While on vacation or traveling, I like to eat an apple each morning for breakfast. I admit that don’t get my recommended servings of fruit that I should while at home, but when away from home, I do much better. I suppose it all evens out, with all the fast and greasy foods, or unusual eating schedules or portions or varieties I enjoy while on vacation, I consider that apple more than just a treat. It becomes my dietary salvation. Fiber is good for me.
The more expensive the hotel is, the less likely they are to serve you a breakfast. Even at the cheapest of hotels, I can get a bite to eat in the morning. Or free Internet accesses, a pool, a gym, etc. But when my work has sent me to trade-show conventions — always picking hotels that I can’t afford — I’m never as impressed with those as I am with a good ol’ fashioned Best Western, or a no-name hotel along Harbor Blvd that offers me an apple to start my day.
The drive across the deserts of Utah, Nevada, and Southern California are always a wonder to me. I live in a medium-sized city, and inside of the concrete jungle, I get the false impression that what I see – the compact, organized, bustle of the city – is natural. True, it is my habitat and home. Yet drive out of town a ways, and I am reminded that the “real” world is much bigger and very much different than what I think it is. The Lord could have been speaking to me when he reminded the people, “And I have given you a land for which ye did not labour, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell in them; of the vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.” (Old Testament | Joshua 24:13) My little world is small by comparison to the vast reaches of untamed nothingness that surround it. And as I drive along, there comes a small town here or there, I feel like they are islands of the reality that I know and am familiar with. Except for Las Vegas – that doesn’t look like anything I am familiar with.
I am grateful to the planners to put that rest stop on I-15, just a few miles south of Cedar City. That little oasis of civilization is one that I was overjoyed to come across, in my hour of need. Remember the extra fiber from the apple-a-day? Enough said.