip can present. I got an opportunity recently to visit family in Georgia, and I got smart this time. I was prepared – or so I thought. My copy of the Triumph Dining Guide tucked securely in my carry-on, a loaf of gluten-free bread from Eva Ruth's Bakery, a bag of Sam Mills corn pasta and I was good to go. Right. On the plane, I had a GF pumpkin muffin from Eva Ruth's, and a cup of hot tea for breakfast. (Note to self: flying out at the butt crack of dawn...not a good idea.)
I went wheels down in Jacksonville a little after 10 in the morning, and my older sister and her husband were there to greet me. We decided to stop for lunch in Jacksonville, and I dragged out my dining guide. We decided on Tommy's Brick Oven Pizza, and I had a great GF cheese pizza, topped with sliced tomatoes and basil. When I approached the desk to order, I questioned them about the preparation of the pizza. I was told that the owner has celiac disease, and that they bake the pizza on parchment paper to avoid contamination. Once I hear that the owner has celiac disease, I feel more secure about their preparation and ability to avoid cross-contamination. After lunch, we headed to her hometown, Brunswick, GA.
Later that day, my sister got creative, and lined a frying pan with foil to make peppers and onions to put on turkey burgers. She was delighted to see that her frozen Jenny-O turkey burgers were GF. I'd never had one before, but they were good. She lined a roasting pan with foil and threw them in the oven. Some fresh green beans and a bag of steamed red bliss potatoes from the freezer, and we had ourselves a meal.
Making breakfast with my GF bread – sans toaster – required more creativity. We lined the roaster pan with foil, turned the oven on to broil (low), and made toast. She had an unopened jar of grape jelly that I commandeered, and I had breakfast covered.
We tried out a few more places to eat out while I was in town. Fox's Pizza made a great GF salad. It had spinach, olives, tomatoes, cucumbers, bacon and grilled chicken. It was so tasty, I didn't even need to use any dressing. They have GF pizza on their menu as well.
My sister's son is the kitchen manager at Brogen's, a restaurant on St. Simon's Island. He wasn't working when we arrived at the restaurant, but we decided to give it a shot at getting GF food anyway. I decided on the Philly steak and cheese with onions. When the waiter delivered my plate, it looked...lacking. The food looked great, but there wasn't a lot of it on the plate, since there was no bun and no fries. Without even asking him, he brought out a bag of chips and asked me if I wanted to read the ingredients and see if I could eat them...which, Thank you, Jesus!...I could. This is the kind of person you want to get as a server in a restaurant – someone who doesn't act as if you are his own personal curse, someone willing to learn and who is proactive. Of course, the meal was followed by a phone call, telling me that my elderly father who was back East just went into the hospital. Nothing ends a nice dinner better than the sheer terror of knowing that you are over a thousand miles away when your father, who is alone up North except for you, goes into the E.R. But that's another story.
The rest of the visit to Georgia was filled with family and fun. I tried to plan around my "limitations" and find places where I could safely eat, and my family learned how to compensate. My adorable little nephew Zachary was quite protective of me, asking if I could safely eat certain things...and he's only in grade school. Some woman's going to be very blessed to get him as a husband some day. We also went to hear a few bands on the weekend, and I had a blast with my sisters and my brother-in-law. Speaking of my brother-in-law, he's my new hero. He worked several extra jobs on the weekends to earn the money to pay for a ticket for me to visit, since I had been unemployed until a few weeks ago. We were talking in a restaurant one evening, and I said that it's going to be hard on anyone who asks me to dinner or the movies and such once my divorce is final and I start a new life. He said that if it seems like a big deal the first time you go out with them, then just put a mental check in to "NO" column next to their name, that if they can't accept and adapt to your needs and be supportive and protective, then you don't need them. He is one smart cookie. So here's a great big Thank You to Billy Gibson and my sister Gayle, for financing my trip, and to my family for making my vacation a great and safe experience.
Anyway, my flight back was another ordeal, since there was a hurricane in the South that weekend (I swear, the crappy weather followed me). My 7:40 p.m. flight turned into a 10:45 flight, and my connecting flight – originally scheduled for 9:45 – turned into a 11:50 flight. I would have slept on the flight, except that the turbulence from the storm kept jogging me awake. Oh, and it didn't help that my carry-on bag tossed over when the plane hit an air pocket and bumped, and my pieces of my gluten-free pasta came out of the bag and rolled very merrily around the floor towards the back of the plane. Yup, I couldn't make this stuff up. Luckily, the people three rows behind me found my glasses case, which had also taken a trip with the pasta, and returned them. I'm blind without them! So by the time I went wheels down in R.I., it was after one in the a.m. Thank God my boss (whom I texted to let her know that I was coming in later than planned) said that it was okay to come in late and work later that day.
But what I want to stress from this story is this: be as prepared as you can when you travel. Bring some food in your carry-on luggage – not just snacks, but dried pasta and bread and things you can prepare at your hosts' home. Be informative and proactive: if people don't understand your dietary restrictions and disease, educate them. Don't be timid. Ask to speak with the manager in a restaurant if it becomes clear that your server has no idea what you are talking about. Educate the server and manager. You are not only protecting yourself, but also the next celiac who walks through that door. And if you have a copy of the Triumph dining guide, bring it with you. I cannot tell you how many times I used it! If you don't have one, get one! You may know your local area, but there will be times when you don't have the luxury of looking up the information for another state beforehand.
Be prepared, and travel safe!
