The Sights and Sounds of Silver Springs in Healing Ground

Our trip to Silver Springs was fun but if I were to go again, it would be middle of the week in Oct/Nov or Apr/May, to avoid heat AND kids! I tried to film the glass bottom boat tour but could hardly hear the tour guide over the screaming kids and their equally LOUD parents.

Later, we found a quiet spot by the water, only to have kyakers shouting at the top of their lungs

So we walked the boardwalk through the woods instead.

The property winds around the spring and I truly enjoyed the lush landscape:

And the crystal clear waters:

And the glorious shades of blue everywhere:

None of it seemed to phase the gopher turtle, though!

It was just as bad at the Holiday Inn the next morning. Families came down to the continental breakfast in pajamas and bare feet (!), parking themselves at the tale directly in FRONT of the TV to have their noisy breakfast. The little girl broke out into an ear piercing screech when her brother took her muffin and NOTHING would console her: not her brother’s abject apology, not her mom’s replacement muffin, and not her big sister’s laughing. We could see that something had happened in Orlando, but not being able to
hear, just chalked it up to another O-town shooting (there’s a lot of crime there).*

Oh! I forgot to tell you about our room! Check in was done by a personable young man who found me extra points for my rewards card. We got our “keys” and proceeded to our room. My husband swiped the card once. Didn’t work. He tried it again. Didn’t work.

He suggested I try my key, so I slid the card, but still no green light. Then I hear this little teeny tiny voice on the other side of the door: “This room is taken.”

My husband and I look at each other and suddenly a door flies open and a man is standing there in his PJ’s! I show the man that room 205 is marked on the cards and he agrees that its clear there’s been a mix-up. So we go back down to the front desk which is now swamped with folks checking in and I hear him say to a woman waiting that rooms are going fast.

So I jump in and apologize for cutting in line but say, hey, I went to the room you gave me and there’s somebody there and before all the rooms get assigned, can you put us in a room that is unoccupied?

Guess what the kid said?

“Are you sure it was occupied?”

“Oh yes, I am sure that the man is in there and he is in his pajamas so I don’t think he’s going to move”

And of course everyone started laughing.

The kid says: “Well, my computer says the room is empty.”

I gave him The Look and he gave me another room, which was, thankfully, unoccupied. The room was a bit musty and the window a/c unit made a racket all night (the first person to invent a QUIET a/c unit for hotels will become a millionaire), but the bed was perfect and so was the shower.

Got up the next morning, saw the guy from room 205 in the hall and said, “Hey! You have your clothes on!” He laughed.

When I got home, after a side trip to Salt Springs to see our friends, I checked my online banking and saw that my card had been charged for TWO rooms. A call straightened it out and after she heard my story, she gave me more reward points!

And that concludes my travel adventures. Now I must turn my attention back to grant writing. The advisor changed very little so far…mostly a few words or a phrase here & there to reflect language they specifically look for (now I’ve learned TWO new things in this process).

*About the Orlando attack. I have family members and friends in the LGBT community. That could have been someone I loved. To read facebook comments about how this is about Islam or not about guns sickens me.

It IS about loose gun control laws and homophobia. If you say “Love the sinner, hate the sin” to me, you are saying you hate something about someone I love. What about YOUR relative who ogles girls on the beach? Do you hate his sin just as much? Because I don’t see any self-righteous chest beating about adulterers. Where is Chik-Fil-Et’s outrage over those who worship idols?

It is persecution. Nothing more, nothing less. And loose gun control laws allowed it to happen. Leave my family members alone. You want to start a hate campaign, go after your own family. I don’t care what you think about other people’s sexual preferences and think it is weird and creepy that you fixate on it.

Last updated June 14, 2016