RV Havin Fun!

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!

Rainbow Springs State Park, Dunnellon, Florida

After this, he (Antiochus The Great) will turn back toward the fortresses of his own country, but will stumble and fall, to be seen no more. ~ Daniel 11:19

1. The terms of surrender at the Battle of Magnesia included a payment of 15,000 talents over a period of 12 years, surrender of all Antiochus’s elephants and fleet, and he had to furnish hostages including his own son, Antiochus IV Epiphanes (188BC)
2. Remember Antiochus IV Epiphanes as being a hostage – we’ll see much more of him
3. Antiochus III The Great was murdered in 187BC while plundering a Baal temple in Susa (in modern-day Iran) to exact tribute for much needed revenue
4. FYI – 15,000 talents is the approximate equivalent of 225,000 years wages.  In today’s terms, if you made $8/hour and worked a forty-hour week, your annual wage would be $15,000.  150,000 years wages would equal $2,250,000,000 (two billion, two hundred fifty million dollars).  So now you know . . . you only have to work for 75,000 years at minimum wage to become a billionaire! (Can you tell I did this research a few years ago? 😊)

Finally, I have a story to share!  Our drive from Rainbow to Silver Springs was very short (about 30 minutes) and very uneventful. 

Except for discovering that Burger King now sells ice.  When did that happen????

Silver Springs State Park, Ocala, Florida

As per our usual on moving days, we partook of an early dinner, then went for a walk to check out the river where we’ll be kayaking.  This is the place where we’ve always seen lots of wildlife – reptiles, birds, manatees and monkeys!

When we arrived at the dock, there were several boats sitting on the launch area, and several young girls speaking French.  We weren’t sure if they were actually from France, or if they maybe belonged to a French club at school.  There was also a man in a single-person kayak paddling around near the dock paddling around like he was waiting for them to leave so he could get out of the water.  So far, not much of a story is it?

Then we saw a powered boat approaching.  It had a Silver Springs State Park sign on it and it pulled right up to the dock!  We thought the girls had paid for a shuttle service, but no.  Somehow they got stranded and it was a rescue mission.  The girls kept apologizing and the Park staff said little, except “You’re not the first ones ever”.  They seemed pretty unhappy with the girls.

Once they all left, the kayak guy came back and I asked him how long he’d been waiting for them to leave.  He was kinda grumpy and said he wasn’t waiting on them, but “they’ve got the mentality of 12 year olds.”

And that’s how our week at Silver Springs began.  😊

Wonder what other stories and adventures our Father has lined up for us?

Rainbow Springs State Park, Dunnellon, Florida

Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a great cloud of witnesses… ~ Hebrews 12:1

This verse is preceded by Chapter 11 of Hebrews about the “Hall of Faith”.

It was with great sorrow that I returned home only to hear that Blaine’s dad’s younger sister, Sandi had gone Home the first night I was home with Blaine.  She’d been ill for a while and it was God’s blessing that He brought her to be with Him, but we lost a wonderful Godly wife, mother, grandmother, aunt and friend. Her joy for life and those she knew will continue to affect all of us. We are all looking forward to the day when we’ll see her again!  What a day of rejoicing that will be!

The rest of our January days found both me and Blaine mourning as well as me recuperating.  I didn’t expect to be so out of it!  One of my friends said it’s because all that adrenaline and Holy Spirit power I was running on evaporated, leaving me spent for several days.  But Blaine was an angel of mercy during that time.  Just one more reason I’m so very blessed in this life!  He took wonderful care of me and allowed me to move slowly and at my own pace to get back to our normal active lifestyle.  I seem to recall doing little else but sleeping for two days.  😊

There were a few things we did with the remainder of our stay at Rainbow Springs – walking, kayaking and attending Dunnellon Baptist Church (nice place, but we caught them on a 5^th Sunday and the Pastor was extoling the blessings of giving toward their expansion project 😊).

I took few pictures, but here are the ones I have from five days in the Park: