DF18: On The Road, Day 2

Well, here I am, getting ready for all my meetings today. My first hurdle foodwise will be breakfast here at the motel. Here are a couple of photos so you can feel the ambience.


Beautiful, no? (No?)

These places try, they really do try, to have a nice variety of things on hand. They do a pretty good job considering breakfast is "free." If you were a vegan, you'd starve plumb to death, though. EVERYTHING has dairy or egg, except the bacon. Which a vegan would not be eating anyway.

Here we have the yogurt selection for the "health conscious."


An assortment of cereral: oooh! Froot Loops!! My favorite! However, people would look at me weird if I just had a bowl of dry Froot Loops. That wouldn't keep me going for long, anyway.


And of course, pastries, for the continental breakfast fans. Sadly, it was evident all of these came out of a box. And undoubtedly contain dairy.


It's just as well. I always feel ill after eating nothing but pastry for breakfast. My body demands the perfect balance of carbs, protein, and fat.

And how about them eggs? Who could resist them?

The sight of these on an empty stomach was almost enough to send me running from the room.

As you can see from these photos, pretty much everything has dairy in it. I did the best I could. I ended up with eggs, an English muffin with peanut butter, and some juice.


These egg disks were definitely weird, both in texture and flavor. I hoped they didn't have MUCH dairy in them.

And my English muffin, with the peanut butter on it. Such an appetizing color... Oh, I learned a new skill. How to use the industrial size toaster that sucks the food in at the top and shoots it out the bottom. I had to ask someone how to use it... I really can't eat an untoasted English muffin.


Normally, I don't have juice at breakfast, but of course there was no decent tea and coffee gives me migraines. The juice choice were orange or grape. Grape juice is practically like mainlining pure sugar. The water cooler was empty, so orange juice it was. I never know on these site visits when I'll get a chance to have lunch and what my options may be, so I try to eat a good-size breakfast with plenty of protein so I don't get shaky, or worse, start acting strange because of low blood sugar.

For lunch, the Tech Services manager was kind enough to drive me to Burt's, a local 50's themed diner and one of the few non-fast food restaurants in the tiny little town where the host site is located. I ended up with chili and a salad, and forgot to bring my camera. I really liked the vibe at Burt's-- they had great, fun music! (Yackety Yack-- don't talk back!)

Dinner ended up being a trip to Outback Steakhouse. I couldn't get into much trouble there with a hunk of meat and a salad! I was even able to get a sweet potato (low glycemic value) rather than a regular potato (high glycemic value). As they didn't see fit to give me any bread, I didn't have to concern myself with whether or not it contained dairy.

I consulted my contact at the host site, Susan, the Tech Services manager, about restaurant options in Waldorf. She confirmed the awful truth-- nothing but chain restaurants. After cruising up and down the main drag and rejecting such choices as Denny's, Chuck E Cheese, Rally's and Chili's, I think it will be back to the Olive Garden tomorrow night.