Ft. Myers

Sunday, October 12, 2014

Today we moved south about 85 miles to Ft. Myers.  Our journey was mostly on I-75, arriving about noon.  Whew, hot again, 90+ and high humidity.  We decided to check out Ft. Myers Beach, only a few miles from our campground.  Wow, being Sunday, a holiday weekend (Columbus Day), and a Pirates Fest, it was Party On!  at the beach.

Although there was a nice breeze it was hot, so after a nice little walk, we headed home.

Monday, October 12, 2014

Today we’re off to Sanibel and Captiva Islands.  The Island is heavily residential with lots of big and expensive homes.  Half the Island belongs to the J. N. Darling National Wildlife Refuge.  There is a 4 mile wildlife drive with turnouts overlooking a wetlands.  Some pictures follow.

Reddish Egret

Rosette Spoonbills

Mangrove

Mangroves grow wild around here, and as you see, it would be impossible to get through a stand of them.  They seem to grow with no direction.  Their root system covers a large area and is intertwined.  It is a curse for developers.  In fact, there has been efforts to eradicate them, until finally it was realized their importance in protecting the shores from erosion and helping to dissipate hurricane winds and storm surges.

The beaches at Sanibel are rated some of the best for swimming and shelling.  A storm appears to be approaching, so we didn’t stay long.  We found some interesting small shells.

 

Tuesday, October 14, 2014

Today our interest takes us to the winter home of Thomas Edison.  With lots of Edison history in Port Huron and at Greenfield Village, this was a must visit for us.  His estate is located on about 14 acres of land along the Caloosahatchee River that he purchased in 1885.

While he had visited Florida previously, his selection of this particular area was made because of the bamboo and other tropical plants present.  Edison wanted to develop bamboo as filament material for his light bulb.  Light bulb filaments lasted maybe a couple hours at this time.  A carbonized bamboo filament lasted hundreds of hours.  As we know, tungsten became the preferred material.

About this time, Edison and Ford became friends.  In fact, Ford bought a house and property next door to Edison on the River here in Ft. Myers.  Edison developed the battery and generator for Ford’s cars.  In the late 1920s, Ford asked him to look for a domestic source for rubber. At this time the US used 70% of the world’s rubber production for tires, all of it was imported and subject to political, price, and weather impacts.  Kind of like oil today.

Edison had a botanical garden growing hundreds of plants and a laboratory to test them for latex content.  He was searching for a source that could be grown anywhere across the US and and found that Golden Rod, as in the “weed”, worked and could be grown nationwide.  After WWII synthetic rubber was developed, basically ending further research.

Well, it wasn’t our intent to turn this into a history lesson, but Edison was a fascinating guy.  He has almost 1100 patents.  We figure he was probably viewed a little kooky in the day with all his inventions.  Following are a few pictures of the Estate.

Edison Winter Estate

Edison Living Room

Edison’s Study and Moonlight Garden

Some interesting plants,

Palm and Coconut

Bougainvillea

Shoreline in front of Edison’s house

Edison Dock / Pier, (only pilings remain).  Pier was used for barges bringing materials and boats carrying Edison or Ford.  No roads or railroad reached this area until the 1910s.

Ford Winter Estate

Ford Living Room

As stated above, Edison researched plants that could be used for rubber production and grown in the US.  Since rubber was extracted from plants in South America and other tropical areas, he planted and/or tested over 14,000 plants in his botanical laboratory on this site.  The lab has been reconstructed and it looks as if the clocked stopped here in the 1920s.  Even the dust looks original.  This was Dan’s favorite in the complex.  Some picture’s follow.

Edison is known for many inventions, like the phonograph and

the movie camera. In fact, his Edison Studio in New Jersey produced the movie titled “The Great Train Robbery”  A 10 minute silent western.

His work with the light bulb and electricity generation is one of his big accomplishments.  He made the light bulb practical and created the electrification system necessary to put it in homes, streets, and buildings.  He had to invent each component used in this system and those used in the power station.  One of his generators is shown here.

 

Thomas Edison was a remarkable man.  He lived to be 84 and continued working right up to his death.  Many of his achievements came when he was in his 70s. We are glad we had an opportunity to stop here as it provided more insight into his life.

At some point we need to visit his West Orange, NJ lab, now a National Park site.

Wednesday, October 15, 2014

Fort Meyers has been an interesting stop.  It is a bit lower key than Sarasota and much less traffic.  Tomorrow we head into Big Cypress Preserve and The Everglades, part 1.  We will visit the southern part of the Everglades during our stay in Homestead in a couple of weeks.

Our stop tomorrow is at Midway Campground, a NPS campground near Ochopee.  It is unlikely we will find WiFi for the next several days. We’re having fun sharing our adventure.