We recently took a very long road trip from Florida to Wisconsin and back. We normally fly, but with this year's budget (or lack there of) and my desire to "build family memories" we decided to drive. This is an annual trip we have taken back home since we moved to Florida five years ago. We budgeted $1,500 for the entire trip. After a van tune up costing $2,300 we were in the hole a week before we even left. I am a creative mom, however trying to go on a trip without any extra money is tough. Knowing how much it can cost to go out to eat, I vowed that we wouldn't go through one drive thru or order one happy meal. I knew we would get sick of eating sandwiches and traditional vacation cooler food, I got creative. I found a company called road Pro. road Pro manufactures small appliances for truck drivers. It was so hard to choose only one. I decided on the Road Pro Sandwich Maker. This is such a clever concept. It is a sandwich maker that plugs into the cigarette lighter. Now it was time to get creative with some good recipes. After doing lots of research I found some great recipes, some interesting websites, and laughed a lot. There is a whole web page for college students that gives you 500 recipes for dinner you can make in a coffee pot. Did you know you can make shrimp alfredo in a coffee pot? Ok, I am getting side tracked. So we were off. I had packed all my ingredients and recipe cards. We made a quick stop at a Pilot Travel Center to pick up our Road Pro Sandwich Maker. As I walked out of the Pilot I was so excited to get started. My family knows I am crazy but this probably moved me one knotch closer to insanity in their minds. As we started back on the road I carefully opened the box and read the instuctions. The "before first use" instructions were particularly entertaining. "After smoke and fumes subside, you are ready to cook." I pictured us cruising up I-75 with blue smoke billowing out our van windows, all of us choking and coughing. Luckily, no smoke and only minor fumes. One Clorox wipe down later, I was ready to take orders. We had to balance it on top of the portable fridge (got this at a rummage sale a few months prior) that sat on the floor between us. When we would take corners it would fall off and burn the lap it fell into. This was particularly entertaining when hot pancake batter scalded Scott's leg in Kentucky. On the menu I had Grilled Cheese, Hot Ham and Cheese, Pizza Pockets, Pancakes, Sausage, Sausage in Pancakes, and Taco Pockets. Everything was a success except the pancake syrup. Syrup in a vehicle never seems to work out. This item was omitted from the menu for the trip back. On the way back we used the sandwich maker to warm things up like mini corn dogs and chicken nuggets. These were very popular, a little too popular which lead to an over indulgent customer vomiting after his 11th mini corndog while driving through the Tennessee mountains. Since it would only make one small item at a time and it was a little slow, I was cooking and taking orders almost the entire way. All in all, I would say it was a great success. We didn't have to go out to eat at all. It was a great addition to our trip. The "Road Pro" as we called it saved us money, made us some good meals and provided us with lots of funny memories.
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