Late last night, I was lying in my hotel bed, deep in my current book, "Domestic Habits of the Americans", by Joanna Trollope. It's perfect reading for this trip, since she discusses in great detail the lives of country Americans, albeit from the viewpoint of the early 19th century. But as I read, I started to notice a whirring, whooshing noise, almost like the sound of an extremely strong wind. At first I thought it had to be the air-conditioner, since I couldn't imagine that such a wind could be blowing outside. Yet, finally, I took myself to the window, and saw a storm raging outside, trees lashing in the wind, rain pelting down, and, bizarrely, the lawn sprinklers all firing, throwing their own torrents of water to the wind. I honestly thought that I should get dressed in case a tornado made its appearance! But a check of the weather channel gave no indication of tornadoes. In fact, they said the wind was only 6 mph, with no gusts, which was clearly dead wrong! Do they ever look out the window?

I didn't wake up until 8.30, which was blessedly late by my standards. Since I wasn't due to meet my work colleague until eleven-thirty, I had time to check my email, and do a workout. In preparation for my Summer trip, I'd bought a book about how to work out in a hotel room without weights. Some of the exercises are rather unlikely, such as doing one-arm rows with a suitcase. They obviously weren't predicting suitcases as large as mine! And while trying the underdesk raise, I almost pulled the desk over on top of me!

Thankfully, today was a chest and abs day anyway, so I could resort to tried and trusted crunches and push ups. Push ups truly offer a powerful workout for the chest, and I felt quite wiped out after four intense sets of them.

At eleven-thirty, I met my colleague, Robert, in the hotel lobby. He proved to be a very short, amiable guy of about my age - maybe a little younger. Over lunch, which, like everything else here in Arkansas was unbelievably inexpensive by San Francisco standards, Robert filled me in on the details of the project, and our relationship with the customer. So far, I haven't known a single consulting project to go according to plan, and this was no exception. He also warned me about the almost Orwellian atmosphere in this particular office. And he was right. A thousand employees in a small, three-story, windowless building, with strict security, bubble cameras on the ceiling, and motivational memos painted in large black letters on the walls. You even had to pay for a drink of coffee. Remind me never to interview for this company!

Hard at work

Back at the hotel after a long six hours of work, the skies looked uncertain, but I decided to chance it, and asked the hotel receptionist if he could suggest a place to go running. He directed me to Bentonville City Park just a couple of minutes away by car, which is mainly a recreational area for soccer and baseball. I jogged around the perimeter of the baseball park, while the sun slowly conquered the early evening clouds. Every time I ran past the bulls who were munching moodily on the other side of the fence, I felt just a little bit anxious. Something in their angry eyes made me think that these bulls were just waiting for the natural order of bull-tramples-man to reassert itself.

Bulls by the side of the baseball park. They didn't seem to like having their photo taken.

Running in the quiet evening, with the sun slanting warmly across the green fields, was such a pleasure. I could easily understand why people opt to live out here, even if it's never a choice I'd make for myself.

My evening run

After running, instead of heading back to the hotel, I drove off the beaten path down a country road to explore. The land grew even prettier, with small houses and old barns sitting behind trees in attractively cultivated land, and the low sun casting infinite green shadows. I tried to think what it would be like to live here. It wasn't an impossible supposition, I found, assuming I had a job that kept my interest. The hard thing, of course, would be building friendships in an area like this, where I'd think it would be hard to find people I could relate to. And I doubt I could really give up city life, with all its stimulation and life. But even so, I can see the other side of things better now. I don't think I'll question ever again why people choose to live in places like this.