#14 Fort DeSoto and Homeward Bound

As you probably know, we enjoyed visiting many gardens in Florida. One of the very best was the Naples Botanical Garden that was not well advertised, but was well worth visiting. We found that for the next few months, it also has an exhibit of Zimbabwe sculpture on exhibit throughout the garden. The curator did an ingenious job of placing the sculpture in the most interesting places.

This one presented an interesting perspective

The Butterfly garden was neat:

The Children's Garden too:

For our last stay in the Sunshine State, we were at Fort Desoto Park. It’s a county park just south of St Petersburg right on the coast. It was probably the nicest park we have stayed in on this trip, and certainly it was the most accessible to the elusive ocean beaches. The campground has many sites that are directly on small bodies of water – inlets where you could launch your boat or fish. We were not on a water site, but a few miles down the road was the extensive white sand beach, which spanned 5 or 6 miles along Tampa Bay and the Gulf.

We watched some gorgeous sunsets on the beach, and once saw a Carnival cruise ship sailing off into the sunset.

   

The Fort Desoto Park has a several acre dog park and beach that afforded Duffy a chance to get off his leash and run a bit with the other dogs (he hadn't been off leash since we were home).

The park also had a coastal fort dating to the turn of the last century with a small museum.

We spent some time checking out the St. Petersburg coastal area and a few of the sights. We found a huge bookstore with new and used books, Haslam's, with something in excess of 300,000 books.

We managed to find some neat books.

We also visited the Florida Seabird Sanctuary that cares for injured seabirds.

and had a good lunch at a cool place recommended by a bookshop employee. 

After lunch we went to the St.  Petersburg Sunken Gardens that had a great short walkway through several levels of lush, beautiful gardens.

After ten weeks, nearly 2000 pictures, and 3000 RV and car miles, its about time to head home. While our trip has given us a great opportunity to see a lot of interesting places, when we get home we are looking forward to seeing and talking with friends, and especially with our family and grandkids, whom we have missed very much while on the road. Although living in confined quarters has had its challenges for us, our cats, Idgy and Rosie, and our dog Duffy have probably sacrificed more than we did. They will surely be happy to be home in their familiar, larger environment. 

In Georgia and on our way home now, we recall one picture that we took a few weeks back that sums up our good fortune in having this Florida adventure:

Thanks for coming along!

anne and john

#13 The Birds and the Bees

Koreshan  State Historic Site has a boat landing where you can rent canoes. Not having done any boating in quite a few years, we decided to give it a go. Of course, we almost tipped the canoe over when getting into it.

After getting off we did OK, except of course for running into the shore a few times and into a few branches. We enjoyed an hour and a half paddle upriver (that’s river talk y’know), where we saw some local scenery and a few critters, including a palm seeking sunshine as well as a fellow out for a morning walk.

We wondered where these guys were headed??

This live oak was dripping with Spanish moss.

Although we had researched Florida pretty well, it has been a surprise how well hidden some of the activities are, especially the non commercial ones. Our friend Theresa told us about the Corkscrew Swamp, but we couldn’t find it on the Florida State map or on any of the attraction maps or brochures. We finally asked a park ranger and learned it was about 30 miles away. The Audubon society administers the 6000 acre swamp, which is home to the world’s largest remaining collection of bald cypress trees. The Corkscrew has a 2 ½ mile boardwalk through the various habitats of the swamp.

This is the dry season and much of the ground was dry, but the profusion of trees, plants and birds was impressive. The lush swamps and forests offered many special views of birds and other animals. This Anhinga dives for food, but since his feathers do not have natural oils, he has to spread his wings and dry his feathers after diving.

Anne was the first person of the day to spot an Otter (at least the first to write it on the chalk board!). We even saw some snakes, and, of course an alligator.

But probably the most interesting thing we saw was the Tillandsia, which are the plants that grow in air, or air plants. 

In addition to the Spanish moss that often decorates the trees, we saw many other Tillandsia, some flowering like this one, on the walk.

Another activity that Theresa pointed out to us was a cruise on Naples Bay and a look-see at Tin City, so called because of the tin roofs on the buildings in this shopping district that formerly housed Naples fisheries. 

We took the cruise through Naples Bay and saw many fabulous houses along the bay. Here is one built by Larry Bird:

and one owned by the Mars (candy bar) family:

Three bottle nosed dolphins swam along side the boat for several minutes, sometimes jumping completely out of the water. They may just have been the highlight of the cruise!

Scores of others lined the shore along with the Firestone family's 90 foot hand crafted wood yacht (cost $12 million in 1992).

We especially liked the house with attached boat garage:

Only about 15% of these homes are used for primary residences. The others are occupied only about four weeks per year. Thinking back to the relatively modest Ford and Edison summer homes, a pretty big scale factor seems to have been applied to the number and size of the wealthy folk's mansions in the last hundred years. Must be nice .........


We know everyone saw the birds in this post, but did you see the bees?

#12 An Interesting Place

We have been staying at the Koreshan State Historic Site campground. The first weekend we were here, the park hosted an antique car show. Quite a few restored cars and motorcycles were on display.

With its dense foliage, this campground, like many here in Florida, has pretty private sites, lots of sand, and lots of ants. Our campsite is just beyond the tall slash pine on the left.

Just 4 sites down from us a nature path that winds along the Estero River – no swimming, because of possible alligators! It’s a nice place to walk the dog, but we don’t let him get too close to the river bank. On one walk we heard a huge "belly flop" sound, but by the time we looked, couldn't see anything. It might have been a large tortoise or a gator. This fellow didn’t seem worried, however.

The real claim to fame for this park is the Koreshan Unity Settlement. It’s a historic site with many buildings on the National Historic Register. And guess what? The founder, Dr. Cyrus Teed  (Cyrus = Koresh in Hebrew) brought his followers here from --- you guessed it --- Chicago in 1896 to form the Koreshan Unity, a sect that believed in communal living and property, and for members, celibacy. No tobacco or liquor were permitted. The sect had many positive aspects, including Orchards, Victorian and Vegetable Gardens, machine shops, education programs and even a massive engine and generator to provide electricity for the settlement and surrounding area. One of their beliefs was that the earth surrounded the universe, as depicted in this original artifact below.

And they even made some attempts to prove it.

To the left in the above photo, a community of 10 million people is envisioned. 

Fairbanks Morse Twin Cylinder - Circa 1926

Interesting that in the commune, where most lived in the bunk house, the founder, who was considered the Koreshan Unity Diety, had a large home as did seven women (“Planets” of the church) who came with him from Chicago. The latter were well-off folks who ceded their personal wealth to the church, as did all church members. 

 'Planet's House'

The last Koreshan Unity member passed away in 1981, and she gave the settlement to the State, with the caveat that the state would maintain it intact as the Koreshan community. We’re glad swhe did.

Have you ever heard of “Reciprocity” as it relates to public attractions, like zoos or gardens? Reciprocity means that if you are a member of one attraction, some others will honor the membership with free or reduced admission. For example, at Edison’s winter home in Fort Meyers, we could pay something between $24 and $50 (for both) entrance fees, depending upon which areas and tours we wanted to take. Instead, we decided to get a one year family membership for $85 that entitled us to see all of the places on the estate, get two free tour tickets ($10 value), and to get reciprocal entrance to some other places in Florida and other states (list provided – Cantigny and the Morton Arboretum are included, for example). For no extra cost, we could also sign up all of our grandkids, and they get free or discounted admission from those public places offering  reciprocity. We have already used our Edison membership for half off at the Naples Botanical Gardens.  Anyhow, you might be smart to check into a family membership and reciprocity when you go to some of these public attractions. We also got an annual membership in the Mote Aquarium, which has quite a few reciprocity agreements across the US.

Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were good friends, Ford having worked in one of Edison's businesses in Detroit early in his career. They had adjoining estates in Fort Meyers, and Ford usually spent two weeks at his winter estate when Edison was in residence.

Both homes, but especially Edison's, have large gardens with many native and non native plants and trees. Edison brought many plants and trees into Florida from all over the world in his search to develop synthetic rubber.

Ford's home was purchased in 1916, about 20 years after Edison's. 

The Edison estate tour included tours of the lab he built to develop synthetic rubber in 1928 as well as a walk through the Edison Museum where many of his early inventions, including the phonograph, movie projector, dictaphone and others were on display.

Much of Edison's wealth came from the development and production of batteries. This electric "truck" was used in an Elgin factory for 55 years until it was retired in the '50's.

Edison is the only person to have applied for patents for 65 consecutive years! And when he passed away in 1931, his estate was valued at $31 million, compared to Henry Ford's $1billion when he passed in the late '40's. 

This week we also spent another few hours on a Naples beach and part of another day searching for a parking spot at one of the Sanibel Island beaches - with no luck! Oh, well.....

One of the interesting things about camping in Florida State Parks (at least the ones we have camped in) is that because of the vegetation and foliage, you feel like you are in a remote area, but you may actually be quite close to civilization. We have mentioned that there are many small defunct strip malls down here in Florida, but to be fair, there are a lot of thriving shopping districts and malls too. About a mile from Koreshan State Historic Site, for example, we have a very busy, large shopping center with many familiar stores.

 An interesting place, Florida!