Birthplace of Wal-Mart

I visited the first Wal-Mart the other day. The original store sits in downtown Bentonville and serves as a museum/souvenir shop, that traces the origin and history of Sam Walton and how he built his empire. In the back, they have a display of his actual office that was reassembled after his death in 1992.

They also have on display Mr. Walton's 1979 Red Ford F150 pickup truck. When taking photos, I noticed a lot of dust on the hood of the truck. For a company that enjoyed a net profit of more than $100 billion this last quarter, you'd think they would at least hire somebody to dust the thing once in a while.

Interesting Fact

I didn't know this, but Arkansas is one of the states that falls within the borders of Tornado Alley (http://www.tornadochaser.net/tornalley.html). Love it! I grew up in California where we had to deal with earthquakes, which are obviously horrible and an incredibly dangerous threat to those living on and around fault lines. However, the thought of waking up one morning only to find out our house has been transported three states away by a twister doesn't sit well with me.

Before moving to Arkansas, I wasn't aware of the existence of a "Tornado Alley"; I probably heard of it before on the news but didn't pay much attention to it at the time. I wasn't even aware that Tornadoes touch down in Arkansas until one of the mommies at our daughter's Gymboree gym class mentioned something about a Tornado warning siren the night before during an intense storm. I suppose I didn't do my homework before we moved from California. I mean, it's bad enough when you find out the county you're moving to doesn't sell alcohol, and now this tornado business. I think the image below is an example of a tornado-proof mail box they've been working on down here. Your house may be destroyed, but that Netflix you've been waiting on is safe.

Random shots of Bentonville

A Pleasurable Time at the DMV

The other day, I visited the Benton County Assessor's office to have our car "assessed". This took about ten minutes, with them simply imputing data into their system. Once the assessment was complete, I walked, with the baby who was being great (I was ready for the inevitable meltdown toddlers can have when within the confines of a government building), down to the other end of the building to register our car and get our Arkansas plates.

For all of my friends and the rest of you in California, you've all experienced the DMV. In Bentonville, I waited for about 15 minutes, experienced nice, efficient customer service and walked out with a new license plate under my arm.

Who knew?

At least they didn't spell it with a C.

Composting

In Bentonville, Allied Waste is charged with picking up the trash and recyclables (the list is short of what they take; more on that in another post). There is no green bin for yard and food waste here. Since I haven't spoken to any of our neighbors about this yet, I'm not sure what people around here do with their food waste. I have noticed that when some people cut their lawns, they allow the clippings to be distributed back into the lawn, a lot of which gets blown into the street.

Since we knew there would be no local pick up of our compost items, we purchased a home compost maker from NatureMill online (http://www.naturemill.com). It takes most of our food waste and turns it into rich soil within a few weeks.

Organic Food Search

Since we arrived in Arkansas, most of our time has been devoted to unpacking and getting the house settled. Back in California, we always made an effort to buy organic food, eco-friendly products and recycle whenever possible. During our first week here, we found it challenging to find the items that were so plentiful in California. Questions of "where is your organic produce" or "was this beef fed hormones" were met with quizzical looks. It has also been difficult to find biodegradable garbage and doggie-poopie bags.

Today we scored. We made a visit to Ozark Natural Foods (http://www.ozarknaturalfoods.com), which is very similar to Whole Foods (w/o the annoying attitude of the clientele) back home. Ozark is a locally owned consumer cooperative, whose mission is "dedicated to a healthful living and sustainability". The only thing we didn't like is having to drive to Fayetteville (about a 20 minute drive) to get there.

We were very happy to find this market, not only for the wonderful products, but now our baby will continue to enjoy her Annie's Organic White Cheddar Cheese Bunnies.

The Subdivision....continued.

Day 5 in Bentonville, Arkansas and I feel like we're settling in a bit more. The weather has cooled to about 90 today with a slight breeze.

The first image is a view of our neighborhood from the front door. There isn't really much I can say except: grass is king here. There seems to be an unspoken competition among local homeowners to see whose grass can be the thickest, greenest, and most lush. Some poor slob down the street has grass that is a brownish-yellow and lay in tatters. I get the feeling he's been outcast by the others. As far as watering, most grass here is of the Bermuda variety, which I'm told does not require watering.

The image below was taken from the roof of our old apartment building in San Francisco the day we moved out. I'm a bit disturbed when viewing both images side-by-side like this. Not sure how healthy this posting is for my mental well-being at the moment.

Benton County is Dry

You cannot purchase alcohol in the county we live in, unless you go to a restaurant. So, we packed up the baby and headed north over the Missouri border to Macadoodles, in Pineville, MO. I suppose it can be considered Missouri's BevMo. It was only a 20 to 25 minute drive and their wine selection is pretty impressive. Again, the people were extremely helpful and friendly and even carted our wine out to the car. That never happened in San Francisco.

Introducing.......the subdivision.

Here we are, in Bentonville, Arkansas. We flew in Monday afternoon and were basically fried. We spent the night in a hotel, since our belongings would not be delivered until the following day. After enjoying take out from Sonic Burger, we crashed.

We are renting a house in a subdivision of Bentonville. For those of you who do not know (and I did not until moving here), a subdivision refers to the act of dividing large areas of land into areas that are easier to develop and subsequently sell. The area we live in is named Wild Wood.

We've only been here a few days, and most of our time has been spent unpacking and getting the house in order. I hope to spend more time exploring the local area and writing about it as we become more settled. I will say that the people we have been meeting since coming to town have been extremely friendly and cordial.

Tomorrow is the day.

At 7:45 a.m. Monday morning, my wife, daughter, myself and our dog Sophie, board a plane bound for Bentonville, Arkansas. For those of you out there who have wondered what it could possibly be like to move from San Francisco to Bentonville, or simply moving from a big metropolitan city to the country, this blog is for you.