Friday, 1/2, we left the Orlando/Disney area for a half-day drive to Fort Myers . We're not scheduled into Key West until the eighth, so we have six days to meander there. Decided that instead of moving every day or two, we'd do an extended stay in the Fort Myers - Naples region - two nights near Fort Myers, four nights in Naples (the two towns are about 40 miles apart).
We started out on Pine Island, which is on the NW side of Fort Myers. Stayed in a large KOA. This is clearly an RV park with a lot of repeat and long-term residents - people who winter here and who have many friends they see each year here. We see a lot of Canadian license plates.
A guy was parking his motorhome a couple of sites from us. Someone walked by and said, Oh, you've moved this year. He said, uncomfortably, Well, my wife wanted to move over to this area. (Isn't that classic husband-wife stuff!) Not long after, he moved to another site - back to where they always stay (and are supposed to stay) is my bet.
This KOA was a little on the run-down side - e.g., no functioning cable TV connection at our site; no wi-fi connectability. Oh, well, for two nights we roughed it. We did get a spectacular sunset Saturday night.
Friday we drove around the Fort Myers area, enjoying the swanky waterfront residential area, then driving out to Sanibel and Captiva Islands. I'd describe Pine Island as being mid-level economically. There is an artsy-crafty community, with an ice cream shop, just before you get to Pine Island, that is decidedly funky. Much of Pine Island is a nature preserve. Sanibel and Captiva were considerably more upscale, residentwise and resortwise. Nice touch at visitor center was the sign: Please knock the snow off of your boots before entering. About 80 degrees, but forecast was for cooler temps to come - only in the 70s.
I was not familiar with the writer, Randy Wayne White, who once operated a charter fishing boat out of Sanibel. He's written a series of crime novels featuring a south Florida marine biologist/sleuth named Doc Ford and White has a restaurant there, called Doc Ford's (any connection to Steinbeck's Doc in Cannery Row?). This I learned at the Visitor Center. Based on this literary connection (Carl Hiaasen, who I have read, commends White as a fellow Florida story-teller), we had lunch there: some nicely seasoned shrimp to peel and then fish tacos (when in doubt, try the fish tacos - my motto). I should note, that after getting to Naples and an internet connection, I learned from the Wikipedia site that White actually lives on Pine Island. Maybe the fishing is better. Or, the living.
At any rate, Captiva, especially, is home to many estate-size winter(?) homes. There's lot of lush foliage in front, so you just catch glimpses of the houses as you drive by.
But, here's one place under construction that you could see:
All these properties have names: Paradise Found, SeaBreeze, BayView, ... , that sort of thing, the clever ones I can't remember. My made-up story for the above property is that it is probably owned by a Texas gazillionaire and will be named Austin-Tayshus. (Sorry, Texas readers.)
Susie is filled with a combination of envy and outrage when we see these sorts of homes: Who has all this money? Must be drug dealers! We came up with some unprintable (this is a family blog) names for her place should she, hypothetically, ever inhabit one of these, but the theme is Tough luck, peasants, a "Let them eat cake" sentiment updated.
Without an internet connection I hadn't really researched what to see and do in Fort Myers (you don't want to plan too far ahead), but in looking at tourist map of the area I espied, near downtown, the winter homes of Henry Ford and Thomas Edison. We stopped there. Turns out this historical preserve is one of Fort Myers' most-visited sites. It was too late and expensive for a full tour, but I visited a museum across the street from the homes that had some nice displays and informative videos on Ford and Edison. Also, the lab where Edison experimented trying to find a good source of synthetic rubber for tires - a challenge Ford assigned him.
We/I tend to think of Edison in connection with the light bulb. But, phonographs and movie cameras and projectors were other inventions of his. One citation in the above Edison website says, "Thomas Edison was more responsible than any one else for creating the modern world." Lots of good information at that website. He came up with patents at a rate of one every two weeks!
Of course, Henry Ford did an awful lot to create the modern world, too, and the two became friends. Ford's Dearborn Village Museum attests to that. There are some great quotations and pictures of Ford and Edison here. Also a story of their friendship, including camping trips, next picture, with Luther Burbank, Harvey Firestone, and Warren Harding here.
Shoot, park an RV behind these guys and it would look just like a typical KOA scene! Can't decide which suit I'm going to wear today.
I didn't tour the houses, next picture, but after subsequently surfing these websites, I wish I had. Edison's house featured several of his inventions, naturally. Here's a picture from outside the fence.
Nobody has to wonder where these guys got the money to build their winter homes.
Sunday morning we attended an Episcopal Church on Pine Island (because we were mistaken on the time of the Methodist Church's service). Very confusing, switching between hymnal and book of common prayer, standing, sitting, kneeling, ... . But, still made us feel quite ecumenical. Sermon was about Wise Men being smart enough to return home "by another road," rather than report back to King Herod about their visit to the Christ child. May we wisely select other roads in our own lives, too.
After church, drove to campground in Naples and had lunch at Cracker Barrel - Sunday fried chicken special - so back to the real world. Susie has a cousin who lives in Naples. We talked to him last night and will have lunch with them today.
Cheers,
Susie and Rob
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