Taking A Walk

by Dwayne Phillips

The vast majority of motels in America today  have free breakfast. If you don’t believe me, just check the ads or look on the Internet. Some of the motels have real breakfast: see, for example, Holiday Inn Express. Most of the rest have bread, bread with sugar on it (in various guises), coffee, and juice. That isn’t much of a breakfast, but it is “free,” i.e. its cost is included in your room expense so you might as well eat some of it.

Some choices:

(1) eat the bread and bread with sugar on it (in various guises) thereby taking advantage of the money you spent on your room

(2) go next door to Hardee’s and pay $5 for something that closer resembles a real breakfast

(3) stay at a motel that has real breakfast and pay $30 for it

(4) supplement the free bread and bread with sugar on it (in various guises)

I often chose (4). I bought a jar of peanut butter and a jar of jam at Wal-Mart (where America shops) and kept it in my ice chest. I would go to the motel lobby, grab a bagel (the kind the grocery stores sell, not to be confused with real bagels), toast it in the lobby toaster, and take it back to my room. In the room, I would add my own peanut butter and jam. This provided carbodydrates (bagel), sugars (jam), and fat and protein (peanut butter).

I wouldn’t label this as the classic American breakfast. I wouldn’t label this as a nutritious breakfast. I am not sure how I would label this. I do know that it always carried me through at least ten miles of walking to a cup of coffee somewhere on the road some time in the middle of the morning.

And one more thing, the trips to Wal-Mart also brought entertainment value in addition to the food. If you aren’t in a hurry, standing in line at Wal-Mart can be entertaining.