Cross Creek

Thursday my friend Dee and I jumped in the car thinking we would just drive to "a river, any river" for a change of scenery not knowing we would end up here. We've been talking about making a trip to Cross Creek for a long time since both of us have read the book by Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings about a thousand times. Usually our plans to leave early and stay all weekend in a small town nearby are usually interrupted by my many health issues or hers. We were already halfway there when we decided, Dammit we might as well go now. I was more excited because she had already been there before. What used to be the orange grove is now a park with lots of trees, benches, and places to picnic.

The rusty gate....

I was dying, just dying to bang on that bell and yell, Dinner! Ya'll bad kids git in herr and eat!

I didn't take any pictures inside the house because there was a tour going on there and it was full of people putting their greasy fingers all over even though we were asked not to. Just picture your Grandma's house with lots of books, that's pretty much what it looked like. Ok when we were in the guest room, I heard the tour guide say that a few famous people had slept there, including Ernest Hemingway. I heard, and I won't say who, but I heard someone whisper in my ear,"I'da slept with him..." I giggled loud enough for the tour guide to give me a stern look which, actually, is the real truth about why I don't have any pictures for ya'll of the inside of her home.

Above is the front porch where she did her writing. Below is the side porch. If you've seen the movie(which, in my opinion, was not as good as the book ) you'll recognize the water pump which still works but we weren't allowed to touch it.

We walked around a bit. The orange trees were in blossom and I was scared of the bees but the air smelled so nice. This is the servants' house. We peeked inside since my giggling got us in trouble and seperated from the tour group who was by now in the barn(and I don't have pictures of that either because the tour guide was mad at me.)

It was full of 'antses'

We snuck behind the little house looking for varmints, keeping an eye on the ground for any snakes. We were both in awe of the canopy. It is exactly how I pictured while reading and exactly how I thought old, undeveloped wild Florida was.

We wanted to stay longer for more walking around, more giggling and more pictures but we were dying of starvation and getting eaten by the bugs--what nature girls we are! We ate lunch at a place with a name I can't remember for the life of me but it smelled like my Grandma's kitchen at the farm. I have to admit that we pigged out on fried chicken, biscuits and fresh honey, greens, butter beans, mashed potatoes, rice and beans...all the food I just answered as my favorites in my last post but no strawberry shortcake. Like I had any room left anyway. We both decided if we had been real visitors to Cross Creek, that's probably what we would've been served. Is the Spanish moss romantic? I think so.

Friday I went soul searching elsewhere and found some of these......