RV Havin Fun!

Silver Springs State Park, Ocala, Florida

When the richest provinces feel secure, he (Antiochus IV Epiphanes) will invade them and will achieve what neither his fathers nor his forefathers did.  He will distribute plunder, loot and wealth among his followers.  He will plot the overthrow of fortresses – but only for a time. ~ Daniel 11:24

1. Epiphanes, as mentioned earlier, began his reign by befriending everyone . . . only to stab them in the back once he gained their confidence
2. His supporters reaped the financial rewards as they helped him reign by force 

It was another short, mostly uneventful 65-mile drive today.  Still, Blaine had to navigate our bus through plenty of traffic, narrow two-lane roads and some construction.

There was one incident worth noting.

A fellow 40’ RVer with a car in tow, pulled across the road right in front of us!  Of all people, they should know better!

I’d like to report that our horn is in good working order.  So are the brakes.

Lake Louisa State Park, Clearmont, Florida

We visited this State Park four years ago following a full week at Walt Disney World.  We were worn out, but there were gorgeous sunsets every night, as well as ‘wild’ citrus trees bearing tons of fruit leftover from the days when the area was a citrus farm.  It’s also the place where we had to go overnight to the Tampa area to have our long slide repaired.  Any of that ring a bell?

Wonder what’s in store for us this time?  😊

Silver Springs State Park, Ocala, Florida

Then an overwhelming army will be swept away before him (Antiochus Epiphanes); both it and a prince of the covenant (Ptolemy VI Philometer) will be destroyed.  After coming to an agreement with him, he will act deceitfully, and with only a few people he will rise to power. ~ Daniel 11:22-23

Ptolemy VI Philometer  – South      

1. Ruled 180-145BC
2. Because he was just six years old when he took the throne, he ruled jointly with his mother, Cleopatra I until her death in 176BC.  That means he was only ten!
3. Philometer married his sister and had at least 4 children with her
4. According to commentator Matthew Henry, Epiphanes pretended to befriend and act as guardian to Philometer and gained his confidence so much that Epiphanes was able to leave a few of his trusted men in Egypt to infiltrate the government
5. At 41 years old, Philometer died of battle wounds in 145BC while fighting Alexander Balas of Syria. Balas was also killed shortly after the battle and his head was taken to Philometer before he succumbed to his wounds.

I always thought the word for partaking in three events had four syllables.  Turns out, I’ve been wrong.  For a very long time!  It’s not “triathalon”.  It’s “triathlon”.  See!  You really can teach old dogs new tricks!

Late Saturday morning, we decided to go Jeeping.  Blaine had found several National Forest roads that looked promising, but when we arrived at each one, they were all gated!  Why?!?!?

Our best guess came when we finally decided to just get out and walk one of them.  There was a hunting schedule, which led us to assume that they open the gates for hunting seasons, but close them the rest of the time to keep out the hunters.  But that’s just an educated guess.  And we’re not very educated.  However, we do have many years of wisdom behind us. 😊

So we walked.  It wasn’t scenic or interesting, but at least it provided exercise and a sense of earning the brownies and ice cream we were planning for our evening snack.

Sunday, we attended Trinity Baptist Church in nearby Ocala.  We would certainly visit again!  There was good worship music, friendly people, and a message based on the story of Cain and Abel that made us ponder a bit.

Sunday afternoon, we rode our bikes all around our Park.  We only took one picture because it all looks the same – pine trees, saw palmettos, pine needle covered sandy trails.  But once again, we were able to eat those brownies guilt-free!  Hmmmm . . . . maybe I should’ve taken a picture of those since I’ve talked about them several times now . . . .

We got pictures from home!

Monday brought a much-anticipated day!  And we were not disappointed, except a little by the fact that there were no monkey sightings, but even that didn’t dim the excitement we felt all day long!

We began our day at 9:35am paddling upstream from Ray Wayside Community Park (about 3 miles further to get to the Headsprings). 

Right after the turn from their canal onto the river, we spotted something sitting under the water that looked like a gray loaf of bread with score marks across it.  Turns out, it was a giant turtle of some kind!

From there, we spotted an aviary of bird varieties, turtles we recognized, a few gators, and manatees galore! 

One of the manatees was the largest one we’ve ever seen!  And as we sat and watched it, along with two others, it actually came up under our boat and we were docked on it’s back for a bit before it went back down and floated off.

All the way up to the Headsprings (a total of five miles), we spotted manatees (some were the same).

One of the things we missed seeing last time were the five-foot statues that are ‘planted’ there.  Three Greek statues are props left over from the old 1965-68 TV series “I Spy”, starring Robert Culp and Bill Cosby. Over the years they were covered with algae, until a newly formed dive team in 2019, hired to clean the bottom of the glass-bottomed boats, also cleaned the statues.  I’d say they could use another cleaning. : )

I grabbed the next two pictures off the internet.

Once we finished our tour around the Headsprings, we pulled into a small alcove on the way back and discovered three more that were cavorting in the water – rolling and splashing, etc.  Most people watching thought they were playing, but we remembered from when we saw this type of activity in the past, they were mating. They were really active, but Blaine had backed us up on top of a log, so even though it felt like we were moving, we were stationary.

And on the way back down the river, we encountered more manatees.  One even swimming quickly downriver alongside us!  We eventually lost track of it, but it was very fun!

Glorious, perfect weather today as well!  We felt very blessed by the Father today, as we spent seven hours in the water!

And we received pictures of three of our other grandchildren!

Tomorrow we move to within earshot of Walt Disney World’s evening fireworks, but we’ll not be visiting the park.  It’s gotten crazy expensive!  I wonder if that’s their way of keeping crowds down??

Silver Springs State Park, Ocala, Florida

He (Seleucus IV Philopator) will be succeeded by a contemptible person (Antiochus IV Epiphanes) who has not been given the honor of royalty.  He will invade the kingdom when its people feel secure, and he will seize it through intrigue. ~ Daniel 11:21

Antiochus IV Epiphanes – North

1. Ruled 175-164BC
2. Antiochus was Philopator’s younger brother.  He was NOT the rightful heir to the throne. (meaning he ‘has not been given the honor of royalty’)  The rightful heir was Philopator’s son who was given to Rome as a hostage when he was just seven years old, in trade for Philopator’s brother, Epiphanes
3. He gained the peoples security by distributing wealth and good will among them
4. The ‘intrigue’ was the fact that he had Heliodorus murdered, and he also made himself co-regent with Philopator’s remaining son who was an infant at the time.  A few years later, Epiphanes had the infant/child killed.
5. He gave himself his name after taking the throne (originally he was Mithradates).  His new name means ‘God Manifest’
6. His eccentric and unpredictable behavior led people to call him ‘Epimanes’ behind his back – meaning ‘The Mad One’
7. He enjoyed going out incognito and hanging out with those who lived immorally
8. Ephiphanes was involved in an incident that started the metaphor of drawing/crossing a ‘line in the sand’. 

“In 168 BC Antiochus IV Epiphanes led a second attack on Egypt and also sent a fleet to capture Cyprus. Before reaching Alexandria, his path was blocked by a single, old Roman ambassador named Gaius Popillius Laenas, who delivered a message from the Roman Senate directing Epiphanes to withdraw his armies from Egypt and Cyprus, or consider themselves in a state of war with the Roman Republic.

Epiphanes said he would discuss it with his council, whereupon the Roman envoy drew a line in the sand around him and said, “Before you cross this circle I want you to give me a reply for the Roman Senate” – implying that Rome would declare war if the King stepped out of the circle without committing to leave Egypt immediately.

Weighing his options, Epiphanes decided to withdraw.” (quote from Widipedia)

There will be much more on Antiochus IV Epiphanes, as verses 21-32 are mostly about him.

Another beautiful day! 

We rode our bikes all over, but our main destination was the Park Entrance.  We parked and walked all around, ate some lunch while watching the glass-bottom boats cavort around the Headsprings, then biked back home.  Just a nice, fun leisurely day.

 

Since I don’t have much to write about, here’s some information as well as trivia I found on IMDB about the TV show, Sea Hunt which was on the air for four seasons; 1958-1961.  There were 155 episodes.

In case you don’t know about Sea Hunt, or have forgotten, here’s a synopsis of the show:

As the early days of SCUBA diving opened up a new world, Sea Hunt portrayed diverse underwater adventures. Mike Nelson (played by Lloyd Bridges) is in the Coast Guard Auxiliary, and although this does not play into most episodes, it supports his diving expertise through training in and work with the Coast Guard and Navy which includes demolition. Mike finds himself in adventures that include performing rescues, solving mysteries, conducting undersea exploration and scientific experiments, testing new technologies, fighting crime, and locating anything from sunken ships to satellites and spacecraft. Sometimes, he is just in the wrong place at the wrong time, and we experience him resolving the situation and getting himself out of a predicament. Voice-overs help viewers understand what in taking place in the silence of the deep and to gain from his knowledge as he also explains his thoughts to educate us in and entice us to go into the fascinating world he visits in each episode.

Several episodes feature Lloyd Bridges real-life young sons Beau and Jeff Bridges, as well as other soon-to-be stars early in their career.

When Lloyd Bridges complained about the weight of his twin air tanks during topside re-takes, the art director designed twin tanks made of balsa wood and had them painted silver. Only in the earliest episodes is Bridges using real tanks for above-surface scenes.

Lloyd Bridges (I) decided to leave the show after four seasons because the producers wanted to emphasize cops-and-robbers plots, while he wanted to focus more on environmental themes.

When the producer wanted Mike Nelson to wear a gray wetsuit, he had to have one specially ordered. Objecting to the high price, the producer bought a can of spray paint, sprayed it himself, and had two of the crew hold Lloyd Bridges (I)’ arms up while the paint dried. When it did, Bridges couldn’t put his arms down–the dried paint was too stiff. The producer wound up spending the extra money for a gray wetsuit anyway.

According to the Manchester/Reid biography of Winston Churchill, Churchill rarely watched television but did occasionally enjoy watching this show.

Mike Nelson’s boat is called the Argonaut.

This was the first foreign show ever broadcast in Spain.

The Sea Hunt theme music was recorded by several orchestras, including those of Buddy Morrow and Patrick Cowley. In every case the record label credited the composition to “Ray Llewellyn,” a mysterious pseudonym believed by most researchers to belong to David Rose. An alternative theory is that “Llewellyn,” who also provided the music to I Led 3 Lives (1953), Meet Corliss Archer (1954) and Highway Patrol (1955), was an umbrella pseudonym used by Rose and other composers at Ziv Productions who were working on low-budget or non-union projects.

Actor Jack Ingram was the owner of the boat used on Sea Hunt. It was a 1961 33 foot Trojan Express Cabin Cruiser yacht used by Lloyd Bridges as Mike Nelson in the last season.

Catchphrase from the show, when Lloyd was looking for something … “Then I saw it!” On one episode he said “Then I saw it, but it was only an old boot!”

Here’s a list of just a few of the now famous people who appeared on Sea Hunt:

Leonard Nimoy, Jeff and Beau Bridges, Larry Hagman, Robert Conrad, Jack Nicholson, Morgan Brittany, Bruce Dern, and Ted Knight.  With a cast of over 400, I’m sure there are more.  😊

Friday was a rain day, so there’s nothing to report.