The Pig Trail, Lafayette and Bentonville

The "Pig Trail", Arkansas Hwy 23,  is a famous road for motorcyclists because of its curves, hills, and scenery. One motorcycle rider from Minnesota who I talked with at a small store along the route told me this road is the #5 ranked route in the USA for motorcyles. It starts in the town of Ozark and goes northward and then forks off towards either Fayetteville or Eureka Springs. It indeed fit the description. I'm sure it is a fun ride on a motorcycle.

The store owner warned us there was construction on the road ahead -- 8 one lane sections with flagmen on the road to fayetteville, and 2 on the way to Eureka Springs. I was planning on riding to Eureka Springs, so that wasn't good news. I checked my map and found an alternate route to Fayetteville by going through Huntsville, and thankfully there was no major construction on that route.

Fayetteville is the home of the University of Arkansas razorbacks. I tried on the hat, but I don't think it suits me. I guess it's good that I didn't go to school here.

The countryside was typical Ozarks... lots of trees, rolling hills, and periodic farms with rolls of hay in the fields, and sometimes cattle and a little further south I saw some cornfields. Makes me wonder if hay and corn are the major crops in this state.

Bentonville is North of Fayetteville, and is the home of Walmart. The Walmart museum is under renovation, but they have a smaller, temporary museum as a placeholder until the main one opens again. The temporary museum had Sam Walton's 10 rules for building a business posted in the window.

For a major corporation, Walmart's headquarters is very low key. But after all, we're talking Walmart and Bentonville, not Trump Tower and New York -- so maybe it's not so surprising. This appears to be the main entrance to the headquarters.

This large rectangular building, and what appears to be an R&D building for innovation, were behind.

I walked around downtown for awhile, and had some fried catfish at the Flying Fish restaurant. I normally like my fish grilled, but hey, this is the South, so fried fish is their specialty. It was breaded with cornmeal, which I liked better than flour. It was good, and even came with a couple of hush puppies!

Bentonville is also apparently a mountain biking mecca. There is a big Specialized bike shop downtown.

Thank you Walmart for another good night sleep! I slept in the the town of Rogers tonight. The Walmart was conveniently located a block away from Planet Fitness. It's a little  cooler up here and and not so humid, which makes sleeping in the car more pleasant.

A tornado went through the Bentonville area a few weeks ago. Someone told me it was over a mile wide, and some people died. I saw several large uprooted trees from the aftermath. Arkansas is a beautiful state but I guess tornadoes are a risk you have to learn to live with. Arkansas is part of "tornado alley", after all.