A few things about Arkansas

We knew that Arkansas would be different than what we're used to and it definitely was.  I had a good time observing the people and the lifestyle there and even took it as far as making a list, here is what I learned:

1. humidity is a beast- the first breath I took off the plane had me gasping for air, and bearing the 80 degree weather with 90% humidity was seriously uncomfortable!

2.  Sales tax is an outrageous 13%- When we went out for dinner the first night we looked at the bill intending to double the tax to for a tip and quickly noticed that doubling the tax would equal a quarter of the whole bill...crazy!  Apparently doubling the tax for a tip is not the rule of thumb in Arkansas.

3. Walmart is the only place to buy anything- I asked our waitress where the nearest grocery store was and without skipping a beat she said "Oh, Walmart is just down the street." to which I replied "can we buy all of our groceries at Walmart?"  I've never considered Walmart to be a grocery store.  Weird.

(4 and 5 go together)

4. Tornado warnings are routine- We were in Arkansas for a total of five days and on three  of the five days tornado warnings were issued.  On one particular day the storm was so strong that the front desk called and told us to come to the lobby to take cover when the           fire alarm went off. 

This is a picture that we took of our TV as we watched the storm get closer... we were in Fayetteville.

and

5. Green sky= tornado- The sky would turn green when the storm was close and lightning would flash at least twice every minute.  Green sky is super eerie.

6. the roadkill is rampant- the variety of dead animals on the road ranged from raccoons, opossums, armadillos, and frogs. We even had a couple of dead frogs in the parking lot of our hotel.

7. to ride a motorcycle you must be at least 300lbs- we saw at least two motorcycles on the road each day and every single time the people riding them were heavy set.  It was so odd.

8. Sonic is the McDonalds of the South- Sonic restaurants were everywhere and they even have a "happy hour" where all drinks are half off between 2pm and 4pm... we went there twice.

Arkansas was very interesting... I enjoyed pointing out its quirks.  I'll actually post on the real reason we were there soon enough.