Arkansas
Arkansas is one of those places that I figured I would never see, and really had no desire to ever see. One year ago, when I thought of Arkansas, I thought of hillbillies, fried food, tornados, wal-mart and large people. However, now that I have been there, I can definitively say that all of my ignorant stereotypes about Arkansas were absolutely correct. However, while there may be an abundance of tornados and Wal-Mart super centers, there are actually a number of good things about the place as well.
But before I get to that, I should probably explain what prompted me to go on vacation to Arkansas. My friend Sarah (who I was on secondment with in Perth) is from Texas, and is getting married outside of Austin this weekend. My other fellow Perth secondees are all flying in for the wedding as well. Since it is quite a long trip for the people coming from Europe, we decided to extend the "reunion" and go somewhere before Austin. Now, Fayetteville Arkansas was not at the top of my list (I was pushing for Vegas), but it is where Brandy (another Perth secondee) lives. She convinced us to come by offering a free place to stay, a ride to Austin and the assurance that Arkansas "really is lovely at this time of the year"
So here we are; a Canuck,a Dutchman and a Brit on vacation in Northwest Arkansas. We have been here 4 interesting days and are now on our way to Austin. Here is what we've been up to:
Friday April 22: I arrived in Fayetteville Friday evening after a stop over at the lovely George Bush International Airport in Houston. We landed in severe storm conditions; a tornado was spotted close to the airport shortly after I landed. It was really quite lucky that Emma, BJ and myself all arrived on schedule given that we were on 3 separate flights. I believe that NorthWest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) may have been a barn prior to becoming an airport; we literally de-planed into a tin building with concrete floors.
Anyway, Fayetteville is in the Northwest corner of the state, right next to the Missouri Ozarks (think Winter's Bone) and Tulsa, OK (think Friends). NW Arkansas' claim to fame is Wal-Mart and the Razorbacks (The sports team from the University of Arkansas). Fayetteville is a college town; so it's not all hillbillies. There are bars and restaurants and places to go party on the weekend. Since it was Friday night that's what we did; we went out drinking.
Saturday April 23: we all woke up hungover and went on a team trip for breakfast. We went to Sonic (which I have never been to before) and went to the drive up (which I have also never done, but its very similar to a drive thru). The food was pretty crap, but it helped the hangover.
Since the weather was still stormy, we spent the afternoon bowling. I suck. The bowling alley served deep fried pickles, so i had to try those. I didnt really like them, but when in Rome......
We also drove by a large ridiculous church. It had 3 enormous crosses mounted on the lawn out front; horrible looking. Even the locals think it's too much, and that's saying something. There is literally a church per block in Arkansas; maybe even two. Churches in buildings, churches in barns, huge goddy churches, etc. I guess that should have been expecting that given that Fayetteville is in the bible belt.
In the evening we went to a dueling piano bar. It was a lot of fun. Things got a bit out of hand at the end of the night; Emma and I ended up dancing on stage. Good thing I'll never be back there. We hit the "waffle house" at 3am for some fine late night southern dining. Waffles, biscuits, has browns, etc. The quality of the food was on par with Denny's.
Sunday April 24: the weather was still miserable, we were all hung over and nothing was open because it was Easter. We spent the day at Brandy's. I managed to force myself to go for a run during a break in the rain, but otherwise we just watched tv/movies.
Brandy cooked an Easter dinner. It was nice to have some non-fried food. I can't say that the food has been fantastic. We had a couple good meals at nicer restaurants, but for the most part the food is really really heavy and fatty. Being a vegetarian has been a bit of a struggle too. I'm the Houston airport, the only meal I could find without meat (excluding fish) was a filet o fish from mcdonalds. It was awful.
Surprisingly, the Canucks game (game 6) was on TV. It was nice that I got to watch, but it was extremely stressful and when we lost I was in a bad mood for the rest of the evening.
Monday April 25: this day was a Wal-Mart filled day. We drove north to Bentonville and visited the Wal-Mart home office. Brandy gave us a little tour and introduced us to the EY audit team there. It was very unimpressive.....it kind of reminded me of a hospital. Long corridors, no windows or clocks, bright colour walls, etc. Fortunately, we are easy to please. BJ was very excited about the experience.
After the home office tour, we went to an actual Wal-Mart. That was a new experience for BJ and Emma, as they don't have Wal-Marts at home. For me the new experience was the gun section. There is nothing more American than being able to buy a gun in the same place you buy your groceries.
We then went for lunch. It was pouring. I don't remember the last time I've been in rain like that (and I'm from Vancouver, so that says something). We got drenched going into the restaurant for lunch. The lobby of the restaurant had completely flooded. Roads has washed out. It was bad. That was another first for me; being in flood conditions. Brandy's promise that Arkansas is lovely at this time of year appears to be a lie; unless tornados and floods are what southerners consider lovely.
We took shelter in a department store. We dragged BJ around while we tried on shoes and dresses. Erik (Brandy's husband) was at work, so it was a pretty girlie day for BJ.
We went to a Japanese show restaurant for dinner. I wasnt feeling well so I went to bed early-ish. The others went out for a few hours, but because of the weather, they were the only people in the bar, and were home by midnight.
Tuesday April 26: We finally got a break on the weather so we drove east one hour to Eureka springs. Eureka is an eclectic little town with a population of about 3,000. It's got a lot of little shops, older buildings, etc. We had a nice brunch and walked around the shops and checked out an old "haunted" hotel.
We then went to see "Christ of the Ozarks", which is just outside of Eureka. It's a 7 story high statue of jesus, which kind of looks like a pez dispenser. It was built in the 1960's as part of a planned religious theme park, but the theme park didnt work out, so now it's just Jesus.
It was an interesting area. The surrounding stores and buildings were all Jesus related; Christian bookstores, souvenirs, religiously named hotels, etc. There was also a recreation of the holy land, which we (thankfully) skipped.
We stopped at the university of Arkansas team store on the way home to buy some razorback gear. I now own a t-shirt with a hog on it....
We left for Texas around 5:30pm. The plan was to drive about 6 hours and make it just south of Dallas for the night. About 30 minutes south of Fayetteville we ran into severe weather. It was actually kinda scary. Erik did an excellent job driving. At one point the rain was so hard that we were on the freeway at nearly a full stop and could not see more than 5 feet ahead of us. Then the hail started. Erik pulled of the freeway and we took shelter (with about 15 other cars) under an overpass, to avoid hail damage. It was crazy; ive never ever been in weather like that. It passed after about 30 minutes and then it was sunny; go figure. We were lucky though; there were a number of bad tornados in Arkansas, so in comparison, hail doesn't seem that bad.
We crossed into Oklahoma after the storm and stopped at subway for dinner. There was a teenage girl working there who meets every stereotype of a southern American. She asked Emma if her accent was German. Emma explained that she was from the UK and she looked confused. BJ then told her he was from the Netherlands and she asked him if that was London. She looked quite confused. She finished making our sandwiches, and just as we were paying she had a revelation...."UK stands for United Kingdom!! That's what that is! You hear about it and stuff." She then asked Erik how we all knew each other and he explained we met in Australia. Her response was "that's at the bottom of the world right?"
We pulled into Arlington, Texas just after midnight. I got the news that Burrows had won the Canucks series in overtime. I jumped up and down in the parking lot like an idiot. It made my day.
So that was Arkansas; most likely a once in a lifetime experience. But i enjoyed it.
- Siobhan
But before I get to that, I should probably explain what prompted me to go on vacation to Arkansas. My friend Sarah (who I was on secondment with in Perth) is from Texas, and is getting married outside of Austin this weekend. My other fellow Perth secondees are all flying in for the wedding as well. Since it is quite a long trip for the people coming from Europe, we decided to extend the "reunion" and go somewhere before Austin. Now, Fayetteville Arkansas was not at the top of my list (I was pushing for Vegas), but it is where Brandy (another Perth secondee) lives. She convinced us to come by offering a free place to stay, a ride to Austin and the assurance that Arkansas "really is lovely at this time of the year"
So here we are; a Canuck,a Dutchman and a Brit on vacation in Northwest Arkansas. We have been here 4 interesting days and are now on our way to Austin. Here is what we've been up to:
Friday April 22: I arrived in Fayetteville Friday evening after a stop over at the lovely George Bush International Airport in Houston. We landed in severe storm conditions; a tornado was spotted close to the airport shortly after I landed. It was really quite lucky that Emma, BJ and myself all arrived on schedule given that we were on 3 separate flights. I believe that NorthWest Arkansas Regional Airport (XNA) may have been a barn prior to becoming an airport; we literally de-planed into a tin building with concrete floors.
Anyway, Fayetteville is in the Northwest corner of the state, right next to the Missouri Ozarks (think Winter's Bone) and Tulsa, OK (think Friends). NW Arkansas' claim to fame is Wal-Mart and the Razorbacks (The sports team from the University of Arkansas). Fayetteville is a college town; so it's not all hillbillies. There are bars and restaurants and places to go party on the weekend. Since it was Friday night that's what we did; we went out drinking.
Saturday April 23: we all woke up hungover and went on a team trip for breakfast. We went to Sonic (which I have never been to before) and went to the drive up (which I have also never done, but its very similar to a drive thru). The food was pretty crap, but it helped the hangover.
Since the weather was still stormy, we spent the afternoon bowling. I suck. The bowling alley served deep fried pickles, so i had to try those. I didnt really like them, but when in Rome......
We also drove by a large ridiculous church. It had 3 enormous crosses mounted on the lawn out front; horrible looking. Even the locals think it's too much, and that's saying something. There is literally a church per block in Arkansas; maybe even two. Churches in buildings, churches in barns, huge goddy churches, etc. I guess that should have been expecting that given that Fayetteville is in the bible belt.
In the evening we went to a dueling piano bar. It was a lot of fun. Things got a bit out of hand at the end of the night; Emma and I ended up dancing on stage. Good thing I'll never be back there. We hit the "waffle house" at 3am for some fine late night southern dining. Waffles, biscuits, has browns, etc. The quality of the food was on par with Denny's.
Sunday April 24: the weather was still miserable, we were all hung over and nothing was open because it was Easter. We spent the day at Brandy's. I managed to force myself to go for a run during a break in the rain, but otherwise we just watched tv/movies.
Brandy cooked an Easter dinner. It was nice to have some non-fried food. I can't say that the food has been fantastic. We had a couple good meals at nicer restaurants, but for the most part the food is really really heavy and fatty. Being a vegetarian has been a bit of a struggle too. I'm the Houston airport, the only meal I could find without meat (excluding fish) was a filet o fish from mcdonalds. It was awful.
Surprisingly, the Canucks game (game 6) was on TV. It was nice that I got to watch, but it was extremely stressful and when we lost I was in a bad mood for the rest of the evening.
Monday April 25: this day was a Wal-Mart filled day. We drove north to Bentonville and visited the Wal-Mart home office. Brandy gave us a little tour and introduced us to the EY audit team there. It was very unimpressive.....it kind of reminded me of a hospital. Long corridors, no windows or clocks, bright colour walls, etc. Fortunately, we are easy to please. BJ was very excited about the experience.
After the home office tour, we went to an actual Wal-Mart. That was a new experience for BJ and Emma, as they don't have Wal-Marts at home. For me the new experience was the gun section. There is nothing more American than being able to buy a gun in the same place you buy your groceries.
We then went for lunch. It was pouring. I don't remember the last time I've been in rain like that (and I'm from Vancouver, so that says something). We got drenched going into the restaurant for lunch. The lobby of the restaurant had completely flooded. Roads has washed out. It was bad. That was another first for me; being in flood conditions. Brandy's promise that Arkansas is lovely at this time of year appears to be a lie; unless tornados and floods are what southerners consider lovely.
We took shelter in a department store. We dragged BJ around while we tried on shoes and dresses. Erik (Brandy's husband) was at work, so it was a pretty girlie day for BJ.
We went to a Japanese show restaurant for dinner. I wasnt feeling well so I went to bed early-ish. The others went out for a few hours, but because of the weather, they were the only people in the bar, and were home by midnight.
Tuesday April 26: We finally got a break on the weather so we drove east one hour to Eureka springs. Eureka is an eclectic little town with a population of about 3,000. It's got a lot of little shops, older buildings, etc. We had a nice brunch and walked around the shops and checked out an old "haunted" hotel.
We then went to see "Christ of the Ozarks", which is just outside of Eureka. It's a 7 story high statue of jesus, which kind of looks like a pez dispenser. It was built in the 1960's as part of a planned religious theme park, but the theme park didnt work out, so now it's just Jesus.
It was an interesting area. The surrounding stores and buildings were all Jesus related; Christian bookstores, souvenirs, religiously named hotels, etc. There was also a recreation of the holy land, which we (thankfully) skipped.
We stopped at the university of Arkansas team store on the way home to buy some razorback gear. I now own a t-shirt with a hog on it....
We left for Texas around 5:30pm. The plan was to drive about 6 hours and make it just south of Dallas for the night. About 30 minutes south of Fayetteville we ran into severe weather. It was actually kinda scary. Erik did an excellent job driving. At one point the rain was so hard that we were on the freeway at nearly a full stop and could not see more than 5 feet ahead of us. Then the hail started. Erik pulled of the freeway and we took shelter (with about 15 other cars) under an overpass, to avoid hail damage. It was crazy; ive never ever been in weather like that. It passed after about 30 minutes and then it was sunny; go figure. We were lucky though; there were a number of bad tornados in Arkansas, so in comparison, hail doesn't seem that bad.
We crossed into Oklahoma after the storm and stopped at subway for dinner. There was a teenage girl working there who meets every stereotype of a southern American. She asked Emma if her accent was German. Emma explained that she was from the UK and she looked confused. BJ then told her he was from the Netherlands and she asked him if that was London. She looked quite confused. She finished making our sandwiches, and just as we were paying she had a revelation...."UK stands for United Kingdom!! That's what that is! You hear about it and stuff." She then asked Erik how we all knew each other and he explained we met in Australia. Her response was "that's at the bottom of the world right?"
We pulled into Arlington, Texas just after midnight. I got the news that Burrows had won the Canucks series in overtime. I jumped up and down in the parking lot like an idiot. It made my day.
So that was Arkansas; most likely a once in a lifetime experience. But i enjoyed it.
- Siobhan
Comments
Post a Comment