Tales of the traveling apple

When I travel, and by travel, I mean, fly someplace; I pack snacks of various kinds.  If it's prepared food, like a sandwich, an apple cut into pieces, deviled eggs, etc.  They are generally eaten on the plane, or discarded.  If it's bags of nuts, dried fruit, cookies or other things which keep, I usually eat some, but not all that I pack.  What I generally never eat is a whole apple.  I put it into my carry-on, fly it around and still see it when I get home.  It's thinking; you could have just kept me in the fridge boss, would have been better for both of us.

This time, I ate the apple.

The plan was to drive back from, yes, Appleton Wisconsin, with a stop at O'Hare to drop-off my wife, who didn't want to burn vacation days on a road trip.  My "plan" was to get far enough on Easter Sunday, so that the next day, it would be reasonable to make it the rest of the way home to Chelmsford, MA.  Along the way, I would need to:  Navigate, find gas, find places to stop and use the toilet, find a McDonald's and ultimately, find a hotel for the night.

My desire for efficiency drew me to the idea of hitting two needs per stop but I was thwarted again and again.  I still had a quarter of a tank when I stopped at a service plaza in Indiana because I needed to pee.  They had a Popeye's there and I was willing to compromise...but the line wasn't moving, I wasn't really hungry and it would have cost about $12, so I left.  Finally, in Ohio, I had to stop for gas and there was a McDonald's nearby, but I wanted to just find a hotel and eat all in one stop and I still had a couple of hours of driving in me, so I got back on the highway.  Finally, in the outskirts of Cleveland, I saw a sign which said, lodging and listed McDonald's as a dining option, so I got off the interstate.  The initial lodging options looked pricy and I saw no McDonald's in that direction, so I tried the other direction and found a Red Roof Inn.  I figured, I'd check-in and then make a decision about food.  Once I checked-in, all I wanted to do was take a shower and get some sleep.

The next morning, I had no desire for McDonald's, since I don't care for their breakfast options, but I was somewhat hungry, having not eaten since Sunday late morning brunch with our hosts in Wisconsin.

I finally got my, promised to myself, two double cheeseburgers in Geneva NY, Monday afternoon.