The most bittersweet time of my life has arrived! Tomorrow, our family will be driving my older son to upstate New York so that he may begin his freshman year of college. After several weeks of preparing for this enormous event, we are finally packed and ready to go. As I watched my husband shed a few tears tonight over our dinner at the local diner (I ate a Mediterranean salad with hummus, white beans, cucumbers and whole wheat pita bread), I started thinking about how I was going to prepare (vegan-wise) for my upcoming road trip. Please don’t think I’m heartless. Although I did not shed any tears tonight, I cried in little spurts throughout the past year and now I’m over it!
Anyway, this is how I prepared for our road trip…
1. I went on the computer and searched Happy Cow to see if there are any vegan, vegetarian or veg-friendly restaurants at our destination city. It turns out that there seem to be a couple of decent options. If Happy Cow revealed nothing, I would have done a further Google search. FYI, Happy Cow is a great website to find vegan, vegetarian and veg-friendly restaurants just about everywhere. I found great vegan eateries all over the country using Happy Cow, including Nashville, Tennessee. If my Google search would have revealed nothing, then I would have winged it; but I know that vegan options always turn up, as you may remember from reading my post about my recent trip to Southern Vermont.
2. I prepared a batch of Alicia Silverstone’s Rice Crispy Treats and put them in a storage container for travelling. They would make a great snack, breakfast or emergency meal if I am stuck and can’t find anything else to eat.
3. I packed some of my other favorite snacks: organic dried figs, pistachios, organic chocolate dipped dried mangos, dried fruit wraps, Lucy’s Chocolate Chip Cookies and Larabars (my favorites are anything coconut and the cashew cookie flavor).
4. I packed some of my favorite tea bags including Organic Kukicha Tea and Tazo’s Organic Chai Tea.
5. I will also bring along my collapsible “Tuffy Tea Steeper” from The Tea Spot and a small tin of my favorite loose leaf tea. If you are interested in my top loose leaf tea picks, read my blog post “The Tea Spot’s ‘Steep And Chill’ And My Top Loose Leaf Tea Picks.”
See how the Tuffy Tea Steeper collapses?
This last photo was not a great one; but you can still see how the tea steeper collapses. Right?
On the road, I would stay on the lookout for a Chipotle or even a Subway where there are vegan options. I could also usually find something to snack on at a 7 Eleven type market, such as pretzels or sunflower seeds.
As you can see, it takes a little extra planning when you are travelling as a vegan, but it’s really not that hard. I always try to keep things as simple as possible and things always seem to work out for me when I travel. Anyway, gotta’ go and get a good night’s sleep for the big college trip. Hope you enjoyed this little post!
