Powered by Pimento Cheese, The Adams Make a Move for Oregon

If you review the photos on your phone, you will notice trends. Maybe it's cute baby photos, snaps of your pets doing something adorable and/or ridiculous, shots of your culinary feats or fails, or travel pics.

For me, my photo album is bookended with images of mayonnaise. 

I can explain -- really.

When Scott landed his planning job for Multnomah County, Oregon earlier this spring, we had many details to wrangle and projects to complete. Sell our house in Charlotte, North Carolina - ok, we can do it. Purge or sell many belongings -- that's FUN, let's burn it all! And successfully drive all our belongings for more than 2,800 miles in a 20+-ft. U-Haul truck, with the Ford C-Max with adorable, ridiculous #LorettaDog following along -- errrr, do what now???

The drive from Charlotte to Gresham, OR was my one hesitation. Not exactly known for my smooth driving skills, I rarely enjoy operating a motor vehicle, preferring instead to take frequently-delayed Amtrak train rides to see my BFF in Raleigh, North Carolina, which is around three hours from Charlotte. (Wine in a travel mug on the return trip is also usually always involved.) So the concept of huffing the fumes of a large, slow, gas-guzzling hulk of a truck for six days across America wasn't really the epic road trip I'd always imagined.

Yet for love and the desire to do something we'd always talked about, on Tuesday, April 17, Scott and I set out from Charlotte with a fully-loaded U-Haul, one mildly-anxious dog, and a cooler full of pimento cheese. 

Yes, it's always about cheese and Duke's Mayonnaise with us. 

The basics: sharp cheese, jarred pimentos, and Duke's

Not exactly a health food, Pimento Cheese is definitely all about the comfort, and the simplicity. Just slather it on some soft white bread -- don't even try to use multigrain or whole wheat nonsense, because you want pillowy and bland bread to be the conduit to the zingy, creamy cheese. It was the perfect road trip building block to get us to Nashville, Kansas City, Sidney, Nebraska, Ogden, Utah, Boise, and finally, Oregon.  

I hadn't actually counted on the large Tupperware container of the spread to last as long as it did, but we managed to eat it for six lunches straight. Did it get old? NOPE. I did add some alfalfa sprouts to my sandwiches as the days rolled on, but otherwise the pimento cheese  plus some hummus, carrots, potato chips for Scott and crackers for me, and our friend Emily and my mom's excellent goody bags of snacks and treats fueled our 8 hours of daily driving. 

Fact: You will be a unique roadside attraction if you eat at interstate rest areas, as all other travelers must be inhaling Whoppers or footlong Subway sandwiches instead. I figured we'd be quaint, precious and picnicking, but those hard-charging prairie winds were one obstacle I didn't count on. Many rest areas in Nebraska and Wyoming build little concrete bunkers for their picnic tables, which kind lack in ambiance, but I guess who has time for charm in Nebraska?  

We could have blazed through in fewer days but Scott planned very well, knowing I would fizzle out after Hour Eight and I am no fan of night driving. Plus man and woman can't live on pimento cheese alone. In Pegram, TN with friends, we enjoyed hot chicken; in Kansas City it was - duh - barbecue. In Sidney, NE, a serviceable steakhouse dished up burgers and sirloins, and in Ogden, UT we had some decent pub fare.

The best eating on the road not involving Duke's mayonnaise was in Boise, at Bar Gernika in the city's "Basque Block." Our meal began with beer and wine and fried potato croquettes, and I had a spicy lamb grinder while Scott had the Salomo sandwich (pork loin with peppers). French fries in Idaho did not disappoint. In fact, I've found most potatoes here are super fresh and more tasty than back east.  

Learning more about the food here in the Pacific Northwest is going to be a lot of fun. However, there is one minor issue. There's no Duke's Mayonnaise for sale in the grocery stores. 

Enter my mother in North Carolina to solve our dilemma. She shipped not one, not two, but three squeeze bottles of the beloved condiment to us. 

Just your average care package from Mom

You can take the girl out of the South...

Now who's ready for more pimento cheese?