How I Stayed Gluten-Free During a 17-Hour Drive (And What Went Wrong)

Have you ever wondered if you can really take a long road trip and stay safely gluten-free the whole way? 

Well, I just did exactly that, driving from Ohio to Dallas, and I’m here to share all the lessons, surprises, and little wins along the way. From finding safe snacks at truck stops to navigating restaurant surprise, I’ve got plenty of stories and tips to help you plan your own gluten-free adventure. 

And stay tuned for the end, where I’ll share the one thing I learned that made all the difference on the road.

Come join us in our free Facebook Community, The Gluten Free Engineer. 

It’s a space where you can connect with others living gluten-free, ask questions, swap tips and recipes, and get support from people who truly get it. Whether you’re newly diagnosed or a seasoned gluten-free pro, you’ll feel right at home.

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Gluten-Free Road Tripping
• 1:56 Packing Smart Snacks and Truck Stops
• 4:30 Memphis BBQ and Restaurant Experiences
• 8:23 The Tomato Sauce Mistake
• 10:49 Gaylord Texan and Finding Safe Restaurants
• 13:44 Heading Home and Final Travel Tips

Transcript

Carrie Saunders: 0:00

Quick reminder before we get started on this episode this podcast is based on my personal experiences and isn't medical advice. Have you ever wondered if you can really take a long road trip and stay safely gluten-free the whole way? Well, I just actually did that a few weeks ago when I attended podcast movement for our podcast that we have, and we were driving from Ohio to Dallas, texas, my husband and I and I'm here to share all the lessons, surprises and little wins along the way, from finding safe snacks at truck stops to navigating restaurants surprises I've got plenty of stories and tips to help you plan your own gluten-free adventure. And stay tuned for the end, where I'll share one thing I learned that made a difference all the difference on the road. Welcome to the Gluten-Free Engineer Podcast. I'm your host, Saunders.

Carrie Saunders: 0:51

In 2011, I was diagnosed with celiac disease, a moment that changed everything, but I was determined not to let it hold me back. With my two engineering degrees, I set out to reverse engineer the gluten-free lifestyle, breaking down recipes, safety tips, travel hacks and everything in between to rebuild a life I love. Whether you have celiac disease, gluten intolerance or simply choose to live gluten-free, this podcast is for you. Join me each week as we simplify the gluten-free lifestyle, make it fun and prove that you don't have to miss out on anything. Welcome back to the show. Today we're talking about road trips and how we can stay safe gluten-free and I have other food issues too. So how can we deal with that as well? And our road trip my husband and I went on was from Ohio to Dallas, texas, and it's about a 17-hour drive without stops. So how did we do it and how did we manage to stay gluten-free the whole time? That's what we're going to talk about in this episode and some tips around it. And I was able to stay completely gluten-free, but I did have a few mishaps and we'll talk about that too. So if you've listened to any of my travel trip episode tips, then that's kind of a tongue twister.

Carrie Saunders: 2:03

Then you probably already know that I love to pack snacks for the road trip or the airplane flight or however we're getting there, and one of my favorite snacks is Simple Mills granola type style bars. I kind of don't really consider them granola bars because they're grain free, so they don't have oats in them, but they're kind of it's like a snack bar like that, and they really fill me up because they have a lot of protein in them for a snack bar like that they have. They're made for the almond flour and they're just really tasty and I really enjoy eating them. So when you're planning a trip, find that snack that's going to be fulfilling and that you really enjoy too. That helps make your trip a lot more fun when you're bringing snacks with you that you enjoy as well as make you feel good and fill you up. Now you also can use places like we use Love's truck stops. So if you know of a clean, nice truck stop that is your favorite, you can stop there for additional snacks on the way.

Carrie Saunders: 3:00

I love to go to the Love's truck stops because we found they had string cheeses, they had meat sticks, they had actually options that were gluten-free and refrigerated and cold. On this trip we completely forgot to bring our cooler with us. It wasn't packed, thankfully. It wasn't like sitting at home rotting, but we completely forgot to bring a cooler so we could bring cold snacks too. So make sure you pack ahead and bring that cooler if that's what you're wanting to bring. But places like Love's Truck Stops you can find like refrigerated cheese sticks. We also found hard-boiled eggs there, fruit cups. So they have some really good, you know nice, fresh, cleaner options to eat in the Love's Truck Stops. And then we also use the Find Me Gluten-Free app the whole way there back and while we were there, because we used it to scout for restaurants and we used it to find places that were gluten-free.

Carrie Saunders: 3:54

Now, one of the things that did happen is we drove to Memphis on the first day for the first leg of the trip. That's about 10 hours, but about seven hours is Nashville. So we decided to stop there for like a late lunches type of meal. We found a dedicated gluten-free spot. It looked like it was going to be so fun and yummy and delicious. And guess what happened? The whole restaurant was closed. It had been closed for a while but nobody had updated Google Maps, nobody had updated Find Me Gluten-Free that this restaurant had basically failed and closed. So that was a bit of a disappointment.

Carrie Saunders: 4:32

But we pivoted. We decided to just eat more of our snacks we had and get all the way to Memphis so that we can have a really nice sit down meal in Memphis. And then, when we were in Memphis, we looked up some of the best barbecue places. We used the Find Me Gluten-Free app to find the safest of those. And we actually found this really wonderful restaurant in the basement of this building. You wouldn't even know the restaurant was there if you weren't either local or used an app kind of like Find Me Gluten-Free for it, and it was some of the best barbecue we've ever had and everything was gluten-free except for the beer and anything fried, but everything else was safe for us to eat and it was actually soy-free as well, which was a great bonus for us.

Carrie Saunders: 5:16

And then when we were in Memphis, we stayed there the next day too. We just decided to make a little bit of a side road trip there, so we stayed a whole day the next day. So we just used a hotel restaurant breakfast. For breakfast, it had some simple things there, and then for lunch we went adventuring out to a place we could walk to that had also gluten-free items. We found this again with the Find Me Gluten-Free app. They were really great about being very careful with our food. I didn't get sick. So that Find Me Gluten-Free app is really kind of golden. And note, if you are a listener, we do have a $5 off of your subscription for if you want to use the paid version. We for a very long time used the free version of the Find Me Gluten-Free app and it worked okay, but I will honestly say that the paid version does add some benefits that can really help you on your gluten-free journey, especially if you're celiac. You can see those benefits on their website.

Carrie Saunders: 6:11

And then for dinner we went to this fancy restaurant. We decided to splurge a little bit and we went to this fancy restaurant on Beale Street If you're familiar with Memphis or the blues, you've probably heard of Beale Street and it was absolutely delicious. They were really sure everything was gluten-free. They were very well rated for being gluten-free. However, one thing I didn't think of doing was asking them about my other sensitivity, which was tomato. I did ask them about gluten and soy, because those have been a staple of my life as far as like not being able to have them the soy for about two or three years and then the gluten for like 12 or so.

Carrie Saunders: 6:51

I've kind of lost track there, but I recently found out I can't have tomatoes. Well, I got a steak and mashed potatoes, not thinking at all there would be anything tomato related on the dish. You can probably imagine that you wouldn't think so either. Well, my steak came out with this red wine tomato reduction sauce on it and I looked at it and thought, well, that might be just red wine. And I started eating. I was like, oh, I think this has tomato in it.

Carrie Saunders: 7:17

Well, this is where I made the mistake. I kept my mouth shut, I didn't say anything, I didn't like return the dish because tomatoes actually really bother me, digestive wise, and the next day and it makes me really tired about an hour or two after I've eaten it for about an hour or so. So it's not nearly as big of a deal as soy or gluten, but it still kind of bothers me. But I went ahead and ate it. You know it tasted okay to me because I'm not that big of a fan of tomatoes to begin with. Probably a good reason for that. So that was one thing that I should have said. You know, hey, I can't eat tomatoes. And the rest of the trip I definitely said that every restaurant I went to, you know, make sure this doesn't have any tomatoes in it too. So make sure you're advocating for yourself. It's just not something I thought of. So don't assume and that's the lesson here you know something else that you're sensitive to or even gluten, and you don't think there's gluten in the dish, make sure you speak up, no matter what. I didn't have any issues with gluten at this restaurant, but the tomatoes were really, really gave me a hard time the next day, but definitely not like gluten does. So make sure you stand up for yourself and take that dish back if you have to, if you're sure that it's got something on it that you can't eat. That's what the restaurant's there for.

Carrie Saunders: 8:30

And then we next drove from Memphis to, technically, great Rhine, texas, which is on the other side of Dallas. We were staying at the Gaylord Texan because that's where the conference was, and first thing we did once we settled in was I went to each of the restaurants there to figure out which ones I could safely eat gluten-free. The Find Me Gluten Free app didn't have quite as much information on the restaurants that were in-house, just because those just aren't restaurants that the public tends to go to, so they're not rated as often as ones that you know you can just drive by and go to. And they had an Italian restaurant in there which I was super excited about, and the Find Me Gluten-Free app said that they could do gluten-free fine, so I talked to the restaurant staff before even dedicating myself to going to that restaurant. So I asked them the questions that you should ask if you especially if you're celiac or very sensitive I double checked that they didn't cook the gluten-free pasta in gluten water, that it was separately cooked. They also said that they had like a gluten-free garlic type of bread and that it would take them longer to get that out to the table than it would the gluten bread, because they take extra care and extra special attention to the gluten-free stuff. So when you are eating out, make sure you double check those questions. And yes, I did make sure there's no tomatoes in my dish. This time I got an Alfredo, which has been my go-to for Italian type things, now that I've realized I can't have tomatoes. So make sure you're double checking. You know the water. If you're eating at a pasta restaurant, the bread is it toasted in the same area that gluten bread is toasted? So there's just some things you want to look for.

Carrie Saunders: 10:12

And then the rest of the trip. In there and in the Gaylord we ate at a Mexican restaurant twice. They were very good with gluten-free. They use corn tortillas for their tacos already. I obviously asked for no tomato too on that one. So that's the kind of I was like this is a really weird question. I know I'm in a Mexican restaurant, but I need stuff without tomatoes in it. Um, and they kind of got a chuckle out of that, and so I was really safe the rest of the time eating in the restaurants. In the Gaylord, texan, we also went to the Texan station too, which also was very accommodating for us.

Carrie Saunders: 10:48

Now we did adventure out one time to a local restaurant, and this one I'm super excited to tell you about. So it was called Across the Pond, somewhere close to Grapevine, texas. I can't quite remember exactly where we were, and it was like a British type of pub style restaurant, and everything in the restaurant that was fried was gluten-free. I had gluten-free onion rings, I had gluten-free chicken strips, and my chicken strips came with British chips, so I had gluten-free fries too. It was just so wonderful to even eat out and have gluten-free onion rings. So the last time I had gluten-free onion rings, I made them from scratch myself, and they were delicious, but it was wonderful not to have to make it yourself. So we use the Find Me Gluten-Free app to find the place. They also had gluten-free beer and gluten-free cider.

Carrie Saunders: 11:40

The story goes. We asked the story about the restaurant and why that was celiac safe. Apparently, I think it was the restaurant owners like a son or nephew, I believe it was, somebody in the family had celiac and they wanted to, you know, come up with a restaurant that was safe for that person. So I thought that was a wonderful backstory behind it.

Carrie Saunders: 12:00

And then when we had our trip home, we kind of reversed it. We actually stopped in Memphis on the way home for dinner and we ate at this wonderful restaurant and I had again a steak dinner, if you at this wonderful restaurant, and I had again a steak dinner. If you haven't figured out, I love, I actually love steak. And I asked this time I'm like you know, hey, I can't have tomatoes, and it was a good thing. I asked because the asparagus that was going to be on my plate is usually drizzled with a tomato type of drizzle sauce. So again, make sure you're checking for every single thing that you cannot eat, because if I hadn't mentioned something, then my asparagus side dish would have had tomato on it and I wouldn't have maybe known it until I ate it. So again, double check what you're going to be eating and all your food sensitivities.

Carrie Saunders: 12:51

And then we landed in Nashville for sleeping and then drove the way home, oh, and then all the way home the next day from Nashville to back to Ohio. We took a different route home and it was actually a great accident because we were trying to find a place to eat. It was a bit more of a rural route and we weren't sure if we're going to be able to find a place to eat. But we used the Find Me Gluten-Free app again and found this place that had all gluten-free baked goods and it was an olive oil company but it also had baked goods in it, which was kind of an odd combination. So we went in the store and they had the most wonderful olive oil section I've ever seen in my entire life. I've never seen anything like this except for on TV, on like food show network type of style of shows you couldn't like sample the olive oils. You could sample the infused olive oils. They had balsamic vinaigrettes too and it was just absolutely wonderful.

Carrie Saunders: 13:50

And we got some baked goods to take with us on the road and I got some olive oil to use. I'm going to be using it actually this weekend after recording this podcast episode with my focaccia bread recipe that's on our website. Make sure you go grab that at theglutenfreeengineercom if you haven't yet. It's absolutely delicious and very easy. So we're going to be using it this weekend to celebrate our wedding anniversary because I want to make focaccia bread as part of the meal, and using it to dip our focaccia bread in all of this infused olive oil. It's got like oregano basil thyme it's so delicious.

Carrie Saunders: 14:27

So, anyway, when you're doing a road trip like this part of it, you know kind of go with your personality. Of course you know plan ahead as much as possible is a good idea, but you can also do some winging it, like we did as well, especially if you have apps like Find Me Gluten Free to really help you find those places that are celiac safe if needed, very gluten intolerant friendly if needed, or just simply gluten free if you don't need to be super strict. That is really the best thing. That really helped us. I think my husband said that he was in that almost more than anything else the whole trip and always have those snacks with you in case you do get stuck someplace that you can't find anything safe. Bring those substantial snacks with you and just really enjoy yourself. And then that bonus tip I promised I've already alluded to it already is that we want to make sure that you pack a safe set of snacks with you, make sure they're filling, so that you can pivot when plans need to change and when you can't find something safe that is gluten-free.

Carrie Saunders: 15:36

Thank you for listening to this episode of the Gluten-Free Engineer. If you found value in this story, please share it with someone who might need encouragement on their own gluten-free journey. For more tips, recipes, resources and even links to my YouTube channel, head on over to theglutenfreeengineercom. It's your one-stop hub to make gluten-free living simple, fun and full of flavor. And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss out on an episode. And we will see you next week. The Gluten-Free Engineer podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only. I share my personal experiences and stories about living with celiac disease and navigating a gluten-free lifestyle. This podcast does not provide a medical advice. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional for medical questions, concerns or advice specific to your health.