Driving to the Carolinas!

My husband decided to surprise me with a romantic vacation this summer. I love him! We rarely get to travel just for travel's sake. Luckily, our WONDERFUL friends have a house in the Blue Ridge Mountains in North Carolina that they were willing to let us borrow for a week. So, the next few posts will be about our adventures here. We're near(ish) the border between both Carolinas, so we are planning to explore a little of both. The drive up was long, but surprisingly not boring. The drive in the mountains was sometimes downright scary! Besides the surprisingly nice drive, we also had a surprisingly nice time getting gluten free food! We did bring snacks and drinks, and Aaron, being the wonderful husband he is, purposely brought gluten free snacks so that we should share. :) But, one cannot eat snack food for 10 hours, so we did stop for lunch and dinner. The first stop was in Brunswick, GA. To find GF food, we did have to venture away from the interstate and into the town. We originally planned to eat at a Longhorn Steakhouse because we found a gluten free menu online, but then we saw a Five Guys in the same parking lot and decided it would be cheaper and faster to eat there. Oh darn! ;) They were, as always, very good about dealing with my food allergy, though they kept making Aaron's order before mine, so they had to change their gloves about five times. I giggled a little. I am very glad, though, that the gloves were changed. The food was amazing like always. About half an hour before dinner, we needed to stop to change drivers. We stopped at a Pilot station off of I-26 in South Carolina, and while we walked around, I noticed a bag of caramel popcorn from the Rocky Mountain Popcorn Company that said it was gluten and nut free right on the front of the bag. Reading the ingredients, it also looks dairy free, but I can't verify that. They had other flavors, too, but I'm a caramel fiend. We had snacks in the car, but the bag was $2, and I was curious, so the popcorn got purchased. I had a few bites, but not many because we were on our way to dinner. Oh My God! This popcorn is fantastic. Truly fantastic. It is rich and sweet, but not overbearingly sweet. And at 120 calories per serving (there are four servings in a bag), it's not a diet breaker, either. I have yet to eat anywhere near a serving, and I've snacked on it three times. I will definitely be on the lookout for this popcorn in places other than Pilot stations. This stuff is amazing! For dinner, we stopped in Spartanburg, SC. I used my Droid phone app "Find Gluten Free Near Me" to find McAlister's Deli. The menu had a lot of gluten free options, and while it is a chain, we don't have it in Orlando (though there are locations in Florida), so we were excited about the new experience. It was a great experience. The people were friendly, and the gluten free menu didn't require me to change or substitute much. In fact, my meal was ordered straight from the menu without any modification. I had a pick two meal with a chipotle chicken salad and a potato ole. The chicken salad had lettuce, tomato, chicken, tortilla strips, and a delicious chipotle peach dressing. The dressing was rich and thick, so I did not need much. The sweet and very spicy flavor really complimented the salad. The potato was topping with vegetarian chili, cheese, and jalapenos. This was also delicious! The jalapenos brought heat without it being overwhelming, and the chili had a very nice flavor. Great restaurant! We had a lovely drive, and now I'm going to stop blogging about it and experience the Carolinas!