Divine And Gypsy     02/01/23

Silver Springs State Park, Ocala, Florida

His successor (Seleucus IV Philopator) will send out a tax collector (Heliodorus) to maintain the royal splendor.  In a few years, however, he will be destroyed, yet not in anger or in battle. ~ Daniel 11:20

Seleucus IV Philopator – North    

1. Ruled 187-175BC
2. He married his full sister and had 3 children by her
3. The kingdom was enduring financial difficulties due to the wars and the heavy tribute ordered by Rome following the Battle of Magnesia
4. Philopator sent his finance minister (tax collector), Heliodorus to seize the temple treasury in Jerusalem around 178BC
5. According to II Maccabees (an apocryphal writing), Heliodorus was stopped from entering the treasury by 3 spiritual beings
6. In 178BC, Philopator’s son and heir to the throne, Demetrius I Nicator, was traded for Philopator’s brother Antiochus IV Epiphanes.  The heir to the Seleucid throne is now a hostage in Rome.  He was 7 years old.
7. In 175BC, Heliodorus was responsible for the murder of Philopator by conspiracy and poisoned him.  Heliodorus was able to take the throne for a very short time.
8. Antiochus IV Epiphanes, Philopator’s younger brother (and former Roman hostage) ousted Heliodorus and later had him murdered

It was a perfect day for kayaking in Silver Springs!  We woke up to dense fog and mid-sixties temperatures.  We absolutely love paddling in fog!  It’s so beautiful and peaceful!  And we had the river all to ourselves for quite a while.

Here’s what we had to do to get to the launch area:  Blaine carried the boat and seats like a backpack on his back.  I carried a loaded down duffle bag across my shoulders.  We rode our bikes about a mile or so down a sandy, pine-needle-covered trail.  MUCH better than walking the inflated boat like we’ve done in the past!  Then, while I stayed behind to blow up the boat, Blaine rode back for the rest of the pieces – life jackets, paddles, etc.  It worked really well!

As we paddled from the launch near the campground towards the Headspring, we didn’t see a lot of wildlife at first, but then, suddenly we came upon manatees!  There were at least three, with two being a mom and baby.  We learned later that their names were Divine and Gypsy, and Gypsy was born in July.  We even saw Gypsy nursing.  It’s in a strange spot – right behind mama’s flipper.  Such wonders God has blessed us with!

We also came across some kind of film crew with a fancy camera mounted on their boat.  Reminded us of the ones you sometimes see on “Deadliest Catch”.  😊

It was a relatively quiet ride, but the closer we got to the Headsprings, the more busy it got.  A couple of times, we ducked into small alcoves to avoid the crowds (especially inexperienced paddlers) and take a look under the water.  I discovered that if I put my finger very lightly on top of the water, the fish would come to us!  Yes, they took nibbles at my finger, but they weren’t big enough to do anything.

Just before the Headsprings, we were able to paddle alongside a gator with a mission in mind.  He was headed catty-cornered across the river for the bank on the other side.  Fun times!

There’s a State Park boat rental/dock at the Headsprings and when we were there, it was jam-packed with people!  What a mess we got into!  When you leave the dock, you can either head out to the main part of the river, or paddle a “trail”.  We were wanting to do the trail, but so were a lot of other people.  Remember those inexperienced paddlers?  In addition, there were families with more than one boat trying to stay together and doing more chatting with one another than actual paddling.  We just hung back.  We were in no rush today.  About halfway through, everyone just seemed to vaporize.  We don’t know where they disappeared to.  😊

We’d been on the river, sitting in our kayak for over four hours.  We needed lunch and we needed to stand up.  Unfortunately, there is no where to do that except the boat dock we started at.  I don’t believe you can even pay a docking fee at the Headsprings.  Ugh!

Blaine had been scouting for a low-level spot to pull up at where we could get out for a minute.  Even those are few and far between!  We finally chose a random spot at the end of the water trail we’d been on.  It wasn’t ideal, but when you need to get out of a boat, it was just perfect!

We stood to eat our sandwich and carrots, saving the cookies for later.  Unfortunately, no pictures.  Just picture smelly, mucky, palm tree branches in your face.  Yeah.  That’s it.  😊

We had thoughts of paddling down to the other end of the river, but wisely recognized that we’re not as young as we used to be and we still had to cart the boat and all it’s paraphernalia back to the coach.  By the time we got there, it was well after 3pm.

We’ll head back out onto the river on Monday!