This morning, I was determined to
drive to Lufkin, TX, because (according to http://www.craptowns.com/html/us/texas.html):
“No beer; grass growing in the streets; twitchy curtains; freakish alcoholics banging on your motel room door in the middle of the night; gas-station attendants who look at you with derision and disgust when you ask where you can get a beer; crewcut gap-toothed yobs in camouflage fatigues who do the same; a Walmart with more brands of cigarettes and crap processed cheese than you've ever seen in your life and yet no alcohol and no cigarette papers because they assume anyone who has any use for them is a drug-taking commy hippy panty-waist lowlife who'd best just move on. Which is why the highway out of Lufkin is lined with dilapidated corrugated iron lean-tos, crudely daubed with commands such as 'Git Yor Likker Here'. It's also not far from Jasper, where a black man named James Byrd died while being dragged behind a pick-up driven by three young racists.”
Sounds like one
of those places you just have to see for yourself! And I would have done, had
it not been for the sign on a major highway indicating simply “Bridge Out!”,
and pointing to a diversion. As usual (and I’m sure this is true of almost any
country in the world), the “diversion” signs petered out at the crucial moment,
and so I never actually made it. Instead, I picked back roads, and tried to
find my way back to the hotel by as devious a route as possible.
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| Drive-in movie theater |
This always makes the journey more interesting, and I stopped on the way at a Czech bakery
for lunch (the “Czech Kolache Depot”): sausage, egg and potato, and blueberry,
kolaches (that’s two separate kolaches!). Imagine a kind of cross between a
doughnut and a croissant, and you’re close.
I also
discovered a drive-in movie theatre within easy reach. Not only that, but they
were showing recent movies, and also had 3 screens – this actually translates
to 3 fields, with a screen at the end of each. I haven’t actually watched a
movie there, but it’s definitely on my list (and, at $6, a very good deal).
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| Beer Barn |
I passed through
Mildred, Eureka, Frost and Italy, and near Wortham passed by a drive-through
beer barn. In a way, this is very representative of the “bible belt” – they
know that people drink alcohol, but prefer to keep the fact hidden away. In a
similar vein, I came across two advertising hoardings within a few hundred
yards of each other: “Forget porn; be reborn: Jesus” and “24 hour Adult DVD Megastore:
Left at next exit”.
I passed through Corsicana, which sounds romantic; but I can tell
you that the most historic thing about its “historic downtown area” is that
it’s falling down. Thank you Walmart, Pizza Hut, Whataburger, Sears, JC Penney,
etc. I don’t doubt that they are well intentioned, but I suspect that “they
know not what they do”.
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| Farm store |
I stopped at
what looked like a friendly local farm store to see what fresh produce they had
for sale. It operated on the “honour system” – that you leave payment for what
you take. I bought a basket of plums for $3 – it was lucky I had the correct
change, because a Mexican employee that wandered in grunted something to the effect that I had to provide
the exact amount. Kinda ruined my “rural farm stand experience”, but I got my
plums (oh, and I like the hours (if you can read it on the door): “Can until
Can’t”!). At this time of year there are plenty of tomatoes, plums, peaches,
apples, citrus fruits and beans. The corn stands about as tall as me, and will
be available soon, I’m sure.
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