Posted on 06/24/2026 7:33:28 PM PDT by Red Badger
Freddy, the World Cup tourist from Germany, is giving us a grand tour of our country just in time for our 250th birthday.
When last we left them in the saga, Freddy was in Michigan. He'd just had a great visit to Niagara Falls, saw the fireworks, with a patriotic light show of red, white, and blue over the falls. On top of that, he got a great invitation to have a special "treat" from Chef Gordon Ramsey when they reach Boston, their ultimate destination for the Germany game on Monday.
However, rather than driving straight from Niagara Falls to Boston, he decided to go west and loop around so he could see Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
In the process, he's eating like an American. He grabbed a corn dog and other stuff at Walmart. I don't vouch for what his stomach must have been like after eating this.
He thought the fraternity houses at the University of Michigan looked "straight out of the movies."
Freddy said they were trying to avoid the interstate highways and drive through the small towns. He loved this town when he hit it in Ohio, calling it "peak America," with the American flags out, and what looked like a barber pole out front.
VIDEO AT LINK.................
Then he confessed to eating too much Taco Bell on the trip.
Freddy is going to have to go on a diet after he leaves.
But then he made it to Amish country in Ohio, and was very excited to see the Amish.
He loved Berlin, Ohio.
While he was hesitant about taking pictures of the Amish because he didn't want to offend anyone, he did get some of the buildings and a buggy.
They made it to Pennsylvania.
As of the moment, he's now made it to 13 different states and is giving us a great view in the process: Georgia, Florida, North Carolina (which they drove through for 20 minutes), Tennessee, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Texas, Oklahoma, New York, Michigan, Ohio, and Pennsylvania.
“Why? Is it because of all the poverty? The movie Winters Bone (with a young Jennifer Lawrence) was supposedly filmed in northwest Arkansas.”
So should I tell him?
A search query on “where was Winter’s Bone filmed?” shows that it was filmed entirely in the Missouri Ozarks, in Christian and Taney Counties, along with the cities of Branson and Forsyth, Missouri.
When it comes to rural poverty, sadly, the Missouri Ozarks rank up there with the areas you mentioned.
Northwest Arkansas is not poor.
Duly noted.
I lived in Fayetteville for 5 years when I worked for Wally. Between the university of Arkansas, and the corporate HQs of three fortune 500 companies - Wal-Mart, JB Hunt (a trucking company) and Tyson (one of the biggest meat packers) as well as all the suppliers for Wal-Mart who set up shop there to service the Wal-Mart account, there is money in NorthWest Arkansas. Eastern Arkansas along the Mississippi is poor and Little Rock is definitely not great but that part of Arkansas is comparatively well off.
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