Friday, May 27, 2016

Wednesday, we went to the Edison-Ford Estates in Fort Myers.  Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were fast friends.  Thomas Edison happened on Fort Myers in the early 1900's and decided to make it his winter home.  The population was only 350 people at that time.  When Henry Ford visited, he wanted to stay there as well.

Thomas Edison built a large house, a study, a research lab, and a gatekeepers house on the grounds, along with a swimming pool and a 1500 foot dock.  His wife was instrumental in the planting of tall palm trees lining the street that leads to their estate.  A trusted friend and employee of Edison's built a home next door but when Edison realized he was embezzling he forced him to sell the house to him.

Henry Ford paid $20,000 for the house and land that he built next to Edison's.  It had, and still has, a "friendship" gate between the two properties.  We saw a Model T and a Model A from his company, and a truck from the same era.  We happened to be there when they started the Model A, which supposedly only happens once.a week.  The man who takes care of the vehicles went into great detail about all the steps it takes to start one up.  I decided that no women (or the vast majority of them) would ever be able to start one after hearing that.

The museum here is excellent.  I didn't realize how many things Edison invented.  He holds more patents than any person or corporation does.  We listened to his first phonograph.  It used cylinders instead of the flat round records we all knew, and the sound was scratchy but it worked.

There was a group of students there that looked like about fifth graders.  They were in a room where an employee of the museum was doing experiments and demonstrating Edison's inventions.  The kids were having great fun.  What a great program they have for kids here.  They also sell herbs and flowers and plants.  All in all, it was great.  We did the hourlong guided tour.

Oh, I forgot this.  Edison died in 1931 and Henry Ford never came to Fort Myers again.  He just couldn't come without his best friend.  He sold his property in the 1940's for what he paid for it, $20,000, because he said he did not want to profit from his friendship with Edison.  There is a nonprofit entity that oversees the properties today.  The Edison family signed it over to them and have loaned them all the furnishings and personal belongings on display.

Then we went to a donut shop that is locally famous for maple bacon donuts.  They have maple frosting with square inches of bacon, four of them, embedded in the frosting.  And they have cold pressed coffee.  I'm not a coffee person but the others really liked it.

Thursday, we went out fishing in the gulf for half a day.  Stella and Phil caught sharks.  Phil's friend, Don, also caught one but it bit through the line before it was in the boat, so no luck there.  I caught a number of grouper that were less than 20" long so were too small to keep.  I also caught a couple of small snapper.  There were 2-3 foot swells so no one was seasick.  We were all kind of disappointed when it was time to come back, but we were windburned and hot so it was time to get out of the sun.  We had a great time, though, and ate shark and snare for dinner.

Nothing beats fresh fish for flavor.  It was flaky and mild.  Yum. Yum.

This morning we said goodbye to Phil and Carol and started north again.  To avoid Orlando and the holiday weekend traffic, we went east around Lake Okachobee.  Phil and Stella had discussed various routes last night and it was decided that this one was best.  Our destination was St. Augustine and Jacksonville.  Phil said it would take a little longer but the traffic would be a lot less.  We would meet up with I95 and head up the coast.

Sounded good so we set off.  We went on two lane state highways for 3-1/2 hours before finding I95. Through small towns, down country roads, putting along with a 45 mph speed limit a lot of the time.  We think that Naggy Maggie, the GPS, took us on a circuitous route to say the least.  It seemed she either wasn't talking to us or she was sending us down back roads.

Anyway, we didn't get to St. Augustine until almost 3:30.  We decided to skip it and continue on so we wouldn't be going through Jacksonville at 5 pm on the Friday before a three day weekend.  Our plan is to use the time we would have spent in St. Augustine in Savannah tomorrow, so we are spending the night in Brunswick, Georgia, tonight.

Georgia is our 9th state.  We loved our time in Florida.  We will see what this area offers.