Day 185

I did a bunch of traveling this weekend that had a few challenges but turned out fine (and fun).

On Saturday morning, we took the boys to Silverwood, which is an amusement park in Idaho. We frequently go there in October and have always had beautiful weather. However, this year was sunny but very cold. I think the high for the day was about 40°. It was tolerable at first but got colder and colder in the afternoon, especially as the wind came up. By the time we left around 5:30, we were all frozen.

We still had a good time with the boys. G and I rode the wooden roller coasters several times. I was disappointed that the new coaster was closed as I wanted to try it but the wooden ones were fun too. We pretty much hit most of the rest of the rides at least once except for the water rides. I definitely didn't want to get wet.

Food wasn't a problem at all. I didn't eat much Friday night so was hungry in the morning before we left and I had a hamburger bowl. To have something to eat for lunch, I baked up a Meatza "crust" on Friday and packed it in a cooler. I actually didn't get hungry until pretty late in the afternoon despite all of the walking and a couple of slices of the meatza crust worked well.

After the park, we drove down to my parents' house. We swung into a McDonald's in Coeur d'Alene, ID on the way through town. I wasn't hungry but the boys were so we ordered them a bunch of quarter pound beef patties. The boys wanted cheese on their burgers but the manager insisted that we had to pay for two slices per burger because that is the way that Quarter Pounders are made. When we got the order, each burger patty was in its own box, with one slice of cheese under the patty and one on top. With the burger being hot, of course the bottom slice was melted to the box. My wife hit the roof and chewed them out big time. We got extra cheese. I like the fact that McD's offers the choice to just buy the burger patty without having to pay for the whole burger but it really seems that any time you do something out of the ordinary there, you can actually see the sparks from the McD employee's brain short circuiting.

I was dreading meals while visiting my folks but they went okay. K and I stay at my Grandpa's and he fixes breakfast, which is always eggs and sausage links. This works fine except he always makes enough for an army. He was a logger and still has the mindset that you need a huge breakfast. Those of us that pretty much sit on our butts all day don't need quite as much.

Dinner on Sunday at my parents' was ham. I just ate a couple of slices and was good. I was really surprised that there were no comments about my plate only having meat but it wasn't an issue. I did surprisingly get hungry again a couple of hours later and had three of the hamburger patties that we brought.

We had breakfast at Grandpa's again Monday morning before heading home. This time I was able to talk him into cooking less. With the burgers the night before, I wasn't very hungry. Also, two days of sausage and ham wasn't really sitting that well.

We did some shopping on the way home through Spokane and scored some marked down chuck-eyes and pork riblets as well as some $3.98/lb ribeyes at WinCo. I also got some marked down tri tip steaks at the grocer at home. They is becoming a favorite cut of mine so I get them when ever I see them marked down. I had several of them for dinner. It was nice to get away from the processed meat and back to good ol' beef.

I thought the trip would be challenging, especially in regards to Diet Pepsi. Normally, I would have ended up buying several bottles while at the park as well as one going there and one on the way home. This time, I found I wasn't very thirsty so was okay with the bottle of water I had in the car. Also, for as long as I can remember, visiting with Grandpa was "sitting down and having a Pepsi". He seemed surprised and skeptical when I refused one but didn't say much. I had actually planned on cheating while there just to keep that ritual but didn't feel like it when the time came. I think that is good progress for me.

I expected my weight to be up a little because of the processed meat but I was actually at a new low this morning of 176.8. It may be that I am a little dehydrated with all of the traveling but I was at 177.2 on Saturday morning, so losing a little on the weekend isn't out of the realm of possibility.