Kansas City, MO/Bentonville, AR/Little Rock, AR/ Homer, LA
Day's summary: We woke up in Missouri, had lunch in Arkansas and dinner in Louisiana.
Day's details: We got a late start on Monday morning. But once we were up we quickly got ready and double and triple-checked that we had everything before heading out. Chris and Farrah had already left for work and warned us that once the door closed it would lock behind us.
Missouri
Once we were on the road it was clear that we would need something more than the small breakfast we grabbed at the house so we pulled into a Sonic drive-thru in Peculiar, MO (nothing Peculiar but the name, at least as far as we could tell) and made jokes about making our own Sonic commercials. The food was piping hot and good for roadside fare. (It was only the second time I'd been to Sonic and Clay's first time).
The ride through Missouri was pretty uneventful except for large bugs annihilating themselves against the windows leaving stains in interesting colors and shapes. We saw signs for President Harry Truman's birthplace, Joplin - the town devastated by a tornado last May, and a monument dedicated to scientist George Washington Carver, the first national monument dedicated to an African American and the first to honor someone other than a president. Since we had 10 hours of driving we didn't want to stop too early in the trip and pressed on.
Arkansas:
About 1 in the afternoon we pulled into Bentonville, AR and followed the signs for Walmart's HQ while passing huge buildings for Walmart Logistics, Walmart Transportation, and Walmart Global People Center. We pulled into the vast parking lot in a space reserved for suppliers and snuck out to take a quick picture, noticing all the security cameras mounted from various angles. Since all the people heading into and out of the building were dressed for business we didn't want to bother any of them to take a photo and tried to be discreet. As we raised the camera a woman shouted "STOP!." I hurriedly snapped the photo in case she was going to say we weren't allowed to take pictures. Instead she walked over to us introduced herself and offered to take a picture of both of us. (Notice the security cameras above and to the right of our heads.)
Then she gave us directions to the Walmart visitors center housed in the original Walton five and dime store in downtown Bentonville. The five and dime turned out to be located in a small town square that looked a lot like the scene of Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly in Back to the Future escaping from Biff and his goons on a newly invented skateboard. The center had lots of old time candies and kids' toys as well as a whole museum documenting Wal-Mart's rise, Sam Walton's philosphy on business and his replicated office and the pick-up truck he drove until his death.
Outside of Bentonville, the terrain gave way from farmland to rocky bluffs and rolling foothills dense with trees. We noticed lots of armadillo roadkill. I've never seen a live one but knew immediately what they were by their hard plated shell. At this point (outside of Kansas City) we'd only seen two other black people all day. As we moved through Arkansas the southern hospitality became a little less reliable though we didn't experience any issues just less general friendliness. We weren't able to keep a steady pace as about every hour we'd hit a patch of heavy rains that almost obscured the roads. The traffic would slow to a crawl and then 5 minutes later the rains would stop and the sun would shine brightly again.Day's summary: We woke up in Missouri, had lunch in Arkansas and dinner in Louisiana.
Day's details: We got a late start on Monday morning. But once we were up we quickly got ready and double and triple-checked that we had everything before heading out. Chris and Farrah had already left for work and warned us that once the door closed it would lock behind us.
Missouri
Once we were on the road it was clear that we would need something more than the small breakfast we grabbed at the house so we pulled into a Sonic drive-thru in Peculiar, MO (nothing Peculiar but the name, at least as far as we could tell) and made jokes about making our own Sonic commercials. The food was piping hot and good for roadside fare. (It was only the second time I'd been to Sonic and Clay's first time).
The ride through Missouri was pretty uneventful except for large bugs annihilating themselves against the windows leaving stains in interesting colors and shapes. We saw signs for President Harry Truman's birthplace, Joplin - the town devastated by a tornado last May, and a monument dedicated to scientist George Washington Carver, the first national monument dedicated to an African American and the first to honor someone other than a president. Since we had 10 hours of driving we didn't want to stop too early in the trip and pressed on.
Arkansas:
About 1 in the afternoon we pulled into Bentonville, AR and followed the signs for Walmart's HQ while passing huge buildings for Walmart Logistics, Walmart Transportation, and Walmart Global People Center. We pulled into the vast parking lot in a space reserved for suppliers and snuck out to take a quick picture, noticing all the security cameras mounted from various angles. Since all the people heading into and out of the building were dressed for business we didn't want to bother any of them to take a photo and tried to be discreet. As we raised the camera a woman shouted "STOP!." I hurriedly snapped the photo in case she was going to say we weren't allowed to take pictures. Instead she walked over to us introduced herself and offered to take a picture of both of us. (Notice the security cameras above and to the right of our heads.)
Then she gave us directions to the Walmart visitors center housed in the original Walton five and dime store in downtown Bentonville. The five and dime turned out to be located in a small town square that looked a lot like the scene of Michael J. Fox as Marty McFly in Back to the Future escaping from Biff and his goons on a newly invented skateboard. The center had lots of old time candies and kids' toys as well as a whole museum documenting Wal-Mart's rise, Sam Walton's philosphy on business and his replicated office and the pick-up truck he drove until his death.
The flash rains continued into Little Rock and we were only able to briefly glimpse Central High School between two flashes of heavy rain. Unfortunately we arrived too late to visit the Visitor's Center and museum. It's crazy to think that just 55 years ago (during our parents' childhood) the Little Rock Nine integrated this school. (We took the top two photos. The one on the bottom is from Wikipedia depicting the 101st Airborne escorting the Little Rock Nine up the school stairs - visible in the top left photo.)
From Little Rock we drove on through vast stretches of two lane highways that slowed to a crawl during roadside construction. We got caught behind several timber trucks until the road opened up to include a passing lane. We drove and drove and drove and were still in Arkansas.
Louisiana
We didn't cross the state line into Louisiana for quite some time as Homer is not too far from the border. By that time it was about 8:30 in the evening and it was dark. Not city dark. Country dark. As in you drive with your bright lights on when oncoming traffic isn't coming. When there is oncoming traffic you avert your eyes to the white line on the right side of the highway so as not to be blinded. And if you come across a deer in the road blinded in the headlights you turn the lights off while you brake, hoping the darkness will release them from the magical spell and they run safely to the other side of the road.
I was a little worried about arriving after dark. I am used to approaching Homer from Shreveport where the airport is. This time, since we were coming from Arkansas, we'd be coming in the back way, a way I wasn't familiar with. I knew we would have to pass the town square and the family business and those would serve as our landmarks but I still would have rather arrived in the daylight.
We pulled into Homer at about 9:15. I had an address and after we passed the family business we slowed to a crawl looking for the address. Clay noted that the house numbers were smaller than the one we were looking for so we turned around. As we passed one I pointed to it and said the house looks exactly like that, but that isn't the address, so look for something that looks exactly like this one. We did but once we got to the family business again I knew we'd gone too far. So we pulled into the gas station to call my Aunt LaFaye. Our phones had no service. I went in and asked for help and in the small town it wasn't surprising that the clerk could give me exact directions. We had been in the right area she said and she told us exactly what we would see across the street from the house as the house was a bit set back from the road.
We thanked her and drove up the road again -- to the very house I'd pointed out to Clay. Turns out the address I had was for the family business down the road, not for the house. We pulled into the drive and Aunt LaFaye called asking where we were. I told her we were in the driveway and she and my Cousin Carolyn came out and welcomed us in. Carolyn's sister Gwen was inside waiting. They had a big dinner waiting for us. Of course Aunt LaFaye had to call her sister - my grandmother - and brag that she was spending time with us before my grandmother would get to. Ah sisters! :)
After we ate and talked for a bit they showed us to our bedroom and we fell deep asleep.
-jev
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