I drove up to Ocala, Florida, this past Sunday from Stuart to visit my friends Ana Silvia and Joe, who moved there from Denver about 4 months ago. Ocala is about 70 miles from the Florida-Georgia line, and so it was a long drive from South Florida. After showing me around their new house and serving a nice lunch, we drove to Silver Springs State Park, located just a short distance away. I mentioned to Ana Silvia and Joe that I had ridden the glass bottom boats there during a trip to Florida in 1963 with my mother, father, and grandmother, and they treated me to another ride on it.
Silver Springs was a private operation until 2 or 3 years ago, when the State of Florida made it a state park to keep it in operation. It is one of the original Florida tourist attractions, and the glass bottom boats take you on a tour of the springs, in which are both a 700 year old Native American canoe and a Spanish rowboat from the 1500s. And I am happy to report that the boats are the very same ones I took in 1963, when I was 10 years old. Talk about nostalgia. And happily, another old time Florida tourist attraction, Cypress Gardens, has reopened - after closing a few years ago - as part of Lego-Land, whatever that might be. No matter - old time tourist attractions still live in the Sunshine State, thank God. Next time I'll tell you about Harry and the Natives, located near Hobe Sound. You'll just have to wait for that one. Thanks for the boat ride, Ana Silvia and Joe! Great to see you guys again.
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