What’s The 401?!?!

Bentonville, Arkansas (Travellin’ Man)

Ahh the wonderful world of the travellin’ man.  Spent yesterday flying to and from Bentonville, Arkansas for a meeting with who else… Wal-Mart… which is just about the only reason that Bentonville, Arkansas even exists.  A small town with a teeny weeny little airport, Bentonville isn’t exactly what you’d call a bustling place.  Put it this way… the airport, Northwest Arkansas Regional Aiport to be exact, has four gates.  When you land… you walk down a little jetway into a building that looks like a warehouse.  No furniture, no people waiting, no gate agents just an empty space.  Of course, you eventually get to the waiting area… which holds about fifty people.  The ride from the airport to downtown Bentonville… if you want to call it that…it’s more like a three mile strip mall… is about 15 minutes past a few farms, one gas station and a lot of open space littered with either shacks or sprawling developments where every house looks exactly the same.  Interestingly enough, on the way back to the airport we passed by an undeveloped development.  The surrounding stone wall was there… there was one house built… the plots were even named… something like Windy Acres… but there was nothing built there.  Apparantly, plans to turn Bentonville into Dallas haven’t exactly been on the up and up. 

Honestly, Bentonville didn’t seem like a bad place to live.  The people there seemed nice, I’m sure there is little to no crime and I’d be willing to bet that you can get what would amount to a mansion here in Rhode Island for about half the going RI rate.  The problem would seem to be finding something to do… there isn’t a major city within 100 miles… there didn’t seem to be much of anyplace to have a night life and there were a hell of a lot of chains stores and restaurants… including a Super Wal-Mart.  Of course!  I can see why cow tipping might be a popular activity in such a place.

So what’s my final verdict on Bentonville, Arkansas?  It’s not a place I’d visit outside of having to go there for work related purposes.  But hey, at least now we can add another state to the list.  As of today, the state tally is at 26.

Arkansas, Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Texas, Vermont, Virginia, Wisconsin 

Only 24 more to go!