We’re at the Juniper Springs Recreation Area in the Ocala National Forest. We’ve been coming down here for years. And we’ve never gone to Silver Springs. We pass by it every time we come here. This time we made it a point to stop there. It’s much more than we thought it would be. Figured we’d spend a couple of hours there, but we spent the whole day. They take you around in glass bottom boats. The Silver River is beautiful and the springs are so pretty. Of course the water is incredibly clear. There are some beautiful, old-growth cypress trees in the park—some of them 500 years old and more. The grounds are quite spectacular. They filmed 9 of the Tarzan movies here. And 62 episodes of Sea Hunt with Lloyd Bridges. He was deathly afraid of the water because of snakes and gators, so they hired a 16-year-old kid to do the underwater shots for him. Lloyd Bridges afraid of the water—who knew? There are also some wild reeses monkeys in the park. I guess they were brought to the area in the hopes of establishing a monkey island or something. They didn’t know the monkeys could swim. Some of the descendents of these monkeys have been found as far south as the Everglades.
While waiting in line for tickets we met this really nice woman who is affiliated with the Florida Tourism Board. She gets free passes for herself, but she can take up to three guests with her for half price. She offered to get us in as her guests for half price—and we readily agreed. Talked to her for quite a while. She works for the Salvador Dali art museum in St. Petersburg. We plan to stop there next year when and if we come back down this way.
Called a friend of ours, Ruth McIntyre, and made plans to get together for lunch. Mike used to work with her husband, Jim, who passed away a few years ago. We try and stay in touch and see her whenever we’re in the area.
After we left Silver Springs we went to Sonny’s BBQ for dinner. Then we checked out the Silver River State Park which we didn’t even know existed. Drove around and checked out the camp sites. We have no hook-ups where we are. The state park has electric and water. But Juniper Springs is prettier.
While waiting in line for tickets we met this really nice woman who is affiliated with the Florida Tourism Board. She gets free passes for herself, but she can take up to three guests with her for half price. She offered to get us in as her guests for half price—and we readily agreed. Talked to her for quite a while. She works for the Salvador Dali art museum in St. Petersburg. We plan to stop there next year when and if we come back down this way.
Called a friend of ours, Ruth McIntyre, and made plans to get together for lunch. Mike used to work with her husband, Jim, who passed away a few years ago. We try and stay in touch and see her whenever we’re in the area.
After we left Silver Springs we went to Sonny’s BBQ for dinner. Then we checked out the Silver River State Park which we didn’t even know existed. Drove around and checked out the camp sites. We have no hook-ups where we are. The state park has electric and water. But Juniper Springs is prettier.
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