565 kms to the northern tip of Luzon -2

At Damortis, just before you exit La Union province, is a long stretch of stalls selling a variety of salted fish. Later in Tarlac, we picked up packs from Tinapa Alley. We all stacked those together with our other purchases earlier in the trip: the kilos of garlic and small red onions from Laoag; bibingka, bagnet, and longganiza from Vigan; plus the small clay and wooded items Joe and I got from a sale in Vigan.

When we reached Tarlac town, we had to make a quick decision: stop for lunch or just drive-thru McDonald’s.

Stopping for lunch would add at least an hour and a half to our travel time. Bringing our food with us could keep us moving ahead, to enter the expressway before 1 p.m.

We passed the Balintawak toll booth at 2:30 p.m. but driving to our homes took much more time, we could have driven back to Tarlac to eat lunch.