Traveling Gluten Free?

Last Summer, I spent 6 weeks (total) traveling...my son was going from College Football Camp, to College Football camp, being watched by Scouts. Boy, was it a fun, exciting time. We traveled from Memphis, to Carbondale, to Orlando, to Daytona Beach, to Panama City, to Ft. Worth Tx. ( we also vacationed , just a little during that time ;-) My Son is pictured above, on that very trip! Sorry...Proud Mom!

When you're traveling this much, you're usually eating out a lot more than usual- and to boot- at restaurants you're not necessarily familiar with .

 Eating out can be challenging at best, for someone with food allergies or intolerances. But Thank God for technology!!!!! With a few clicks of your mouse, you can know which restaurants have GF menus/or are GF friendly. I have found these sites to be extremely helpful while traveling. There are many out there, but these are the two I have found most useful:
 http://www.glutenfreeregistry.com/
http://www.urbanspoon.com/choose

When you go to these Sites, you just choose the City and State you're traveling to...then they pull up a list of restaurants with a GF  Menu, or who are GF friendly- they list the address, phone #, and website. Both Sites have the Restaurants rated by customers.

                                           Gluten Free Pancakes at Disney, Orlando, Fl.

You can also go to http://www.triumphdining.com/  where they have a Domestic GF Restaurant Guide, and even a GF shopping guide, I think you can buy both for $50.00 and they come with little restaurant cards- you just hand to the wait staff, and it explains what you can eat, or need to avoid- also the entire cross contamination issue. I bought both years ago, and have never used them. They had little to nothing for the St. Louis area.
But, if you are newly diagnosed and feeling overwhelmed- this would be an excellent resource.

I will post on a GF Travelers Survival Kit some time soon in the future.