Taking A Walk

by Dwayne Phillips

I like Moon Pies. For the uninitiated, and I am surprised that to this day there are some who are uninitiated in the culinary arts of southern marshmallow snacks, a Moon Pie has some marshmallow cream on the inside, a couple of sheets of sweet cracker, and the whole thing is coated with chocolate. There. I have tried to describe Moon Pies to a lot of people who have never seen one. It is a difficult thing to do. Please see the Moon Pie web site.

Since I walked from Northern Virginia to Southeastern Louisiana, I never left Moon Pie territory. Every gas station that sold coffee (they all do) and snacks had Moon Pies. I mentioned above that Moon Pies are coated with chocolate. That is the original Moon Pie. My favorite Moon Pie is coated with banana flavored stuff, whatever it is that they coat Moon Pies with. The number three most-often seen coating is vanilla.

Chocolate, banana, and vanilla are only three of the coatings. I thought they were the only three coatings, but I learned a few more things about Moon Pies while taking a walk. Moon Pies also come in lemon, orange, and strawberry coatings – at least I saw those three coatings. I haven’t consulted the web site to see if they have even more flavors.  I tried all six of the types of Moon Pie while walking (chocolate, banana, vanilla, orange, lemon, strawberry). They are all good (how can marshmallow combined with other sweets not be good?).  I still favor the banana flavor, but that is just me.

I learned that the home of the Moon Pie is Chattanooga, Tennessee and we walked through there. We didn’t pass the Moon Pie factory or anything and I doubt they gave out free samples.

Moon Pies go good with coffee. They also go good with a coke, and that is a close second to the coffee.

I don’t know what essential nutrients are in Moon Pies. I don’t know if there are any essential nutrients in Moon Pies. I sort of doubt that there are as a Moon Pie tastes to good to be good for you. I do know that they provide some energy for the body and a lot of refreshment for the mind and the soul.