When Your Gluten Free Plans Go Wrong (and Still Work Out Anyway) Ep. 230

Ever planned your gluten free road trip down to the last snack… only to find your lunch stop closed when you arrive?

In this follow-up episode, I’m sharing the real story behind our recent road trip from South Australia to New South Wales — what went right, what didn’t, and how a bit of flexibility saved the day. From making lunch beside a lake with last-minute supermarket finds, to being completely spoiled at a wedding that went above and beyond for gluten free guests — this trip reminded me why planning and staying open-minded go hand in hand when you have celiac disease.

If you’ve ever worried about eating while travelling, you’ll love this honest and encouraging look at how to stay safe, relaxed, and still enjoy the journey.

Tune in now and get inspired to hit the road gluten free and confident.

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Chapters

• 0:00 Road Trip Setup And Plan
• 1:58 Lunch Stop Closed And Quick Pivot
• 3:29 Flexibility Versus Strict Planning
• 6:00 Late Arrival And Finding Safe Thai
• 7:23 A Wedding That Nailed Gluten-Free
• 11:24 Speak Up, Advocate, And Plan Ahead
• 14:04 Chocolate School And Travel Encouragement
• 14:54 Gratitude And Closing

Transcript

SPEAKER_00: 0:24

Alright, welcome back to this week's episode. I wanted to do a follow-up episode on my previous episode about um going on a road trip and having to prepare gluten-free because it was really interesting going on this road trip and the experience that I faced. So if you haven't listened to my previous episode, go back and have a listen to that also. But I just wanted to fill you in on what happened the other week when we went over to New South Wales. So basically, the plan was to drive for eight hours with some stops in between. And the plan was also to stop for lunch. And I had looked on the Find Me Gluten-free app, and I had looked and found a place that said it had lots of gluten-free options available, and I was like, perfect, we'll stop there for lunch. We'll have our snacks in the car, and we'll stop there for lunch, and we'll be able to get on our way, and everything will be fine. I followed all the steps that I talked about in my previous episode, and that was planning. And lo and behold, we we got to our destination for lunch, and we pulled up at the address that was on Find Me Gluten Free, and the place had been closed down. It was like fully fenced off. There was just it wasn't just closed for the day, it was shut down. Now I kind of laughed because it was like, Are you serious? Like, come on, as if this is happening right now. But thankfully, I did have a backup plan, which was a meal in an eskey or a cooler bag that I could have eaten if I wanted to. But the thing was I didn't actually feel like eating that, which is kind of funny because I was prepared, but I wasn't prepared for the fact that you know what, on the particular day, I didn't actually feel like that. And I said to my husband, you know what, let's just quickly duck to the supermarket and I'll just grab a few things there and throw together some lunch and we'll keep moving. So didn't bother looking around the town for any other options. We just went, this is going to be the quickest and easiest thing to do, so let's go do that. So we called into a supermarket, we grabbed some rice cakes and some packaged ham that was labeled gluten-free, and I got some slices of lactose-free cheese. And it worked out really well because we found this amazing lake and had like picnic facilities nearby, and we sat there and I made up my food. My husband ate his food that he'd grabbed that morning from a bakery. Yes, lucky him. And yeah, so we made up made up my food. I sat there and enjoyed it. We enjoyed some sunshine, we got a bit of a stretch of the legs, we had a quick walk around the lake, and then we headed off for the rest of my journey. But it was kind of funny because I'd told my husband what I'd spoken about in my previous episode about you know being prepared and planning and having you know a backup plan in place, which I certainly did, and I feel like you know it all worked out as it was meant to. You could certainly go one step further and ring ahead and find out if a place is going to be open. I personally like to do things more on a whim, but still with a bit of a plan, if that makes sense. I don't like to be completely structured because I find that when things do go wrong, like in this situation, it stresses me out when you know things don't go the way that I anticipate them should be going. So if I'm a little bit more flexible and a little bit or more open-minded in the way that I'm thinking about things happening, I feel less pressured and I feel like I enjoy myself more. You may be completely different to me, and you may have to know absolutely everything that's happening. So, in this situation, for you, I would recommend phoning ahead and finding out that somewhere is, you know, in the Find Me Gluten Free app is absolutely going to be open at the time and the day that you're going to be going there. Because, you know, things like this happen. And you know, some of the other places that we visited over our weekend that we were away, I did find on the Find Me Gluten Free app, and there'd be little notes on there saying, you know, be cautious. This review was left two years ago, or whatever. So things like that, those types of situations, you might find that that business no longer exists or they no longer, you know, follow any gluten-free procedures. So, you know, being flexible can be quite helpful in these situations. So, yeah, everything did go really, really well. I had lots of snacks in the car with me, so I certainly didn't go hungry. Um, and yeah, it was a really nice trip. It was a really great time spent with my husband in the car, like I said, eight hours, and we had lots to talk about, and we had a really nice time on our trip over to New South Wales. So once we got there, it was really late, and we were invited to go and catch up with um one of the wedding party. The reason we were going over there was for a wedding, and we were invited there for a meal, it was very last minute, but they couldn't guarantee that there was going to be anything gluten-free. So I was at that point needing a little bit more of a substantial meal. I did say to my husband, Look, I'm happy to go there, and I can just heat up my meal that I've brought with me beforehand, and I'll have that before we go. And he's like, No, no, no, no, let's go out for tea, let's enjoy ourselves. You know, it's not very often that we get away, child-free. So we went to the next town over from where we were staying, and we went out for Thai, and we got a beautiful meal at a Thai restaurant. Again, it was on Find Me Gluten-free um, the app, and yeah, it was fantastic. They really looked after me. The service there was brilliant, and I was able to get something safe. So it was nice to be able to go out and have a decent meal. Now, I also want to talk about just quickly what happened when we went to the wedding. Now, I don't know about you if you've ever been to a wedding since your celiac disease diagnosis or since you've gone gluten-free. But when my husband and I got married, it was not long after my celiac diagnosis, and we actually had a 100% gluten-free wedding apart from beer. Beer was the only thing served at our wedding that wasn't gluten-free, but I didn't care about that because there was no way I was going to drink beer anyway. It didn't bother me, but there was no way that I could accidentally get glutened at my wedding through food or any of the alcoholic beverages that were um, you know, on offer to me. So it is doable, and I've been to quite a number of weddings since then. I've had good experiences, I've had amazing experiences, I've had pretty crappy experiences, but this wedding was next level. So it started off with pre-dinner drinks and canopé, and when I found out that there was canopes before, you know, our actual sit-down dinner, I thought that's fine, I'm not gonna get anything because normally it's a lot of deep fried things and foods that are, you know, finger foods that generally aren't gluten-free. But when I got there, I was very, very surprised. The normal canopes were being handed around to guests on large platters, and I had my entire platter of foods served directly in front of me. It was a beautiful platter of completely gluten-free food. It did have dairy on it, but I honestly didn't ask for lactose-free or dairy-free because I didn't want to add another level of um expectation. So I was happy to take a lactease tablet that meant I could have lactose on the evening, and yeah, I had this amazing cheese platter and meats and spring rolls and fruits, and it was absolutely beautiful. And I'm not even joking, some of the guests there were trying to eat my food, and other guests were like, No, you can't eat that. That's Belinda's, it's gluten-free. She can't have anything else, leave her food, and they were quite kind of shocked and apologetic and left my food alone after that. So I got to enjoy this amazing canopy platter before our meal. And then the next thing that happened was we were mingling outside. My husband and I were outside on the balcony and we're having a few drinks and chatting to people. And one of the waitresses came out to me and said, Excuse me, Belinda. Okay, how how on earth she knew my name? How she was able to pinpoint who I was was mind-blowing. She didn't say anything ridiculous like we normally get, such as, Oh, are you the gluten-free one? Oh, are you the one with celiac disease? Nothing like that. It was simply, excuse me, Belinda. And I was like, um, yes. And she said, We are just preparing your entree, and I just wanted to find out which gluten-free pasta you would like. I was so taken aback, I didn't even know how to answer her. I was like, Oh, um, oh, oh, I I don't mind. Well, and she told me the two options. I can't even remember what the two options were because I was so taken aback that I was given an option. It wasn't just here's a salad because everyone else is having glute is having pasta. It was you have the choice of two gluten-free pastas. Like, what the heck? So I said to her, because I knew there were three other people there that were eating gluten-free, and I said, Look, I'm honestly so blown away that I even get the choice of having gluten-free pasta. I'm more than happy to have what the majority is having. Like, whatever everyone else is having, I'm happy to just have that, make it easy. She was great with that, she walked off fine. My pasta dish got served to me. There was no singling me out. They just placed my bowl in front of me. It looked different to everyone else's, so I knew that I had the gluten-free pasta, and in fact, when I tasted it, I 100% knew that it was the exact same pasta that I cook at home. So I was just overjoyed that I wasn't singled out, I wasn't made to feel uncomfortable, or that I was a pain in the butt or anything like that. It was just absolutely beautiful. And then the mains came out that again was the same as everyone else. That I should say, not that again, that was the same as everyone else's. It was already gluten-free. Same with a dessert was already gluten-free. The only thing was the cake, but that didn't matter. I didn't need the cake, I was more than happy with just having a dessert. So the whole evening was absolutely beautiful and so special because I was able to let my hair down, I was able to enjoy myself, I wasn't being singled out, I wasn't being made to feel uncomfortable. It was just how it should be. And to be able to be in a position where you're at a wedding and you're treated with that much respect and and that much kindness, I felt wonderful and I was so grateful. And we caught up with the bride and groom the next morning, and I let them know. I told them how wonderful the service and the catering was, and thank you so much for putting in the effort to you know make sure that that happened for me. And they were so overjoyed that that had been my positive experience. So please know that when you are put in these situations, you can ask for what you need, and you can let people know that these are your requirements, and most of the time you'll get a positive response. But it, like I said, it was just incredible, and I hope that as years go on, this is how it becomes, this is how service becomes. It's just it's another requirement, it's something that they have to do for us to make sure that we're safe and we're healthy, just like anyone else that has special requirements, such as a peanut allergy or anything like that. So I I hope this kind of inspires you to speak up for yourself, to advocate for yourself, and to plan ahead, because there's no point rocking up at a wedding and just expecting that you're not going to get anything if you haven't pre you know advised that you need a gluten-free meal. Because a lot of people do that, they just don't want to be a bother, they just think they'll just go and then they whinge about it afterwards. That's that's not the way it should be. So always speak up for yourself and always request what it is that you need because it is very powerful and it does make you feel wonderful when you are looked after. So, yeah, that was our that was our weekend. We had lots of great experience. We did a chocolate tasting session at the Tocamole Chocolate School. Um, we learned all about chocolate. I have a huge appreciation for chocolate now, and we had a wonderful drive home as well, with lots of prepared snacks and and food for on the way home as well. So, yeah, I hope this inspires you to get out there, travel, you know, get on the road if that's what it means to visit another state or another area that's you know a little bit out of your comfort zone. But otherwise, thank you so much for tuning in, and I look forward to talking with you again on next week's show. Have a great week. I'll talk to you then. Take care. Bye.