(Primal) Road Trip!

So, the Divine Miss K and I headed out of Austin area to Sarasota, Florida Thursday last. Long a believer of bringing along preferred food stuffs before this, yet not an absolutist. Yes, McDonalds or Wendy's (Yay, chili!) to break the monotony. So sue me.

Anyway, left with the following:

Boiled skinless chicken thighs
Chicken tenders with a coconut flour/paleo "breading." Not great, OK.
Protein balls. As a kid, my mother would make "candy," powdered milk, molasses, peanut butter. (We kids never knew real candy until maybe age 6.) I made balls of whey, peanut flour, molasses, butter (to help solidify in the cooler), and some peanut granola fine chopped in the food processor. Can't say super yummy, but OK and so helpful to not eat junk.

While in Florida we discovered the joy of breakfast sausage links, precooked, any old time. Many went west from FL to (patooey!) TX. Also, several packages of precooked bacon. Not many minutes in the nooker, lots of roady snacks.

There were a lot of other "approved" foods, full fat Greek yogurt, lotsa berrries, blah blah, but when the wheels roll, they fall to the back.

Meat. At the ready.

Glad you two had a good trip back to your old stomping grounds. My family roots are also on the Florida Gulf coast, but much further north, around Panama City in the panhandle. I lived several years near Ft Lauderdale, much prefer the gulf coast to the east coast, if for no other reason than the whiteness of the sand on the gulf beaches. In Ft Lauderdale, I was working for a company with HQ in Deee-troit and all the brass up there would magically find a good excuse to make a plant visit during the January-March period. Those folks always bragged on the 4-season climate in Mi, but seemed to not like it enough to hang around for all of it. I always responded to the 4-season comment with "we also have 4 seasons, you just have to be more discerning."

Your road food sounds good, I too am a fan of Wendy's chili.

Rig, your experience reminds me of when I lived in SoCal, so disdained by the corporate types back in Chicago. But always found good reason for district meetings in the winter, always with a hot tub at the hotel that management would stay at.

I have essentially no east Florida coast experience. Lived in Boca Raton while finishing college, don't recall ever going to the beach. Sarasota, the family home since December 7, 1959. I didn't get it for many years, but now I understand how well my parents chose our new home, moving from Lawn Guy-land. (Said with Long Island accent.)

When I was in college, my folks lived for a couple of yrs in Tampa. I was not a big fan of Tampa. But I found a lot of humor with St Pete, the "land of the living dead" and their green park benches.

IMHO, you haven't missed much by staying on the Gulf side. In my time around Ft. Lauderdale, we lived very close to Sunrise, which had jillions of retirees jammed in multiple condo communities. I never verified it, but I understand that the city was originally named Sunset, but they changed the name because it sorta sent the wrong message. I never understood the mindset that you would work your whole life somewhere else, then retire, leave your friends/family/other connections and move to an area where you were just another nameless old fart in the crowd.

The biggest problems I had in the Ft Lauderdale area were 3 fold: 1. You essentially needed to speak French or Spanish if you went to the beach (and the physical beach was pretty mediocre by gulf coast standards), 2. there were so many people there who had no visible means of support. 3. The snowbirds from Northern US and Canada who would arrive in vast numbers in the winter who suddenly forgot how to drive on multi-lane roads.