Road Trip Food|Pad Patter 7.31

[Iowan]

When we traveled on long trips with the kids back in the 1970s our standard snack was Cheetohs, HoHos, and pop, foods we never had at home. Last week, when we took the grandkids on a field trip, we looked for HoHos and the young clerk had never even heard of them. We ended up with Dingdongs. The kids were underwhelmed.

 

[Tree City]

I love Gummi Lifesavers on road trips. They're good, poppable, and don't melt. We also grab donut holes, which is nowhere near healthy, but hey, if I can entice the kids to behave with a donut hole, then I'm okay with it! We do bring veggies and some easy fruits--apples, usually--in the car.

The first few times we traveled from home to my parents--a 12.5 to 13 hour car trip done in one day--we stopped for lunch. But that makes the day even longer, esp. the time we arrived about 5 min after TWO coach buses filled with Boy Scouts arrived. We waited forever to order and then the food was even more crappy than I expected toll plaza food to be. Sigh. So now we pack PB sammies and drinks along with our typical cut carrots and (maybe) bananas. (I don't like having bananas in the car: while I love them, their smell seems to linger. I don't need to smell them for 12 hours, ykwim?) Dinner is usually snack-type food, but we try to make it semi-healthy to make up for the donut holes lol.

 

[littlekiwi]

@bestcee Buying from grocery stores is mainly done to save money but also I don’t really eat out a lot anyway.

 

[rdjrneace]

Boy I am a bad momma; when we traveled with our kids we brought chips, cookies, soft drinks (no healthy stuff for us - probably explains my weight now).

 

[bestcee]

Boy I am a bad momma; when we traveled with our kids we brought chips, cookies, soft drinks (no healthy stuff for us - probably explains my weight now).

Oh no feeling bad here!
No road trip is complete without chips for us! And I usually alternate between water and a soda.

 

[bestcee]

They're good, poppable, and don't melt.

Um....They can!

Don't ask how I know that.....

Vegas heat....

 

[tkradtke]

When we go to Michigan, we always stop once to eat. My son started out driving on our way home with the plan for my husband to take over after lunch.... lunch couldn't come soon enough! LOL!

Clara is vegan now, so that limits our choices for stopping... plus we have the dog with us so any stop has to be quick or something we can eat in the car.

Now, when we take true road trips with my parents vs. just long drives, picnics are a big thing and we'll travel with a cooler so we can pick up supplies at the grocery store.

Oh yeah, there were always tablecloths, napkins, real silver utensils.

Oh that takes me back!! When I was a kid, we went on these big road trips with relatives (usually my mom, her parents, her sister, my dad's mom and my cousin). I had many a rest stop meal with a tablecloth, napkins and real utensils on a concrete table! I was so over tuna salad sandwiches by the end of those trips! One year they even brought a little grill along so we could grill burgers at the rest stops!