Traveling by train when you're gluten free

A few weeks ago, I had the opportunity to attend my sister's nursing school graduation in Kentucky. First, I needed to get to St. Louis (where my family is), and then we would all drive to Kentucky. Because of the nature of my husband's job, he was not able to go with me. I opted not to drive alone and flying was too far out of our price range, so that left me with the train.

Traveling by train (I used Amtrak) is extremely affordable - and very relaxing. I read a lot while I was traveling (which I cannot do in the car) and did lots of Sudoku puzzles on my Nook. I spent about ten hours on the train going down to St. Louis and about eleven hours coming back.

Amtrak does provide meals on some lines and has just a snack car on other lines, but unfortunately, they do not cater to any special diets. Since I am gluten free, I had to get creative to make sure I could eat during all my traveling. I wasn't about to take a chance on purchasing something in the food court at Union Station! And of course, it wouldn't do for me to starve, either!

My train left Wisconsin around lunchtime, so I ate "lunch" at 10:30 that morning. Pictured above is what I took with me for the trip down to St. Louis:

• Beverages - water, soda
• Tortilla chips
• Gluten free crackers - Crunchmaster GF crackers and homemade cheesy crackers
• Sliced cheese
• Fruit - apple, banana
• Chocolate Breakfast muffins
• Fruit cups (these were just in case I got really hungry!)
• M&M's, because of course I needed chocolate :)

Now, I obviously did not eat well-rounded meals while I was on the train, but I also didn't go hungry! I ate cheese and crackers, both pieces of fruit, tortilla chips, and my water and soda.

When I traveled back home, I had cheese and crackers, a fruit cup, Fritos and some candy, plus water and soda. My train arrived back in Wisconsin at dinnertime, so we stopped for a quick fast food meal then.

Again, these were not overly nutritious meals, but they also weren't the worst meals I could have eaten. The worst thing would have been if I purchased something on the train or in the food court and gotten sick!

How do you make it work to travel while being gluten free - whether by car, train, airplane or otherwise?

{This post is not at all associated with Amtrak. I simply wanted to share my experience of traveling by train while being gluten free.}