Rowdy's Review

I moved to Arkansas the first week of April. So I'm very near to having been here 11 months. I think I can do an initial review now of some things without having to wait a year exactly.

-I haven't made any friends here in the way I'm used to. No one to train with. No one to ride motorcycles with. Nunca. I'm pretty isolated here, physically and emotionally.

-All of the promised sponsorship things have failed to appear. No training sessions, no travel, no match stuff, no regular job. Pretty much left to my own except by my holster guy. Who is awesome. But the things I wanted, the intangibles to make my shooting better and raise my professional profile weren't delivered. What I have gained is membership at a place I can practice in a way I never could in CA. I'm not panicking, but I am disappointed about this.

-Bugs here are crazy. Not even in SE Asia or the Middle East have I been attacked by bugs like this. Bugs are the real rulers of AR.

-Mexican food as you're used to from S California absolutely does not exist here. But there are other things. The issue is good places are rare. Trying some place new on a whim here more often than not leads to regret.

-I love having seasons. I don't really mind the heat and humidity. The two days of snow were interesting as well.

-People are nice here. But there still is a strong racial divide in the South. Race does mean something here, in different ways to different people.

-The roads are good for motorcycling.

-Almost everything cool you've seen about AR or the outdoors is in NW Arkansas. Not around Little Rock. So a two hour drive away.

-Things in general cost less, except going out to eat. Prepared food here is way more expensive than in CA. Silly. But gasoline, houses and utilities are dang cheap here.

-If I'm still living here in 2019 I'll be very very surprised......