Is Monday too early to start making weekend plans? Friday, Experience Fayetteville is hosting Sip and Shop - an event to support the small businesses and restaurants around downtown Fayetteville.

• Sip & Snacks: Located in Fayetteville's Outdoor Refreshment Area, there will be a pop-up bar in the Fayetteville Town Center plaza and a variety of specials.
• Shop: Participating shops will be staying open late just for you, and some will include sales and discounts.
• Songs: Route 358 will play a live show in the Fayetteville Town Center plaza from 7:00 - 8:30p.

The event is Friday May 28 from 4-7p. Learn more about the free event HERE.

On Friday (May 21), a bill was announced to designate U.S. Hwy 412 from I-35 in OK to Interstate 49 in Springdale as a future interstate.

• What's the connection? With the Missouri-Arkansas Connector on track to be completed this fall as the north-south corridor running from Pineville, Mo., to Bentonville, east-west traffic flow is expected to increase.
• ArDOT is currently studying how to connect the Bella Vista Bypass to the U.S. Highway 412 bypass to improve east-west traffic flow, impacting supply chain and regional commutes like traveling to and from the Tulsa airport or XNA.
• Quote: “Connecting Northwest Arkansas and North Central Oklahoma will encourage economic development along this corridor and expand opportunities for employment in the region."

You can read the bill here.

Breeze Airways, started by JetBlue's founder, takes off from XNA on June 17, offering nonstop flights to Tampa, quickly followed by two more nonstop routes from XNA to New Orleans and San Antonio, starting July 15.

• Tell me more: These nonstop destinations from XNA are part of Breeze Airways' newly announced national flight network. The Breeze flights out of XNA will run every Thursday, Friday, Sunday and Monday.
• Fun fact: Only 11% of the seats sold at XNA were offered by a low-cost carrier in May 2019. All those seats were sold by Allegiant Air, the airport’s only low-cost carrier at the time.

You can read more about the company, Breeze Airways, HERE.

Expect the unexpected in Bentonville. Moosejaw, a subsidiary business of Walmart, will open a store in downtown Bentonville.

• Background: The outdoor recreation apparel and gear company was founded in 1992 in Michigan and has 11 other physical stores, including two in Kansas, which are the closest ones to NWA.
• Rumor has it that Moosejaw has acquired a space in the downtown market district for the outdoor gear store, which will be the first in Arkansas and is expected to open this fall.

You can find the full story HERE.

It was hard to be humble this weekend if you were an Arkansas baseball or softball fan.

• Baseball: With a win on Friday night against No. 9 Florida, the baseball team became outright SEC champs, clinching its 10th SEC series win of the year. "The Hogs (41-10, 21-8 SEC) and the 2013 Vanderbilt Commodores are now the only two SEC teams in history to win all their conference series in a season."
• Softball: The softball team advanced to super regionals for the second time in program history after sweeping the field. The lady Razorbacks (42-9) will host their first home super regional in program history next weekend against either Arizona or Ole Miss.

Check out the fireworks celebration at Baum after Welch's walk-off RBI.