Welcome To Cross Creek (Cross Creek, FL)

We are now volunteering again.  We arrived at the Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings Historic State Park in Cross Creek about 3pm last Monday, 28 Feb. 

We are the second of two volunteer couples that camp here.  The other couple, Carl and Nancy are delightful folks.  They have been here since Jan and they worked here last winter.  They'll depart the end of this month.  The campsites are great!  We are nestled into our own portion of the woods far behind the Marjorie Rawlings homestead.

The area is very private, VERY quiet and I'm talking way da da dark!  The only problem with the site, which was built about 18 months ago, is that ours is backwards.   The utility hookups are on the door side of the camper and the grilling/"patio" area is on the opposite side.  Not a big deal, just unfortunate for the state to have paid to have it built wrong.  We spent Monday getting settled.  There's a fair amount of tree cover so we weren't surprised that we didn't get satellite reception (although the control box said it had locked onto the three satellites.)

Tuesday we revisited the satellite subject.  It seemed odd that we were not getting TV reception when the control box said we should.  We called Directv.  They blew us off quickly, told us they thought the satellite dish needed to be replaced and suggested that we return to where we bought the dish (SC).  I'm thinking, "not a chance."  We called Winegard (our satellite is a Winegard Traveler).  They are always so helpful and so pleasant.  After an hour or so and many gyrations to include running a cable from the dish directly to the back of the receiver, they concluded the dish needed to be replaced!!!!!!!   I said respectfully, "please tell me you're certain that this is the only remedy."  They said respectfully, "yes."  The replacement parts have already arrived at an RV place in Ocala and it appears we'll have to pay nothing as the dish is under a year old.  We'll see?  Of course we have to break camp and blah blah blah.  Debbie and I agree that, without exception, the greatest aggravation thus far in our full-timing experience has been the whole TV subject.  We say, whether or not we mean it, that we wish we had just stuck with the standard antenna.

Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we "trained" to serve as volunteers.   We may do tours so we observed a variety of folks giving tours.  There are some part-time employees and some of local volunteers that come in to do tours.  I'm more likely to give tours than Debbie but we both need to be prepared. In  preparation for this task we have read a great deal about  Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings (MKR) to include several of her books.  Additionally, the park ranger had sent us material to study.  Oh so briefly, MKR's greatest claim to fame is writing The Yearling in 1938 which won a Pulitzer prize. Today, her more popular book may be Cross Creek.  Her biographical sketch is far more comprehensive than just a couple of books but I guess you'll have to come for a tour to get the whole scoop. I believe we're both ready to do tours should we be asked.  But the truth is that we are far more likely to perform tasks other than giving tours.  Knowing the info just prepares us to better serve visitors.  The park ranger has already asked Debbie to work on creating some sort of computerized inventory program.  She'll also work on keeping the house clean and other projects as needed.  I will most likely spend the great majority of my time working the grounds.  There's trees to trim, dirt to be moved, wooded areas to be cleared, grass to cut, weeding eating etc.  We're already pleased with how the duties are evolving.  We'll likely work 3 days a week, 8 - 12. The original homestead was 74 acres but the park now includes something less.  I don't know how much less but I'll let you know in the future.  Currently, there's a "lot" of land,

including Marjorie's rambling old "cracker" style house,

tenant house,

barn,

chickens,

ducks,

and lots of surrounding woods.  There is a county park adjacent to MKR's place (it formerly was her cow pasture) with some spectacular Live Oak trees.

Saturday, my brother Danny and his wife Lorraine visited us! They live in Ohio so we don't get to see them anywhere near as much as we'd like. I enjoy sharing with people that they've been married 40 years!!!!   We of course knew they were coming and we enjoyed a marvelous day together.  I think that when you're on the road it's particularly nice to have visitors.  We love you both and thank you for coming to see us!!!!!!!

Sunday we chilled enormously.  We got up at our leisure and spent the day until about 3:00 reading and probably eating.  We then went to do our laundry.  I think going to the laundromat is relaxing and satisfying.  Tell me I'm not a fun guy!  Afterwards we drove around a bit checking out the local area.

Monday we had the pleasure of driving to Crystal River, Fl to have lunch with our friends Charley and Sherry, and Jeff and Barbie.  These are friendships we have developed through other RV lunches and blogging.   After lunch we followed them back to Rock Crusher Caynon, the campground where both couples are staying.  They both had given the place great reviews and we were anxious to check it out.  It was very nice and we certainly will consider staying there for a month or so next winter.  While there we toured both couple's rigs, yakked and played with dogs.  Charlie and Sherry have the cutest Dachshund, Cheyenne.  Barbie and Jeff just adopted an angelic mutt named Kozmo.  It doesn't get any better..... friends, food and dogs!!!  On the way home we shopped at Goodwill.  I needed to gather some clothing for my MKR "costume".  When working, we are required to be in "period" dress.  The MKR folks provided Debbie with a couple of dresses (pictures will definitely follow).  I had to come up with some old plaid shirts and khakis.  I may also wear a bandanna and/or a straw hat.   It's all part of the routine and we're quite comfortable with their requirements.

Tuesday we just piddled around.  We did a few light chores at the camper.  Debbie did some Rowe admin stuff and  we spent a little time with the park ranger at the house.  For dinner we went to the Cross Creek Volunteer Fire Department fund raising dinner!

It included real mash potatoes, open face turkey sandwich, green beans and dessert.  All for $6.00/plate. The whole event was just very nice.  The food was excellent and we enjoyed socializing with some of the locals. The meal concluded with a raffle for a few food items.  There were maybe 20 tickets in a basket.  One was mine.  We won a pound cake that was 16-18 long!  We split it with a wonderfully pleasant woman from MKR, Judy, who had hemmed some shirt sleeves for me for my MKR wardrobe.

Today we began our more routine chores.  We worked 8 - 12.  Debbie spent the morning cleaning the kitchen floor.   It's  made of rough cut pine.  She scrubbed it with bleach followed by repeated mopping to get up the dirt.  I did some litter patrol along the road in front of the house.  I then fired up a new gasoline hedge clipper, grabbed my limb loppers and attacked the perimeter growth.  We took the pound cake to share with our coworkers and left the balance with our park ranger supervisor.   We then went home, had lunch and cruised some beautiful horse country to look at a couple of RV parks.  What can I say?   Another great day!

Duane