Who says you can't go home?

Clint and I spent last week in his hometown of Mulberry, Ark. Population: about 1,600. He grew up on a farm, where his parents still raise turkeys, cattle and Yorkshire Terriers. They also have an assortment of other dogs, horses and a lamb. He, of course, loves a trip back to Arkansas where life runs at a considerably slower pace than our everyday lives in Charleston.

I, on the other hand, get a little stir crazy after a couple days and insist on a trip to the mall in Fort Smith (about 25 minutes away) and a White Chocolate Mocha from Starbucks. Ahh, civilization.

While in town, we spent some time just driving around. For a couple of years Clint attended the community college in Fort Smith--now a branch of the University of Arkansas. So we drove by the campus and he pointed out new buildings and talked about how things had changed. We also drove by the place where he used to race remote control cars (now closed). We stopped by a used bookstore (still open!), Snooper's Barn, where Clint spent plenty of time buying used paperbacks as a child.

We even had lunch at the Pizza Parlor, a local pizza joint Clint insisted has the best thin crust pizza with chopped Canadian bacon. The place hadn't changed a bit, he said.

When you move away from your hometown, you tend to miss the little things. And you tend to reminisce about every experience, every detail with a rosy vision clouded with the happy hazy of time. I do the same thing. When I go home to Ohio, I want to eat at my favorite pizza place. I want to drive by Ohio University. I want to shop in my favorite stores. I want to remember "the good 'ol days."

It's tough to go back and see what has changed, so we hang on to those memories that have stayed the same. And if we're comforted by a slice of pizza that's been the same for 20 years, so be it.

You live where?

On our trip to Arkansas Saturday ... our 16-hour trip ... we passed a sign for a town with probably the greatest name ever: Toad Suck.

I couldn't make this up, people. I almost stopped along Interstate 40W in Arkansas to take a picture. I asked Clint if there was any possible way we could make a detour through Toad Suck. I was quickly calculating the number of T-shirts and coffee mugs I would need for friends and co-workers. Unfortunately, it would have been a two-hour (one-way) detour on our already painfully long trip (did I mention it was a 16-hour drive?).

It almost would have been worth it. I may still go to the Web site and order a T-shirt for Toad Suck Daze, a music, food and arts festival.

If you're like me, you just have to know how the town got its name. According to toadsuck.org:

Long ago, steamboats traveled the Arkansas River when the water was at the right depth. When it wasn't, the captains and their crew tied up to wait where the Toad Suck Lock and Dam now spans the river.

While they waited, they refreshed themselves at the local tavern there, to the dismay of the folks living nearby, who said: "They suck on the bottle 'til they swell up like toads." Hence, the name Toad Suck.


That's perfect. You just can't make that up.

Real Estate Trials, Part IV

We finally closed on our house Friday and now we're officially homeless. The buyers were a father and son. The father is the primary owner and the son looks to be about 24. He seemed like an incredibly cocky jerk, and I feel certain the flowers I have so lovingly cared for the last five years will die a painful death in the South Carolina heat.

*Sigh*

But, I can't dwell on things I can't change, so I'll dwell on things I can: like the new house. Come July 19, we'll be doing all sort of home improvements and I can start planting in a new yard. Clint even suggested he might build me a greenhouse next summer and I'm not going to let him forget it.

Unfortunately, we're homeless right now. This week we're visiting Clint's family in Arkansas and then we'll be staying with friends when we return. (Might I add these friends are angels to let two humans and two dogs stay with them along with a ton of junk that wouldn't fit in our storage unit -- thank you!)

I'm just happy to be done with this first phase of moving. Next: closing on new home.