WHEN IT COMES TO TRAVEL, IT'S A JUNGLE OUT THERE

Too much travel and I have a hard time calming the monkeys!  

Just hanging out!

Actually, too much caffeine has the same effect. 

Don’t tell me you haven’t heard of the mind monkeys; those thoughts that collect in our craniums and then take off like a bunch of rhesus monkeys swinging through almost every hour of the day, touching on dozens of ideas that just end up scattering across all those time zones that come with travel.        

Hey!  I’m not monkeying around here; Buddha, maybe, but not me.  He gets all the credit for coming up with the ‘monkey mind’ metaphor. I’m just the guinea pig, or should I say flying monkey, trying to cope.  
   
On the other hand, Colonel Tooey gets most of the credit for the real monkeys I saw freely running around central Florida on one tiny island. Those monkeys are coping very well; much  better than mine.  After all, Florida is the closest thing to a jungle in North America.  

Florida certainly fit the bill as far as jungles went back in 1938 when Hollywood came calling in Silver Springs with Johnny Weissmuller of Tarzan fame and a chimpanzee named Cheetah. No Jane?  Fast forward to the movie credits, and there was Colonel Tooey already thinking about a sequel.  
 
Ever the entrepreneur looking for a little monkey business of his own, Colonel Tooey decided a few monkeys might add some interest (and dividends) to his Jungle Cruise on the Silver River running through Homosassa, now home to one of the state’s most impressive wildlife parks and rehabilitation facilities. 

Six rhesus monkeys later and some prime Florida real estate (a new man-made island for the  monkeys), and Tooey’s guests went bananas over his new blockbuster.  
 
Don’t you just love free enterprise!  
 
Of course, the Colonel’s capers just meant the knockoffs would spread across Florida as rapidly as the monkeys (how was Tooey to know Curious George and all his buddies would learn to swim?).  Never mind there are about 1,000 feral monkeys living in 21st century Florida.  
 
Five of those feral monkeys are living on this 1960’s knockoff courtesy of "Mr. Homosassa" himself, G.A. (Furgy) Furgason.   Well; I’ll be a monkey’s uncle!  

I see the light (house)!

As Jimmy and I approached Monkey Island via the dock of the Homosassa River Resort, a few of my own monkeys/thoughts were beginning to accumulate like the clouds in the distance, screeching with excitement.  
 
Curiosity may have killed the cat, but not my monkeys – they were in the middle of another feeding frenzy, going bananas if you will!   I focused on taking a few pictures in hopes of pacifying the primates.  My secret’s out of the bag; or the trees, as the case may be. Without my camera, I'd be certifiable.

Furgy's Monkey Island was once a pile of rocks that wrecked havoc for boaters at high tide.

Our tour guides for the day, travel buddies Joan and Jerry, knew only that Monkey Island had been around almost as long as Homosassa River Resort (and obviously around as long as the Yiddish word schtick).  The place was definitely Old Florida, historic, kitschy, and lacking any of the flash and fanfare of more modern destinations like Walt Disney World approximately 100 miles to the southeast.  Retirement seems to be the order of the day in these parts of Florida. 

Joan and Jerry are always good for a good time.

According to the sign on the dock, Homosassa River Resort had been around since 1960,

Homosassa certainly has the corner on idyllic.

which my research supported during lunch via the menu at Riverside Crab House.

No monkey business inside Riverside Crab House; the food was fabulous!

The lunch menu supported quite a generous helping of all-you-can-eat fish and chips, too, for Old Florida prices under $10!   

Hush my mouth! Yes, those are puppies, the best kind when it comes to dining.

On a Thursday morning in mid-September, we practically had the place to ourselves (and all the available fish); that is aside from the monkeys in my head and the monkeys on that little island just beyond the bank of windows showcasing Homosassa’s claim to fame.   

Who's watching who?

Anyone for a cruise?

This one was minding her own monkey business.

This fella was the most patriotic of the bunch.

Maybe it was the heat or a morning of our monkey business, but we were beginning to feel a strong connection with our primate progenitors (distant, distant ancestors, for those of you into Darwinism).    

"If you can't beat 'em," (all those mind monkeys), Joan and I say, "Join 'em."

Yes, I admit it; it’s a jungle out there (and inside my head); travel only exacerbates the problem. It is what it is.  I'm not giving up my travel; or my travel buddies!  
 
As they say, when in roam . . . .     

This has got to be one of our better closing pics for me and Jimmy, don't you think?!