Clash of the Nutritional Titans

We were driving home from a not-very-ambitious day in the mountains--my first day of rock climbing this year. We did two routes and called it quits. I thought I could get in a bike ride before the end of the day if we made it back to Seattle before 7 o’clock. We threw our gear in the car and got on I-90 west.

I had to skip my tradition when I am out in these parts of ending the day with a beer at the North Bend Bar and Grill in North Bend, Washington which lies at the foot of beautiful Mount Si. The Mariners had a day game that had already ended. They lost to Minnesota. Watching the Mariners is the other reason besides beer that I go to the Bar and Grill. It wouldn’t kill me not to have a beer; it would just hurt a lot.

We pulled in at the quickie-mart in North Bend to get something to eat and drink for the drive home. Once inside the store we headed our separate ways and we met again in the car. Anyone can tell you that there aren’t a lot of healthy choices to be made when buying something to eat at the I-90 quickie-mart in North Bend, Washington, but I thought our choices were startlingly unwise. My friend opted for an ice cream sandwich, while I went old-school with a pepperoni beef jerky stick. Just call us west coast health food nuts.

Between an ice cream sandwich and a pepperoni stick, which one represents the biggest iceberg to the ship Titanic of personal health? Which one is more of a nutritional Chernobyl? Which one of us would die more quickly and in the most painful manner if our diets were reduced exclusively to a supply of our choices made at the North Bend quickie-mart? I should have had the beer after all.