Cross Country Trip 2012: Rocky and Sam Walton

(Thursday) Three states today - AK, MO and OK, even though we only drove about 200 miles! From Branson we drove west across back country roads and easily found Rocky Comfort, MO. The major industry around here seems to be poultry - chickens and Turkeys for Butterball and Tyson. The cemetery at the Prosperity Baptist Church is home to bunch of Biggses and Davidsons. John's grandparents and great grandparents are buried there, along with other relatives of two and three generations ago. (Three Biggs boys married three Davidson sisters) The cemetery grounds, much larger than you would expect based on the number of people around, are well cared for and the Baptist church seems to be a thriving congregation.

Unfortunately, the village of Rocky Comfort, actually just a crossroads of two country lanes, is no longer. There is a post office (not sure why), but what used to be the general store and the cafe are closed and dilapidated. This is very rural country!

From Rocky, we headed south down to Bentonville, AR, the home of Sam Walton and WalMart. WalMart has its home offices here, which obviously employs LOTS of people. As you may expect, their buildings are very non-descript and austere. No way would WalMart spend a lot money on extravagant offices! The original "5 and 10" store that was Sam's Ben Franklin store is now home to a Wal Mart visitor center which highlights the history of Sam Walton and the company.

Then we headed west across the border into Oklahoma. We ended our day in the town of Grove, on the shores of Grand Lake of the Cherokees. After a dinner of catfish and ribs, we got in just in time to watch the VP debate (oh boy).