Before I get to Bridgehouse, I have to mention a stop on our way there. Lanterman's Mill in Youngstown, Ohio is worth the walk if you go drive the scenic backgrounds from Kent, OH to New Wilmington, PA. We loved the synchronicity of getting to see a covered bridge plus a flowing creek before getting to the one were were going to stay at for three nights.
Now, onto Bridgehouse. I want to start with the inside accommodations. The place is quite rustic. The story of the original covered bridge waits in framed newspaper articles throughout the house. In the original covered bridge is the kitchen, a double log bed, and two person kitchen table, plus bathroom. Beyond that, a hall lined with a stocked bookshelf of books, magazines, and games, leads to three more bedrooms, and one more full bathroom built on as an addition.
Luckily, my girlfriend, Mary Ann, wanted a bedroom in the addition, but I wanted to stay in the original bridge. With the floor to ceiling windows cracked open around me, as the gas fire place on it's lowest setting kept the place too hot for me, I got to fall asleep to the sound of the creek flowing. It was literally like floating into sleep between the sound and the thought that water flowed right under my bed.
What you see through the sliding glass door in another part of the original covered bridge left as a covered porch.
As nice as this was, with check in at 3pm on Tuesday, and the weather a perfect low sixties on Weds, I couldn't keep inside. I explored the little city the creator of the place, Ron Garrett created here on Tuesday before it got dark. On Wednesday I took a sunrise walk. Then, not able to stay inside with such beauty and so much to see outdoors, I spent a lot of time sitting on a rock by the creek right outside the bridge.
It is thin but amazing, and runs the length of the front of the property. I would like to note, that the kitchen, while stocked with pots and pans, bowls and plates, silverware and cups of all sorts, there is a pizza place that delivers. We brought and cooked all of our own food while there, but since it sits on a road right down from the city, you have two grocery stores, a drug store, within minutes.
So, back to this tiny city... While outside our first full day, we had the honor of meeting Mr. Garrett, who not only showed us inside the one room school house that serves as another Airbnb on the property, but he also took us through each building there. Each place he built and filled with eclectic treasure, some bought, some his unique creations, are a tribute to a memory of his life. Over the course of that day and night, when he had time, he gave us tours and told us many stories. Now, Mr. Garrett is a creative man, but you can tell when a story has been created to go with a piece of artwork, or when it is a precious memory.
These are just four of the building, that sit together right by the bridgehouse.
While the stories are his to tell, and he does have three small books to explain a few too, I must say that in my humble opinion, this creative genius has poured his heart and soul into each building, manifesting both sentiment and memory and study of life, his beliefs, into each artistic, wonderfully made, nook and cranny.
So first, this is the schoolhouse airbnb, created from memory from one he attended as a child. So, if you have more than the 5 people the Bridgehouse can sleep, you can get the school house too, which sleeps another four, and would be great for small children with classroom and small hut inside, and have the whole city to yourselves.
Then comes the September Chapel. One of his books is about how he used the materials of a historic building in the town that was torn down to make wonderfully made place. Again, his story to tell, but it is am amazing place to spend some time, or just list to the chimes he made, which he has a fan blowing on at all times.
The chimes!
There is a log cabin next door with a water wheel. Then a pizza place with a working oven.
While there are a million little eclectic things to see, the tractor that makes milk was an interactive story that was an experience in and of itself.
And oh the places there are to sit everywhere, but none more unique than Mr. Garrett's birdcage swings.
The front of this is where the water wheel is. It was amazing just before the sun came up.
And you seriously never know what you are going to stumble upon inside of it, or what wonderful story situation Mr. Garrett will put you into next. He is often on the property, creating away, and happy to share from what I hear.
Then there is the corral, aka green house, which has a rich family history for Mr. Garrett.
There is also a healing springs, though too cold for us to test the waters in Nov, they were a peaceful spot with more little shelters on them.
Another log cabin is a smokehouse, and a wonderful place to sit with your own thoughts, or read, or journal, or whatever you want to do. It is his newest addition to the property, and he is still working on improving it.
I found it a great place for self-reflection, as this picture taken inside symbolically shows.
But then, beyond your city is one mile of beautiful trails at the end of the creek, just over a bridge.
That ends at a neighboring horse farm.
So, let me tell you about the sky on my walks. With our weather having gone from low sixties to the high twenties, we had sun, rain, and spitting snow while there.
I took 169 pictures according to my camera, so while this blog may hold many, it is only a smattering of what I saw and experienced.
Rain!
Ice
Snow!
And we had a full moon who came in and out of the clouds!
When the weather was bad, I can't say I minded, because even inside I was one with nature there, as you can see from these views from the windows.
Beside unstill waters,
in a house on a bridge that goes nowhere,
I sit at the small curve
where water tumbles effortlessly over stones.
The healing of this flow washes over me,
and I took the time for self-reflection,
finding love among other things.
Shadow and Reflection
Justice and Joy
The words I reflected upon, and learned so much about myself in doing so while on McClure Creek.
I never left my creek, no matter where on the property I sat by it, day or night, I always heard it's rushing waters. I meditated sitting on a quilt on a rock. I read, I journaled, I sipped tea, I ate, etc.
With check out on Friday at noon, there were really cute cities to explore, shop, eat. We went to Volant, a cute little borough in Lawrence county nestled in Amish country. After a short scenic drive, we encountered so many cute shops. The mill, pictured, is a three floor gift shop. I bought bayberry candles for the holidays. There was the Wicked Little Witches shop with so much magical fun and a wonderful homemade cream of rosemary and mint. Shops included one for candles, one for soaps, one for antiques and so on. We ate at a little pizza place, the Foxes Den, where they were easily accommodating to our special diets with thin crust and mounds of veggies with no cheese. After we went to a winery that makes its own cider too. Mary Ann had a wonderful blackberry, and I had a warmed apple pie cider we sipped upstairs in comfy chairs in front of a Christmas tree.
And then it was home, to this guy, trying to sit on me so I wouldn't leave him again.
One thing about getting away, it sure makes you appreciate home.
It's exhausting work, but someone has to do it.
