
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