By Keisha Pittman of bigpittstop

I’m quickly becoming “that girl”. No, not “that girl”, the one with the 2 mis-matched animal print pieces of luggage that stay packed in the floor of my bedroom. Thankfully as a single gal, there’s no dude complaining as he trips over them to get in bed, but I might need to think about the fact that these suitcases are killing my personal life!

Some new changes in job position this past summer have me working with staff across the bilateral, northern part of our great state. When I thought about the topic of “have suitcase, will travel”, my mind when immediately to my 2 week adventure in Italy with my sister. Yea, those kinds of suitcases will make a girl weak in the knees to see that sweet boy with the curly hair and dreamy accent who toured us around the Coliseum (there was a point I thought we were about to get kidnapped like in the movie Taken which came out 3 weeks before…but I’m still here writing today so we get to talk about him being dreamy!).

But my 2 mismatched suitcases somewhat take me on a similar adventure every week. Yes, I’m now a member of several different hotel chains (I work for a non-profit, we got a go cheap not consistent) and I know the life details of the staff at my local Enterprise, but I also get to see crazy awesome things:

• High School stadiums that would rival anything in Friday Night Lights and are sponsored by local banks and bear the banners of state championships dating back to the 50’s and 60’s (some of same names are on those banners and the businesses I pass along the way…)
• I stop for lunch at Subway restaurants in strip malls next to nail salons (and, if I have an extra hour I stop by there too!)
• Abandoned gas stations turned into a local BBQ pit

• Fields of oil rigs and wishing wells
• Fields of perfectly placed hay-bales that make you wish you were hearing banjos
• Truly seeing “the edge of town” to the scent of the local rodeo or sell barn

• Coachman’s Inn, Linda’s Dinner and Town and Country Market all occupying the same building that’s been there since 1964
• School district administration buildings that have taken over abandoned car lots
• “community” bank billboards with pictures of local high school students deemed as true “investments”
• Abandoned plantation homes that would make Walter Arnold jump in a time machine
• Little white churches with stained glass windows that make you want to pull in the parking lot and sing a couple lines of Victory in Jesus
• You can see the linear path of destruction from natural disasters and ice storms – where they start and where they end
• Occasionally you get stuck on these 2 lane roads behind a feed sprayer driving approximately 8 miles an hour, 42 under the true speed limit, but this gives your day a gift of time and you have longer to breathe in the scenes around you
• If you’re lucky you’ll find the road to Louisiana where a man rides to and from his destination adorned with period appropriate attire from a saloon in the Wild West or at least the old western days that scarred the streets of old town Fort Smith.

• You understand and experience the true beauty and fear that comes from the fullness of each season – budding trees, soaring birds of prey, red of maples and winter’s frozen treats

Next time you pull out your “overnight” suitcase for just a short trip, let me challenge you to pack your nostalgia goggles and carry them in your front seat. Whether it’s a trip to grandma’s, work across the state or the county line – stop, look, listen, and breathe in the life happening around you. Kids read history books, producers create movies and writers will tell the tale of what’s happening today. Who knows – our suitcase might just bring home a bottle of shampoo from a soon to be historic hotel, our expense report may see the line item of a locally known eatery and we might just brush elbows with a future state leader.

Arkansas is a place I call home…suitcases packed or not.
Thank goodness to social media, even when I’m on the road I can stay connected – Blog, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, http://www.pinterest.com/bigpittstop/.

Keisha Pittman can be found over at bigpittstop, a blog started when she was brushing up on her superpowers kicking cancer’s butt. 5 years later, it’s a chapter book of a 30 something navigating life and learning lessons along the way. She is a self-proclaimed nerd and every once in a while lets us have a little glimpse into her recipes-for disaster, Saturday scenic drives and mindless thoughts of life in Northwest Arkansas.