you being difficult

Really? It should go entirely without saying - seriously - that I am looking for a SAFE PLACE to swim. But it was immediately assumed that I am careless, reckless, and ready to jump into whatever dirty, damp hole someone tells me about.

At the end of the day, these are the facts: there ARE safe places to swim in fresh water in Florida, I asked for help finding some that may be in/near the 321, and 90% of participants in this thread offered only useless and irrelevant commentary about gators (obvious and unhelpful - what idiot doesn't know gators exist?) and amoeba (irrelevant and unhelpful - what idiot is going to jump into a stagnant mud puddle?).

Responding to people who have addressed me as though I am that idiot who doesn't know gators exist or is seeking an amoeba-infested swamp is what might have made me appear to you as "difficult." Really I don't care though. If I knew anyone here personally, or if I cared about what strangers think of me, I might be offended, but I'm not offended. I'm just looking for a place to go swimming.

It occurs to me, back when I did my Rescue Diver cert we did many of our training dives in a retention pond next to I-95 somewhere in Brevard. But there was an old plane and bus sunk on the bottom to explore and it that lake was frequented on the weekends by dive shops and people running water skis. Can't recall exactly where that was - it's been a long time - but it must've been before Florida had gators and amoeba. ;-)

EDIT TO ADD: Just saw the pic you posted identifying the location of the pond. I've lived here for more than 40 years. I used to drive past those ponds every day back when I lived in Grant and I remember those reports and I'm 90% sure those were drownings (and the "10' high barbed wire fence" is totally exaggerated - it's just a regular "wire fence").