Just returned from a much-anticipated trip to the Smokies in Tennessee, and had to whine a bit about trying to eat out. It was really hard to find something good and gf. I guess I've become spoiled by all the options we have in the city
First of all,we were in the vicinity of Gatlinburg most of the time. There are no big chains that have many gf offerings except Outback and McD's. That was fine as long as we were close to town, but most of the time we were in transit viewing the scenery; also went to the Biltmorein N. Carolina. Several times the only thing on the menu that I could eat was a plain salad. Places full of tourists are unlikely to be careful and it felt very risky.
Another thing was that it seemed that there was a lack of helathy food
in general -lots of gravy, biscuits, pancakes,etc.
OK - that's my whine for the day and thanks for listening. The mountains were gorgeous and I want to go again, but will have to rethink where we stay in relation to food or get a kitchen and cook!
It's interesting that you would bring this up now, as a friend and I have just begun discussing the possibility of traveling in the Smokies when it becomes possible for us to travel that far again. I hear that those are some beautiful mountains.
Do you think that there might be some individually owned, nice cabins with full kitchens in sort of out-of-the-way places where you could see the scenary all the time instead of just drive by it? We stayed in a wonderful place like that in the north Ga. mts a while back, and it really worked out well. However, on this trip, there was a Whole Foods not far south on the north side of Atlanta, so we easily filled up a cooler with ice and food to cook once there, with side trips in between, and evening meal it was dark anyway.
By the way, did you happen to see any Wendy's in that part of the country? When we went to Dallas a few weekends ago, the three of us got three side salads, and one cup of chili (without cheese) to put on it, and a plain baked potato each. (Apparently, at least at this location, they don't have the chili potatoes like they used to have, so couldn't just get that.) There was plenty of chili to use both as a salad dressing and as a potato topper, just to add a little flavor.
Another thing that really helped was to carry along lots of Larbars. Those things really are satifying and filling, aren't they?
Whenever it was time for a potty break, we'd usually be just be able to get a coke at McD's, so we'd have a few slices of Applegate Farms brand smoked turkey breast slices, some safe brand of chips we'd carried along, and if still hungry, we'd have a Larsbar, or save it til the next stop (By the way, I can no longer get the fries at McD's due to that stuff they cook em in due to the fact that I think they use something containing dairy to cook their fries. I'm not sure whether or not they lose the dairy in processing before it's served or not. Gluten is supposedly processed out of that product before you eat it.)
Almost too sleepy to make sense now, so will close.
Thanks for your reply and for reading my whine. I'm usually pretty happy to find just about anything that I can eat when travelling. For some reason this time it just got to me.
I hope you and your friend get to the Smokies. They are worth the trouble. I would have much preferred to stay in a cabin in the mountains, but a friend recommended a place in Gatlinburg as headquarters, so we stayed there. We're sorry now . There was nothing in .Gatlinburg to interest us. Live and learn.
I did take snacks from home with me and thought that I could supplement with a trip to the grocery store down there, but my husband wanted to eat out a few times. Can't blame him. We had only a microwave in the hotel.
I'll bet you could find a nice cabin on-line. Let me know if you decide to go. I didn't see any Wendy's, just McD's.
How's your mom doing? I haven't been keeping up much lately on the board.
Nice to see you here.
I'm beginning to think that Mom might actually have Lewy Body Disease now, despite her beginning downward gaze problem which would make us tend to think more in terms of Progressive Supranuclear Palsy. What I've discovered is that the orthostatic hypotension with resultant syncopal episodes can occur in some of these things other than just the Multiple Systems Atrophy. I really need to find a local support group for Lewy Body disease, so hope that I don't have to just get lumped in with the other AD group as they are way too big to be effective around here. If I can't find such a group, the PSP group meets close to here on a Saturday, and their leader has already been quite helpful via e-mail.
I'd better get off here as I've already lost one message by falling asleep on the keyboard! Ha!
Hooe to be able to keep in closer touch, Alice.
Yours, Luce
I can sure relate! There is not much more than a salad or eggs cooked in olive oil that I can eat out. And, of course, it's much scarier being away from home and worrying that the MC might kick up. It sounds as if you managed to pick your way thru those old minefields, though. Good for you! You are quite the seasoned veteran now.
Luce, good luck finding a support group.
Love,
Polly
Blessed are they who can laugh at themselves, for they shall never cease to be amused.
We are taking a 10-day road trip this summer with another family. We will be heading out to Jackson Hole, WY and West Yellowstone, MT via Salt Lake City. Eating out is a hassle at best (and isn't it the worst when you see an awesome menu and all you can have is a dry salad ). We are also trying to make this affordable, as we have 3 kids and they have 2 - eating out adds up! We have chosen accomodations with kitchenettes and in Jackson we are staying in cabins each set up with barbecues on the deck! So we will mostly be cooking in - which will just be simpler in many ways. Plus the husband in this family is Lactose-intolerant, so this is my one friend who really "gets" my food issues and she always calls me to ask about particular things when they have us over...so I won't get much of a *vacation* from cooking, but not having to worry. either has its own merits....Plus we are staying in better places than we usually would with more amenities (2 room suites, swimming pools etc...) which is a better use of $ than on eating out
I ate out a lot last weekend when I went to visit a girlfriend - it's not that great. We gave it up, for the most part to help our family budget, but I realized the quality of food wasn't that great, and the portion sizes were so wasteful - I felt bad not finishing...
Alice- my guess is the south would be a landmine for GFers - they seem to eat differently down there. I vote for you to get a kitchen next time!!
Mary, you're right, I suppose. The south can be a landmine for GFers, since, as Alice pointed out, things like biscuits and gravy are pretty popular, even for breakfast.
We do have some options that are not as common further north, though, such as barbeque, (which is usually safe), and here in Tejas, and especially New Mexico, much of the Texmex food is ok, as long as you watch out for flour tortillas, and aren't dairy intolerant.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
You forgot to warn 'em about the HEAT in the New Mexico Mexican food. Mind you, I'm a southwesterner all the way, and like my chili-fortified Tex-Mex, but that stuff over in New Mexico will be the last meal your esophagus will ever experience! Trust me!
I've not eaten deep fried foods (except on vacation) in longer than I can remember, and not because of the gluten issues, it's just that they are not really all that popular here.
However, I wouldn't trust myself in that famous Walnut whatchamacallit restaurant in Vicksburg when the fried chicken went around family style on the lazy Susan thing.
The fried chicken in the buffet at a big hotel across from the big visitors center in Natchez was just about as good, and so was everything else. Afraid Polly's grilled cheese sandwich would be second to this on my wish list. Those folks are amazing cooks in that state! If I didn't have all these food sensitivities to keep me honest, I'd have to bypass that place to keep from gaining an extra hundred pounds! No offense to my native state.
Mary, please make a post of any websites for those places you find that would be suitable.
I'm sure that lots of visitors to this site will need to have information like that at their fingertips for traveling. Also, if there are or aren't grocery stores and/or health food stores that would carry special foods, as well as oganic produce, etc., it would be nice to know how accessible and how far they are from these locations, as well as the usual amenities of the area in proximity of the lodging.
Perhaps we need a special room just for travel information on this site?? I could probably get a web address for that place in the north Ga. mts, for example. Closest WFs-affiliated store, Harry's Market was about an hour or so south of those mts in Alpharetta or Roswell, anyway, just north of Atlanta. Not sure if they'll eventually change the name of this place to Whole Foods or not. It was newly taken over by WFs when I visited that area.
Anyway, I'll just bet there are individually owned places just like that all over the country, and with the geographic spread of our members, we could provide some pretty comprehensive information here.
Mary, sometimes big, nice hotels have chefs in them who would be willing to work with you on things, particularly if they know you're coming ahead of time. The cost of a room might not be all that much if they let the kids stay for free, and the amenities in the hotel are part of the package.
Something like this in slightly off-season might be a good alternative on a shorter trip, particularly if the scenary is good, and it's located right in the middle of the things you plan to do in a place, so that you can easily walk to things from the hotel.
It's nice to get a little vacation from cooking once in a while, and have it actually taste gourmet even.
Since you'd have access to an ice machine at a hotel (maybe you could take along some of that smoked sliced turkey meat and fruit, etc., and have a light lunch, and gf cereal in the room each morning, and then really pig out in the dinning room in the evenings. We had lots of Larbars on our recent trip, and due to the nuts in these, we didn't have the dips in blood sugar in a couple of hours that we'd have had eating, say, a gf rice bar.
We took along a little Igloo type cooler for the Applegate smoked turkey breast slices.
We also took along some gf chips. We'd stop every now and then for a Coke at McD's, and sit outside and have our little meals, and be quite satisfied. May have left out something. Will let you know if I think of it later.
And...the first meal after we left home was a small dinner salad without crotons or cheese at a Wendy's, over which we poured part of one communal cup of chili minus cheese, of course, the remainder of which we poured over our potatoes. It was really quite good, and we didn't have to worry about things like dairy used to prepare their fries like McD's does. By the way, I even asked them specifically NOT to even CUT the potatoes. Figure that's a good way to prevent contamination by a knife. It's a bit difficult to cut through a baked potato with a plastic knife, but we managed! Ha!
Anyway, it's amazing how just a little light something like that can be satisfying until it's time to eat again.
LOL. In New Mexico, pick the red sauce. The green sauce is the hottest.
Also, information on places to find GF food while traveling can be posted to the Information on Diet forum. There is already some information there on GF traveling, and free resturant cards, etc.
Tex
It is suspected that some of the hardest material known to science can be found in the skulls of GI specialists who insist that diet has nothing to do with the treatment of microscopic colitis.
I guess I've become spoiled by all the options we have in the city
The mountains were gorgeous and I want to go again, but will have to rethink where we stay in relation to food or get a kitchen and cook! 
. There was nothing in .Gatlinburg to interest us. Live and learn.
). We are also trying to make this affordable, as we have 3 kids and they have 2 - eating out adds up! We have chosen accomodations with kitchenettes and in Jackson we are staying in cabins each set up with barbecues on the deck! So we will mostly be cooking in - which will just be simpler in many ways. Plus the husband in this family is Lactose-intolerant, so this is my one friend who really "gets" my food issues and she always calls me to ask about particular things when they have us over...so I won't get much of a *vacation* from cooking, but not having to worry. either has its own merits....Plus we are staying in better places than we usually would with more amenities (2 room suites, swimming pools etc...) which is a better use of $ than on eating out 
