Summersville Wal-Mart, WV State Fair, Bob Evans, Vegan Living

I'm visiting my family in W.Va. I count Summersville as my home town, although we lived all around it. They live in a different little town now. We spent the day at Summersville Lake today. I visited the site of the original Campfire 30. Campsite #30 at Battle Run Campground.

Wednesday night when my train got in, my parents and niece picked me up at the station and we ate at Bob Evans. I wasn't very hungry. The microwaved Amtrak vegan burger and Cliff Bars had ruined my appetite. I had a plate of sweet potato fries and a salad. Then we went grocery shopping at Wal-Mart in Lewisburg.

Vegan Burger on the menu in the Amtrak cafe car

At the State Fair of WV the next day, I ate corn on the cob roasted in the husk in a fire pit by the Shady Spring Future Farmers of America (a favorite snack from childhood state fairs), sweet potato fries with cinnamon and sugar, mashed potatoes, broccoli-cauliflower salad, garden salad, baked apples, and a baked potato. The "butter" the future farmers offered with their corn on the cob was vegan. It was Parkay Squeezable Margarine. (And yes, if you have that in your fridge right now, it does mean you are vegan and probably a Socialist and possibly gay.)

That night we had to drive to Beckley to reunite my niece with her mama, so the next morning, we had breakfast at Tamarack. I had a bagel with jelly, an English muffin with baked apples, and fried potatoes with onions and pepper, along with a really great cup of coffee.

Yesterday, we stayed home all day, made a fire, cooked on it/in it. Both sisters and one of their significant others and the other ones' kids came down. We roasted potatoes and corn. I made what I'm calling a campfire panini. It has a thin layer of Vegenaise (from Edith's Store in Lewisburg; you could also use margarine) on the outsides of the bread, then stuffed with hummus, tomato, onion, and dill seeds. Would have been great with avocado, but I forgot. It's grilled in this neat thing that we used to have a set of when we were living in the campground. Here, I'll post pictures.

This morning, we went out for brunch to Los Pescadores Mexican Restaurant in Summersville, on our way to the lake. This is in the same strip mall with Wal-Mart and the Dollar Tree. I had vegetable fajitas. Looking at the menu, I ordered it without sour cream (still had guacamole), and then after it came, I scraped the cheese off the beans. (They don't mention the cheese on the menu. Everyone would of course obviously want cheese on their beans.) The food was really good. The service was good. I had sopapillas for dessert.

After spending the day at the lake today, we picked up a few more groceries at the Wal-Mart in Summersville.

Vegan Grocery list from Wal-Mart

2 bunches kale

1 head green leaf lettuce

1 bunch asparagus

Big tub of hummus

Small tub of Earth Balance margarine

1/2 gallon of almond milk

2 things of Fig Newmans cookies

Arnold's Sandwich Thins (round sandwich bread)
Some kind of square bread from the deli

some other kinds of bread (cause my mom and dad like lots of different breads)
frozen berries
bananas

onions

potatoes

sweet potatoes

2 avocados

We didn't get any beans, pasta, rice, hot cereal, etc., but they have those things. You can certainly get your four vegan food groups at Wal-Mart. I know the vegetables might have been grown halfway around the world and have been sprayed with chemicals, but they're at least as good as anything else you're getting at Wal-Mart. Their selection of almond milks almost made me jealous.

At the house, I've been eating a lot of sandwiches, with hummus, avocado, etc., the things I usually eat at home. And toast with molasses, which I usually don't have. Mom usually makes fried potatoes in the mornings, and berry smoothies. Just bought the kale tonight; I'm going to roast a pan of it for mom and dad tomorrow. Dad made biscuits and brown gravy to go with the campfire foods last night. I brought some Bob's Red Mill muesli (cereal with uncooked rolled grains, nuts, raisins, dates, seeds) with me. Brought some Cliff Bars but haven't been eating them. They will be good for the train ride home. Can't believe it's already Sunday night.