Pronounced “BLY-ble” by the natives, Blytheville is located in the very northeast corner of Arkansas in the Mississippi River Delta. There is a population of about 18,200 currently in town.
Chris found a trailer park close to work by calling up the city of Dell, AR and asking about local trailer parks. One of the people told him about her brother who had a trailer park nearby. So we’re staying in a lot next to a house and some soybean fields. It’s a homemade trailer park, but it has gravel, sewer hook-up, water and electricity! We’re actually in a little area called Half Moon. I’m told that it is so named because back in De Soto’s time there was a small lake here in the shape of a half moon. This whole area used to be swamp before levies and small canals were built. Our fellow trailer neighbors are pretty friendly and told us we were free to share their washer and dryer. We’re sharing our wireless internet connection with them. It’s a regular kibbutz here! All of the trailer park boys here work at the power plant with Chris. Except they’re long-term and we’re about ready to leave in about a week.
Chris and I made friends with a local couple after the man helped us get the trailer out of a ditch. We went to visit them a few houses down last Saturday and brought over an apple tart. Floyd and Linda showed us around their property. It was very interesting. I wished I had brought my camera with me at the time. I might go back and take pictures later. In the middle of one of their driveways is a nesting bird called a Killdeer. (Go to http://www.birdwatching.com/stories/killdeer.html or www.nhptv.org/Natureworks/killdeer.htm to learn more about these birds and to see some photos) These birds nest in rocks and gravel. A nesting pair take turns creating diversions from their eggs. They’ll fly away and pretend to have a broken wing or else if you’re already too close to the nest they’ll try to scare you by moving their wings around and clucking at you. They’re much smaller than a chicken and have skinny little legs so they just end up looking cute. Speaking of chickens, Floyd raises Bantam chickens as pets. They also have a fish pond with a variety of fish including white catfish with blue eyes!
Downtown Blytheville reminds me of the downtown of the city I grew up in. Main St. is just one lane wide in either direction with small independent stores, lots of trees and not enough parking. We found a great bookstore there called, “That Bookstore in Blytheville”. They could have called it, “The Bookstore in Blytheville” ‘cuz we haven’t seen any others. Across the street is an old Greyhound bus station from about the late 1920’s early ’30s. I’ll try to take some more pictures of the area while we’re here.
