Food during the week away…
Wow, this is going to be a boring one, eh? But let’s face it, when we go on holiday or do a road trip, our food behaviour goes out of the window. “Let’s get a MaccieD on the way”, “Oooh that looks like an interesting pub”, “You know what, I’m out and about, I fancy that taco”, or you are otherwise out of time and out of fucks to give for a decent meal. Try that over five evenings, plus whatever you might do at lunch. Some of you will happily survive that — I will not feel my best doing that! So I need to plan things a little bit more. If I have too much food, I get groggy. Too little food, and I will kill someone. It’s a fine balance, you know!
So what’s the challenge? I actually don’t know, this post is to help me figure it out, so join me…
Breakfast, Lunch and Dinner. Let’s look at each for each day and figure out if they fall at convenient moments (with enough flexibility to accommodate changes in plans).
Monday
Breakfast — at home, continental brekkie
Lunch — sandwich at a service station, maybe I’ll even sit down for it!
Dinner — eat on the ferry… I won’t eat until 1900, which is a bit late.. I might snack along the way and have a light dinner
Tuesday
Breakfast — on the ferry
Lunch — out and about, possibly a sandwich bought back in Lerwick plus a couple of snacks. I am planning to have lunch at Skaw Beach, so it can’t be anything complicated, but it can be something a bit more than a packed sandwich if I care to make the effort. Some fruit would be nice… Whatever I get, it can’t leave wet/dirty wrapping. I am carrying all my rubbish with me, and I’d rather it not be messy!
Dinner — I don’t know about this one. I am going to try and book a B&B with food, or hopefully spot a pub to eat at, for 1730–1800.
Wednesday
Breakfast — bit of an unknown! Either at the B&B/hotel or bought the day before. Some B&Bs only do cooked breakfast (gah) so that’s something to keep in mind when booking — check! If I have no continental breakfast available (read: cereal and milk), I will buy a tiny bottle of milk somewhere. Do I buy child-size packs of cereal or to I just sacrifice some space in the bags for a tupperware of cereal? This is dedication to my cereal…
Lunch — buy along the way
Dinner — Eat on ferry, timings work well as it departs at 1700
Thursday
Breakfast — B&B or pre-packed
Lunch — usual gig, bought or packed, especially as I’ll be on some of the other isles around lunchtime
Dinner — hunt locally. Maybe pub?
Friday
Breakfast — B&B or pre-packed
Lunch — packed. I will be pubbing it that night.
Dinner — Pub and chill in pub until ferry departs at 23:00.
Saturday
Breakfast — Ferry
Lunch — lunch at a service station somewhere along the way
Dinner — Takeaway at home, because Yes.
Final thoughts on food
Breakfast for me is the most critical meal — if I get that right, I can go through the day through minimal snacking only. The snacking, in turn, keeps me light and awake.
Dinner is kind of half an issue due to the uncertainties. The ferry evenings are simple enough. Once lockdown eases and places start opening up again, I can start researching food places near my planned overnight stop locations. Travelling around for food does bring one consideration — riding at night. Although my headlight is decent, I do wonder about ways to illuminate the sides of the road. I hate auxiliary lights on bikes — they are always blinding oncoming traffic (ADV bikers: they do not make you more visible, they make oncoming traffic avert their eyes, so you are actually more fucking likely to get hit, you numbskulls) and look pretentious AF. So I am going to have a think about this one (and probably elect not to get them).
Having lunch on the go means I can pack stuff with me and keep travelling around — without having to take time out to hunt for places to eat, fight hangriness and add one more thing to stress about to my day. Ooooh but I lose out on the local cuisine, you’ll say. Maybe — that’s what dinner is for.
Thanks to my camelbak though, I will always have some snacks to hand to keep me going. I will also have plenty of water (topping up as I go), energy gels and isotonic tablets to dissolve in the water. So long as I stay on top of my fluids, food will be straightforward (from experience I am not needlessly hungry when I’m properly hydrated).
It may be weird to have a complete plan on food, but if this is under control, it means I can spend even more energy on simply enjoying the trip itself!
