We took @LadyLolaMae out this weekend for what may be our last trip of the season. It’s getting cold in the North Carolina mountains. 20 degrees this morning when we awoke. And while camping in the cold, hiking in the leafless forests and generally enjoying the beauty of the changing seasons has it’s place, the other 3 seasons are more appealing…at least to us.

What is your favorite season to be outdoors?

CHEESECAKE FACTORY VS. A HOTDOG STAND – FIGHT!

Have you ever eaten at a Cheesecake Factory?

This quick search sums up my frustration with this joint perfectly. “Over 250 menu items and 50 desserts!!”, they boast.

Vividly remembering the first time we were handed the phone book sized menus, panic anew sets in.

For those of you reading this that may not remember, a phone book was a voluminous, yellow tomb containing phone numbers of people and businesses. It looked something like this stack here, and was often used as either a car booster seat, or fire kindling, depending on your taste.

Flipping through page after page after page after page of options. It’s too much. There is no chance at making a decision. When faced with 250 menu items I just give up…or tell the wait staff to surprise me.

Side Note: This is an excellent way to order a meal. About 50% of the time when eating out I will tell the server, “I would like you to surprise me. I’m not allergic to anything. I like all types of food. And you can’t ask me any other questions”. 99% of the time I am pleasantly surprised by the meal, and typically it’s something I wouldn’t have ordered.

It’s ok to let the Universe decide once and awhile. In food and in life…

This is why I like a simple hot dog stand, food truck, or Prices Chicken Coop. A one page menu. No paralysis of choice. Simplicity.

ITS A REAL THING

In a California gourmet market a business prof at Columbia University and her research assistants set up a booth of samples of Wilkin & Sons jams. Every few hours, they switched from offering a selection of 24 jams to a group of 6 jams. On average, customers tasted two jams, regardless of the size of the assortment, and each one received a coupon good for $1 off one Wilkin & Sons jam.

Here’s the interesting part: Sixty percent of customers were drawn to the large assortment, while only 40 percent stopped by the small one. But 30 percent of the people who had sampled from the small assortment decided to buy jam, while only 3 percent of those confronted with the two dozen jams purchased a jar.

To much choice caused them NOT to buy…

THE CLUBHOUSE

This morning sitting in the Airstream…errr “the clubhouse” I was gently reminded to call it…this question flashed across my mental screen: Is it the unconscious desire for less choice that makes camping, tiny living and minimalism in general, so appealing?

Last night we made a simple dinner on the grill and sat across from each other and ate. A little too cold and windy to enjoy the outdoors, we settled in to watch a couple episodes of The Sopranos on DVD. It’s the only DVD we have in @LadyLolaMae.

No phones.

No endless scrolling of Netflix without ever really watching anything. 

Nothing else to “do” really, except enjoy each others company and the peace that comes with having fewer decisions in front of you…a one page menu as it were.