2-3-2011- The Stars on Ice

So far in our trip, we have held the same false hope each time we leave a state after freezing for nights on end to drive west: The sun is only a zip code away. Driving into Texas from Louisiana did nothing to satisfy our hopes. We not only froze in Beaumont, Texas that night, but during the day as well. While filling up our tank, Ward tried to wash the windows, but found the squeegee frozen in a block of water. Isn't that blue stuff they put in there supposed to keep the water from freezing? Well, it was that cold.

It turns out that Beaumont is a beautiful town, or was at one point. Unlike Florence, SC, this town perfectly matched our expectations of small town America: a downtown area filled with beautiful architecture, amazing storefronts with cool signage, and not a person in sight. We did find a great thrift store that had thousands of books for us to pick through, but that was the only thriving business for blocks. Meanwhile, the highways in and out of town were littered with a rash of strip malls and fast food chains, repeated over and over like the background from an old animation. We drove through this charming downtown with a nostalgia for a city we never knew and ideas for renovating a town we would never see again.