Pretty Miss Sheeba, with a bow in her hair. Dan hated it.
Such good fur-babies (aka...waiting for a treat)
But onto the title... I've noticed quite a few differences between my home state of Iowa and my new adopted state of Tennessee. These aren't major things, but when combined, they really make me notice how different things are in the Midwest as compared to the South.
- The first thing I noticed when we arrived in Tennessee is that the dirt is red, not black. It pretty much is the consistency of clay and the dogs love to roll around in it, making them look like they've been in a brawl. So weird to see red soil instead of black, and not a stalk of corn to be found!
- We moved down the first week of June, and it also happened to be the week of the CMT country music fest. And every night on the news were multiple stories of country music acts- who was playing when, what was coming up the next day, different activities, etc. Even though the music fest is over, there are still plenty of stories about various artists and events each night. This is strange to me because in Iowa, the only subject that commands that kind of attention is the crops and/or how the weather affects them!
- This one hits me hard: THERE ARE NO CASEY'S IN TENNESSEE! I repeat, no Casey's gas stations. This is really terrible because I love Casey's pizza (and especially the breakfast pizza for a hangover) and their donuts with sprinkles. I have not found a replacement for it yet, they only have KangarooMart or Mapco stations around these parts. Sad face, really sad face.
- In the same vein, there are no HyVee's or Fareway's here, only Krogers and Publix. This also bums me out because Fareway has THE BEST meat selection.
- Everybody says y'all. :)
- Something else I noticed was that there are very few garages down here, mainly carports. I guess when there is so little snow and the temperature doesn't get too cold in the winter, there isn't a real need for them, but it still seems odd that so many houses have no garages at all.
- Last, but definitely not least, is the traffic. Holy hell, the traffic, and the inability of anyone in this state to follow the rules of the road while in said traffic. I swear to God, they give driver's license to 10 year olds and then lets them just figure out the traffic laws on their own. It's that bad. People crossing five lanes of oncoming traffic all willy nilly, cars using turning lanes as their own personal roadway, people honking at me because I follow the law (seriously, this lady honked at me at least 20 times because I wouldn't turn left into traffic coming from BOTH ways), and a general disinterest by the cops who see these violations. And then there are the people who think walking across a busy highway is a good idea. Oofta...or as they say in the South, bless their hearts.
More to come!
