Table of Contents
Developing Story
The Road to Spuds
Looking for Harriet
On the Sugar Plantation
Woodpecker’s Backyard BBQ
Developing Story
Driving With Ellen
When you travel with Ellen you contemplate every billboard along the way because she reads them out loud. This is very helpful to her passenger, who gets lost in taking notes and is in the habit of already thinking how she’s going to write the story. Right now, we are drifting mostly south from Jacksonville, Florida, keeping off I-95 to wander down small roads.…
On the Road to Spuds
Really really looked forward to seeing endless potato fields but found only cabbage. Rows and rows of almost ripe cabbages.
Looking for Harriet
Who knew Harriet Beecher Stowe was one of the first Northerners to beat a retreat from winter to a house she and her husband built in the midst of orange orchards in Mandarin, Florida? She certainly did, so we headed over to pay tribute. But the orange orchards have been plowed under and her house torn down to make room for miles and miles of homogeneous apartment complexes attached to upscale strip malls.
On the Sugar Plantation
The pamphlet reads, “REAL FUN IN…the Real Florida!”, which in this case means a sugarcane plantation. In 1821, Major Charles Bulow’s more than 300 slaves cleared 2,200 acres of scrub and cypress trees, planted sugar cane, built a large stone sugar mill, the master’s mansion, and 16 tiny cabins for themselves. Unfortunately, Bulow died soon after, and his young son, John, took over. He was the one that made the plantation one of the biggest and most prosperous in the state, producing 1.2 million pounds of sugar a year. Unfortunately, Seminole Indians burnt everything down in 1836 in reaction to their slaughter during the Second Seminole War. Nothing remains but the mill’s walls.
A tiny shack Ellen spies on a shady corner beside the two-lane County Road 13….
AND THIS IS WHERE I HAVE TO STOP! My phone has gone kablooey, my iPad’s not holding a charge, and poor Ellen is enduring more screaming curses and crying than one woman should ever have to tolerate, including a dear friend who has endured a great deal from me already.
I’m flying home tomorrow. After a good collapse, I’ll tell you all about it in Tuesday’s newsletter. Please come back for the full journey’s tale!
Joys on Florida Road