Waybread for my waywardness

I have some food rules when traveling, most of which I've already broken on this trip. One must eat local or one must eat cheap. A great bonus to find is cheap, good, and local. But if local isn't available, and cheap is the choice, you might as well eat cans of tuna and steal fruit off a motel breakfast bar to complete your lunch, which you can enjoy at the rest area of your choice. To the end of demonstrating my ideas, I had 3 pictures from which to choose to illustrate this blog. Picture 1 was from day one and called "Still life with tuna." This picture was taken at a rest area near Salem, Oregon, and was an unremarkable shot of six cans of tuna, an orange (smuggled in my purse from the Best Western breakfast bar earlier that morning), a package of saltines, and a can opener on a concrete picnic table. Dumb picture. Picture 2 is the picture I have chosen. It is called "Yahoo, local and cheap, I found tamales being sold out of a trunk in Chico, CA!" What a treat these homemade tamales were. I got 3 yummy, little beauties for 3 dollars. They were so good-stuffed with shredded, spiced pork moist in real corn husks. I haven't had tamales that good since I was a kid and my Aunt Domitilla (mentioned her below) made some. Those tamales, paired with a rootbeer and a Butterfinger (heh, blush), made a lunch for champions and one or two future heart attacks. Picture 3 was a picture, humorously, of the Donner Pass rest area, a place I ended up yesterday without intending to. I thought it was sorta funny, but I'll spare us.

Anyhow, five days into this trip and I haven't got very far towards Dallas at all. I blame my impulsive decision to go to South Lake Tahoe without knowing precisely where it was. Then, there was my second impulsive decision to go to San Francisco to meet A. and E., instead of heading south at Sacramento towards Joshua Tree National Park. Then, there was the third impulsive decision to stay at an expensive hotel, rather than leave the city. I ate at an expensive restaurant last night, rather than finding something cheap, and there was nothing remarkable about it other than the price tag--not "local" food, not particularly tasty, not anything other than spendy. In checking my feelings about all these decisions, however, I regret only the money spent--not the experiences, so that's good. Yesterday was heaven, although Lake Tahoe...to be discussed later, not so much. You'd think I wasn't eager to get to Texas or something.