In the early 2010s, a close friend and I decided to jump into the mobile app Foursquare with some competition. At the time, there was an array of ‘badges’ you could earn by checking into various places and locations. We feverishly opened the app and announced where we were as we traversed the globe. He had a slightly unfair advantage because he worked for an airline and could move about more easily than I could. He even flew to New York one day and ran around the city scooping up as many badges as possible. The competition ended when one of us reached 100 badges.
At the time I was living in New Orleans, and I was anxious to increase my badge number as well. One of the badges was called, “You’re not in Kansas anymore” and you received it if you checked in somewhere in the state of Kansas and then checked in somewhere outside of Kansas. (It was properly titled.) A three day Spring weekend came around and I convinced Matt that we should do a road trip and drive up to Kansas City. I hadn’t been before, and I was excited about the badge opportunity.
We packed a bag, jumped in my yellow Mini Cooper (I miss you, Chip), and drove North. The drive took us up through Mississippi followed by a quick wave at Memphis and then over the Mississippi River into Arkansas. We traversed the Arkansas Ozarks up into South-Central Missouri and then over to Kansas City. These were states that I hadn’t experienced before, and I definitely had a few preconceived notions, although I thoroughly enjoyed the ride and exploration. Arkansas is a ridiculously beautiful place, and Missouri was serving up some real 20th century Americana.
We arrived in Kansas City in the evening and took it in by driving around aimlessly. It was more cosmopolitan than I had expected. There were grand boulevards, trendy restaurants and coffee shops, and some interesting looking buildings and hotels. The vibe on the streets made me feel like the city was going through a renaissance, but as I had never been there before there was no way for me to compare it to its past. I also didn’t know if those preconceived notions made me look down upon Kansas City before really knowing it.
That’s the thing about being in this part of the US; I generally had negative expectations. The middle of the country is sometimes looked down upon and referred to as ‘fly-over country’ and I was guilty of sharing those sentiments. During this road trip and exploration of Kansas City, it dawned on me that maybe I had been too quick to judge the ‘heartland’.
On our drive back down to New Orleans, we decided to take a different route and drove along the Western edge of Arkansas. First, we stopped to see the damage of a tornado that had recently wrecked havoc on Joplin, Missouri. To see the destruction of a large tornado first hand was overwhelming, and we couldn’t help but become silent and reflect on what the people there must have gone through.
A short time after that we were driving into downtown Bentonville, the headquarters of Walmart. That was another startling surprise, albeit of a different caliber. Here, in an otherwise rural part of America, was a bustling town with a world-class art museum and amenities you normally wouldn’t expect from a town of that size. In order to entice top-notch global talent, Walmart heavily invested in making the town first class, and it showed.
Not everything about the trip was pleasant. There was more than one occasion when we received some pretty intense stares from local people. For one meal, we ate at a Chinese restaurant in Missouri where people were chain-smoking. It was a very unwanted blast from the past. Most of the people we did meet were friendly, and I often think back on the trip, especially as America becomes increasingly divided. It was clear that the people in these areas just want to live their lives and be happy, like most people in the world. Fear, hate-mongering and tribalism make it seem like there are vast differences between so many of us, but in reality there are many more similarities across all peoples, and that was evident on this road trip.
In order to get my Foursquare badge, we decided to check out a BBQ place in Kansas City, Kansas, that I had seen on a Food Network TV show. It happened to be located inside an active gas station with a line that ran through the establishment and out the door for a solid hour. The experience we had here is one of the reasons why I love America, and why I respect the power of food. Every type of person you could imagine was in this line. There were multiple races, young and old people, LGBT people, and I imagine many religions, political thoughts and opinions about life. It wasn’t just a queue of people waiting, it was a festive atmosphere. People were striking up conversations, sharing stories of other great BBQ places and bonding over the food and the experience. This is how I like to experience life: having my preconceptions challenged, seeing diverse peoples bonding, and anticipating incredible food.
What started out as a silly road trip for a silly competition ended up being a really great lesson in the beauty of America. Oh, and by the way, I ended up winning that Foursquare contest.