The Perty Toes of Texas

P1540420 778500“One thing you gotta have here are pretty toes,” said Ashley, “because in this part of Texas you’re going to be seeing them a lot!”

Ashley and Stephanie told us this as they showed off their carefully pedicured digits, just before we shoved off in our canoes to float down the river.

Both are southern girls, unfailingly polite, with that soft lilting accent that grew on me as I listened to them talk about this city and about their lives.

It’s fun to meet people who are living exactly where they want to be, and don’t harbor the ambitions you often find in young people to move away to a bigger city, or leave the state for new horizons. No, right here in Beaumont is where they both are happy, making a home for their young families and taking people like us around to show us the highlights. They have been a highlight of Beaumont to me.