We started out Thursday, November 1 from home and our first
stop was in Ocala at Silver River State Park. In spite of it being close to
home, we had never camped there before, and were very pleasantly surprised.
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| So glad we bought the shading screens before we left home! |
The beginning of our trip was a bit problematic – as we were
setting up, the gear in the “landing gear” stripped out, as Rich was coming
back from getting ice, an engine light came on, we realized we had forgotten
the gas hoses for the grill and stove and the rod for the shade fabric for the
awning. It’s a wonder we didn’t turn around and go back home!
That evening our friend Lori came by for dinner. It had been
forever since we last saw her and she’s looking great as always. Her dad is
having knee replacement surgery and Lori will be in Pennsylvania the entire
month of December, helping with his rehab so we won’t be seeing her at
Christmas this year.
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| Rich and Lori |
Friday morning, Rich went back to Gainesville to have the
truck checked out and get the things we’d forgotten. As it turned out, the
engine light was the same thing we had it in for in July – a problem with the
diesel exhaust fluid. We’ll see if it continues to happen – thank heaven it’s
still under warranty!
Once he got back we got the shade on the awning (definitely
a good buy!) and wandered around the campground, getting familiar with the
layout. There are four hiking trails – two of them fairly shaded, easy walks to
the river of 1.3 and 1.9 miles. The other two are fairly unshaded – the
Sandhill Trail is 1.7 miles and the Sinkhole Trail 2.2 miles. There are also
4.5 miles of bike trails.
Saturday, my nephew Matt and his new wife Laura came by
camp to join us for lunch. Matt served in the Army Airborne and served in Iraq and Afghanistan and
has been home for about a year. He is taking pre-engineering courses in Ocala
and plans to move to UF next year and Laura works for a doctor in Ocala.
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| Matt and Laura |
While we were at Silver River, we visited the museum which
is amazingly good for its size and entry fee ($2). The museum has a (stuffed)
Saber Tooth Tiger, Alligators, a Crocodile, as well as Mastadon, Saber Cat, and
Giant Short-Faced Bear skeleton, many of which were found nearby. There was
also memorabilia about the early years of Silver Springs . Several well-known
movies were filmed there including Tarzan, Creature of the Black Lagoon, and
others I don’t remember. The television show Sea Hunt was also filmed there.
Additionally, there were displays about the Native Americans who inhabited the
area including traditional Seminole Indian garments. All in all, The museum was
a very pleasant surprise and we’ll visit again the next time we are back to
Silver River.
We also saw a number of deer throughout the park. Silver
River is a beautiful, well-kept park and the campsites are nicely spread out
with a generous number of trees and brush in between. The restrooms are
reasonably new with heat lamps in the showers (THANK YOU!). It was still cold
showering because of the fans, but not unbearable. We’re looking forward to
going back next winter.
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