For most of my life, I have heard people of faith speak of "praying for traveling mercies." I have joined in many of those prayers, especially in recent years when I have a son who travels between home and college. When we are on vacation, our family often starts the day praying for traveling mercies. We also often joke that the person driving should not close his eyes during the prayer!

I had never thought about the biblical basis for that prayer, but my Bible study happened to have me in the book of Ezra on this vacation. As I read in chapter 8 how Ezra led the people in prayer and fasting before they returned to Jerusalem after 70 years of captivity in Babylon.

God has indeed been merciful to us as we traveled. We have not had any car trouble. We passed many traffic accidents, but we were always safe. For the most part that mercy has even extended to finding healthy BTD food along the way. We did, however have one difficult day.

It was a travel day, and we didn't want to stop for a meal. We planned to pick food up and eat in the car (eating on the fly, we call it.) We were out in the country, and there were not many choices. We stopped at an Arbys. I have eaten at Arbys many times, and I know that their roast beef is more processed than I would prefer, but I had never had any trouble. I ordered a large roast been sandwich that came with lettuce and tomato. I did not eat the bun, but I did eat the barbeque sauce that they automatically put on the sandwich.

I was in the back seat reading when I started to get a headache. I put my magazine down and took a nap. When I woke, my head was pounding. I rarely had headaches before the BTD, and I hadn't had one like this in the two plus years I've been on this diet. I thought about natural remedies, but this headache meant business. I took two Advil.

It's possible that the sandwich had nothing to do with the headache. It could have been that I was reading on a winding road, or it could have been that I was dehydrated since I don't drink as much water on travel days. I just know I was pretty miserable until the Advil kicked in.

My daughter almost never drinks soda. She knows it is bad for Type As in general, and she knows that it is bad for her skin. She carefully ordered a grilled chicken sandwich for lunch, avoiding roast beef. But she couldn't resist the Cherry Coke, which used to be one of her favorites. She paid a price for the brief pleasure. He stomach felt terrible for the rest of the day.