The Search for a Perfect Town

As Bryson enters New England, he says he had expected to find beautiful scenery and white clapboard churches all along the way. Instead, he finds the typical lines of strip malls, convenience stores and fast-food places. It's here that he said he had hoped that New England would have held onto "something of its former charm," but is again disappointed. It seems he is always ultimately disappointed with some aspect of his current location. He describes the squalor, poverty and touristy atmospheres as being negatives. He does come to select pieces of towns along the way as being appropriate for his perfect town and soon realizes that he's going to have to create the town himself, piecemeal.

It seems that Bryson's search for the perfect town goes deeper than just the physical aspects of the place. For example, Bryson is in Washington D...