SOLOMON'S CASTLE - ONA, FLORIDA
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4-22-2023 SOLOMON'S CASTLE - ONA, FLORIDA
On Saturday morning, April 22nd, we met at Bob Evans restaurant on Fowler Ave near I-75 for a cruise to Solomon's Castle - a really unique place near Ona, Florida. We had a perfect day for our cruise and for nearly two hours, we explored the backroads between Tampa and Ona. Some beautiful scenery with farmlands and canopy roads and, for the most part we managed to stay together in a string of 9 Vettes - well, that is 8 Vettes and a Vette-wanna-be Porsche (heh, heh). We had some friends of our President with us on the cruise. Tommy and Sarah in the beautiful blue Porsche and Pat in the gorgeous brown Vette. When we reached our destination, we elected to eat lunch at the Boat-In-The-Moat restaurant. Good food and plenty of it. After eating we had a guided tour of the castle and then a guided tour of Solomon's antique car collection. Impressive. We had a great time and saw a lot of really unusual things. A very nice outing.
L-R: Matty, Jerry M, Peter, Yaz, Debbie R, Lloyd, Irene, Carol, John H, and Hector. John's friends Tommy and Pat in back.
Time for some chit-chat before we leave
Our exact route - more or less
Are we there yet?
Herman Solomon (1935-2016)
His mantra was, "I make stuff."
Our group
Gracing Bob Evan's parking lot
Matty with her Vette
Heading out
Irene is happy we found a shady place to park our Vettes
Solomon in his workshop. He made most of the "stuff" we saw.
Let's get together for a driver's meeting
Through the countryside
And here's what we came to see
Brochure about Solomon's Castle
Click on these links to learn more about Howard Solomon and his work.
We decided to eat at the Boat-In-The-Moat before starting our tour
Inside The-Boat-In-The-Moat
Dining near the lighthouse
Yaz had a salad about 1/2 her size
Good friends. Good food. Good times
And . . . . live entertainment while we ate
Warren doesn't look hungry any more
Table decoration in lighthouse dining area
Peter, Yaz & Hector
The castle entry is guarded by Knight and Day
She can't resist a man in uniform
We exited through what was actually the entry to the living part of the castle
Getting together for our tour of Solomon's antique cars
OK, everyone load up.
Uh, wait. That's not the right driver
That's the antique car barn just past the cows
Beautiful old cars
The=Boat-In-The-Moat restaurant
Through the "Boat" to the outdoor dining area
The menu
Heading for lunch
Very relaxing place to eat
Reuben Sandwich. Yummmm
Good healthy food. Just ask Hector
A little relaxing after our lunch
It's just the way it is - very "laid back"
We'll visit the light house before touring the castle
Thank Yaz and John for many of the photos of our visit
Lloyd and Carol look pretty content
Our tour guide
OK. Time to get together for our tour of the castle
Waiting for our castle tour guide to call us
This is Knight
This is Day - but he's a knight too
We weren't allowed to take pictures inside the castle. Don't know why. They used to allow it. Click the following link to see pictures taken previouslly inside the castle. Some pretty neat stuff.
The entry to the castle
Solomon would sometimes speak to visitors from his balcony
But, first things first
Guardian of the outhouse
We rode past the Alamo, or at least Solomon's replica of the Alamo
Past the Alamo on the way to the barn with the car collection
We couldn't take pictures of the cars so these few pictures were downloaded from the internet
A last look at the castle as we get ready to head home
Howaard Solomon passed away in August 2016