Observations on a Trip

So yesterday, me, the Queen, and the princesses took a road trip to Arkansas to bid farewell to the Queen's great-great aunt. She was 93 and led a very full and happy life, by the sounds of what was said at the funeral. It made me wish I actually knew her. She sounded interesting.

We headed out of Tulsa on highway 412 at 6 in the morning and I noticed something rather amusing. Tulsa is the big city in my part of the state. The suburbs around it are mostly bedroom communities, though some, like Broken Arrow, have grown so large that they have a life of their own outside Tulsa. Well, the road ahead of us was completely clear at that time of the morning. Very few vehicles heading east. Now, the road coming into Tulsa was whole different story. We checked out the headlights on the other side of the road and there was a long, long line of them constantly rolling in. I guess a lot of people from outside of Tulsa come to the "big city" to find work. Granted, I work in Tulsa, but I also didn't pick my job either.

So we got to Arkansas, and there were more observations to be had. First, as you may know, Arkansas is the birthplace of Wal-Mart. It's based out of Bentonville, which we have driven through before. We passed a Neighborhood Market while in one of the town between here and our destination of Huntsville. Now, we have a neighborhood market in Broken Arrow, but it's referred to as a Wal-Mart Neighborhood Market. This particular store was called Neighborhood Market by Wal-Mart. It has the new orange firework looking symbol, so we're not sure if it's new or old branding it this way.

More amusing than that was two towns Arkansas has. One of them is Huntsville, which is where we were heading to (or Huntsvul, as it's pronounced there where people are "borned"). Not far from Huntsville is a town called Hindsville. Sure it's not spelled "Heinz," but to have two ketchup (or catsup, depending on your preference) cities so close together has made me wish that Worchestershire was closer than the UK. Now, the company that does Vlasic pickles is out of Fayetteville, so there's a good possibility of some condiment activity there.

What would be the most memorable thing for the princesses? Going a few miles on unpaved, country roads to the cemetery. Yeah, us city folk don't do country roads much.