Donny & I are going to test our marriage over the next week or so and drive together all the way to Naples, FL. Yes, just the two of us confined to a Chevy Malibu for a couple thousand miles. Yikes.
I personally think we will be fine, but ya just never know! We are going to stay with my cousin, his wife, and their beautiful almost-two-year-old daughter tomorrow night. Then Saturday we are going to head in the general direction of Augusta, Georgia. We are not 100% sure where we will stay Saturday night, but we were thinking Little Rock, Arkansas. I guess it depends what we want to do Saturday morning….we may want to hang out with the Robinson’s for a bit!
We are planning to be to Augusta by Sunday so we can meet up with Paul, a work-friend of Donny’s. I met Paul back in early 2013 when we visited him in Myrtle Beach. He is quite the host – he allowed 8 adults and a baby come take over his apartment for four days! It didn’t even seem to phase him.
We will stay one night with Paul and his wife, then head to Savannah, Georgia for two nights. I am so stoked for Savannah! I have wanted to go there since we went to Charleston in 2012. We are planning to go on at least one, if not two ghost tours. We went on two ghost tours in Charleston, which is apparently the 2nd most haunted city in the nation…..Savannah being the MOST haunted city. I can’t wait! We don’t have a ton planned but eating, drinking, and ghost tours.
If you haven’t caught on yet, we aren’t the “vacation planning” type. We are more go-with-the-flow type of travelers. I like to plan most things in life but when it comes to traveling, Donny & I do really well just wingin’ it. We love eating at cool restaurants and love walking around just seeing the city. Other than that, we are open to suggestions and take things as they come.
Again, we will stay two nights in Savannah and then we’ll get up and head to our final destination: Naples, Florida! One of my best friends lives in Naples so we are going to stay with her (Kelsey), her husband Brandon, and their wonderful cats and dogs. I’m not a huge cat fan, but I do happen to like Kelsey’s cats, and of course I love dogs!
Kelsey was my roommate in the dorms at CSU. I feel like people always tell their horror stories of dorm-roommates and how they hated each other. We were completely different. We became friends very quickly and have kept in touch ever since. In fact, I was in their wedding and she was in ours! In fact, we haven’t seen each other since our wedding, which was almost two years ago. That is much too long.
We are renting a car to drive down there (the Chevy Malibu I mentioned early, unless Donny can get us upgraded to a Toyota Sienna). We are driving down there but then flying home. A one-way road trip is perfectly fine with me!
One thing I find difficult about traveling is snacking/eating. I tend to eat smaller meals/snacks on a day-to-day basis but that doesn’t happen when we are traveling. I decided I would pack a ton of food for the road trip and to have throughout the days when we are sightseeing and being tourists.
I tend to get hangry when I do not eat frequently. Yes, hunger that leads to anger. I get grouchy when I get low blood sugar, so I always pack snacks. I decided to round up some mostly-clean-eating snacks to take along for the road. Some of these will be better for the car ride and others will be perfect to throw in my purse for when we are walking around one of the cities or something.
Travel snack ideas:
- Fresh Fruit: I am bringing apples and bananas but you could bring grapes, oranges, berries, etc depending on what you prefer.
- Popcorn: I made some plain popcorn at home using sprouted popcorn kernels (To Your Health Sprouted Popcorn) and coconut oil. I also packed some NatureBox Sea Salt Pop Pops (they are basically corn that has been half-popped so it is crunchier and delicious). I had that in the pantry so I threw it in!
- Trail mix: You can buy pre-made trail mix or make your own. I threw some together myself with items I already had including: raw almonds, unsweetened toasted coconut chips, and dried cherries (also from NatureBox).
- Chia Seed: I had some individual packages of Salba chia seed but you could bring a ziploc bag of chia and portion it as you go.
- Nut butters: I picked up a few Justin’s Almond Butter individual packets and then I had a Chocolate-Almond one already at home. These are perfect for portion control and great for traveling!
- Health Warrior Chia Bars: I like these chia bars because they are only 100 calories, taste great, and help fill me up because of all the chia. I almost always have one of these in my purse in case I get hungry while on the go.
- Protein powder: I put one scoop of protein powder in each Ziploc snack bag and then brought my shaker bottle along. I brought some whey concentrate protein and then also a couple whey isolate protein. You could bring whatever you had.
- Quest bars (not pictured): I didn’t have any at home but plan to pick some up before we take off, but I love having Quest bars around. They are a great snack when you are busy and they have some great flavors. One thing I found out recently was that they are way better warmed up! My favorite flavor is the Lemon, but I also like the Oreo and the Raspberry Cheesecake.
- Drink Mix-ins: I just recently tried this True Citrus brand of drink mix-in. I don’t use these a lot, but sometimes I just don’t want plain water (and carrying lemons cross country is not something I’m interested in doing). I like the black cherry limeade flavor, but it does have 1g of sugar.
I obviously want to pack snacks for the trip so that I have something healthy to eat while driving/riding but I also do this because I am a cheap a**. Convenience store prices are so much more than grocery store or homemade prices. You are paying for the convenience of getting the snacks just off the highway, not trying to price compare. We will most likely buy a few things here and there from gas stations, etc but hopefully we can keep that to a minimum with the amount of food I packed!
I also tend to wake up and get hungry almost immediately. If I do not have some type of food or coffee then I get hangry (see above). It is in my best interest, as well as fellow travelers interests that I have some type of snack just in case I wake up ravenous! You’re welcome Donny.
I do plan to workout a least a few times on the trip. In Savannah we are staying at a Hyatt on the riverfront and they have a hotel gym. I also have several workouts in my back pocket that I might use. I might get crazy and do the “500” in my hotel room or bust out a Tabata-style workout. Who knows!
If you are on Instagram make sure you follow me @eatliftplayrepeat –I will be sure to post pictures on there along the way! I also have my digital camera packed so that I take lots of pictures!
What are your favorite snacks for traveling?
