Arkansas Trip

Had a business trip to Arkansas over the past several days. I visited Northwest Arkansas for the first time - Fayetteville /Bentonville area.

It's pretty country up there - actually kindof odd geography to encounter mountains and rocky cliffs after driving for so long through flat, fairly featureless, farm country. There are some striking views on the drive up I-540. I was up there for a meeting on Monday and it started sleeting. I got out of town just in time. I understand they closed the interstate for about 7 hours shortly after I left town. Because of the terrain there are lots of elevated bridges that will ice quickly when temperatures drop. I passed a wreck of about 4-5 cars on my way south on a particularly long and inclined bridge that backed up traffic considerably in the opposite direction.

Some other things about the trip
- On Sunday I arrived in Little Rock at about 7:00. The hotel front door was locked. I had to call the hotel on the cell phone to let me in. I then went to get something to eat and two of the restaurants I tried to stop at had already locked their doors before 8:00 on a Sunday night. Very odd evening.
- I get back to the hotel Monday night and my room card doesn't work. I was beginning to get the feeling they didn't want me there.
- I passed a "Toad Suck Park" somewhere between Little Rock and NW Arkansas. If I had time I would've stopped just to have said I was there. Maybe bought a T-Shirt.
- I think I passed a dead chicken on the side of the interstate. I can't say I've ever done that either.
- My meals were pretty lame. Sunday: Taco Bell. Monday: McDonalds and Papa Johns. Tuesday: Conoco. The Conoco might've been the best food of the entire bunch - I love those gas station potato wedges. And those cookies at the Double Tree were pretty good too.

Glad to be home now though. That's a lot of driving.

Observation from travels

I spent the last week traveling through Louisiana. New Orleans, Baton Rouge, Lafayette, and Lake Charles

Some observations
1. The water in Baton Rouge tastes terrible and won't get the soap off.
2. There's a Conoco gas station somewhere on I-10 with a Tiger Cage, lots of broken gas pumps, a bathroom with a door that doesn't close, and lots of graffiti. A friend I was traveling with said the station has character - along with other notable diseases such as hepatitis.
3. They eat a lot of seafood in Louisiana. Raw oysters seem to be everyone's favorite.
4. Lafayette LA is pronounced "laugh a yet". I mispronounced it in one of the meetings and had to explain the different pronunciations in Kentucky "Lah fay yet" and Tennessee "Luh fay yet" with the emphasis on the second syllable.
5. I-10 may be the longest stretch of elevated inter-state I've ever been on - like driving on a never ending bridge. It's all swamp underneath.