Visitors from Ocracoke

 This past week we had some good friends from Ocracoke come visit us in Sanibel.  Russ and Michelle Reynolds made a road trip.  They needed to get away from the cold, rainy, windy weather up north.  Although the first few days they were here were a little unusually cool and windy; we did get some nice weather for them.  We showed them around the island and took a dinghy ride.

Russ and Keith in the dinghy

Michelle kept an eye out for manatees

We ate out quite a bit as Russ and Michelle do not have many options this time of year on Ocracoke.  They were so excited to have so many places to go out to eat.  It was nice as we could also sit outside often with the nice weather.  Russ' sister-in-law and a friend were also on Sanibel for the week.  All of us got together on two evenings for drinks and dinner.  There were also mutual friends in Key West and so on Friday Russ, Michelle, Keith, and I took the fast ferry from Fort Myers to Key West for an over-night trip.  Each couple had a cute bungalow to themselves.  The place we stayed was very quaint.

Our bungalows in Key West

Once we got settled in, we walked over to the resort where our other friends Jim and Tracey Kelly were staying.  They were right on the water at the Southernmost Resort.

There may have been a drink or two involved poolside.

After some lunch and drinks we went back to the bungalows to clean up and relax before meeting up again for a sunset wine and cheese cruise and dinner.

Wine and cheese cruise Key West.  Yes, Keith actually was on a sailboat drinking wine.

Left to right Jim, Tracey, Michelle, Russ, and Keith.

Sunset

It was a very nice evening and everyone slept well after a busy day.  Saturday we all met up at the tree top bar for some Bloody Mary's after breakfast.  You can see just about anything in Key West and this little pooch was at the bar ready for St. Patrick's Day.

Keith and I peeled off to go see the Ernest Hemingway House in the afternoon.  Hemingway was an American novelist, short-story writer, and journalist.  He had quite a tumultuous life and lived on Key West for more than 8 years.  He had 4 different wives over his life and many fallings-in and fallings-out with friends, business associates and family.  He lived in numerous states as well as Paris and Cuba and traveled extensively.   He was of course very influential in impacting 20th century fiction.  He won the Pulitzer prize  in 1952 and a Nobel Prize in Literature in 1954.  

Unfortunately Hemingway became more and more troubled as he aged.  He started suffering from depression and paranoia.  He was admitted into the hospital at least twice for mental problems at the end of his life and was even given numerous electroshock treatments in an attempt to help improve his mental state.  It was not to be successful, and on July 2nd 1961 he shot himself with his favorite shotgun.  

It was ultimately determined that he had hereditary haemochromatosis which causes a pathologic increase in the body's stores of iron.  This in turn leads to physical and mental deterioration.  His father, his brother, and a sister also had committed suicide.  Whether this was the cause of his suicide or not is in debate, however, there is no doubt that he had become quite troubled.

Hemingway House Key West

In addition to Hemingway, there are other famous residents at the Hemingway House.  These are the Hemingway cats.  They are polydactyl cats meaning they possess an extra toe.  The story of Hemingway's cats began with a white, polydactyl kitten gifted to Hemingway in the 1930's by sea captain Stanley Dexter.  Seamen preferred polydactyl cats believing them to be good luck, better mousers, and more steady on their feet in rough seas.  Hemingway named the kitten "Snow White".  He was fond of cats and Snow White went on to be the matriarch of a large family of multi-toed felines.

The ancestors of Snow White still reside on the property.  Polydactyly is a genetic condition that results in the individual being born with extra toes.  This condition can occur in the front or hind feet and occasionally in all four feet.  The polydactyl gene is more common in felines on the United States east coast and southwest England and Whales.  There were descendants of Snow White all around the Hemingway House.

In the garden

Sleeping in Hemingway's bed

Even napping along the second floor gutter

Russ and Michelle met back up with us at the ferry terminal, and we left on the 6PM Saturday ferry back to Fort Myers.  It got in around 9:45PM and 4 tired travelers drove back to Sanibel and raced each other to see who could get to bed first.  I think it was quite a successful visit with our Ocracoke friends.  Keith and I are getting VERY excited to get back to Ocracoke.  The plan is to leave around April 12th to make our way north.  The hope is to be in Ocracoke by the 1st of May.  I will be flying to Pennsylvania this Friday.  My mom is having knee surgery and I will be there to help her for about two weeks.  We will leave within several days of my return to Sanibel.  I probably will not have any posts while I am helping my mom; but hope to resume once we start heading back north.

Thomas Edison and Henry Ford Winter Estates

 Our latest outing was into Fort Myers to see the winter estates of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.  These two remarkable men first met in 1896 at a New York conference for the Edison Illuminating Companies.   Edison had been a boyhood hero of Ford's.  At the time, Ford worked as a mechanic at the Detroit Edison Plant and had been working on his quadricycle.  Edison encouraged Ford to "keep at it".  By 1907 Ford was on the brink of releasing the Model T .  The two did not meet again until 1910, but they would become close friends for the rest of their lives.  They even purchased winter vacation homes alongside each other in Fort Myers, Florida.  These homes have become the property of  the City of Fort Myers which restored them and added a museum on the property.

Edison Winter Home

Porch looking out on the Caloosahatchee River

Some shots into the interior of the house

Thomas Edison was an amazing man.  He is often referred to as America's greatest inventor.  His most famous inventions include the phonograph, motion picture camera, and early versions of the electric light bulb.  But Edison had many more projects.  He was very interested in reducing the US reliance on foreign rubber.  To that end he built a botanical laboratory at his winter estate in Fort Myers and experimented with different plants to produce latex for rubber.  After testing over 17,000 plant species he found an adequate source in the goldenrod.  He was able to cross-breed this plant which normally grew 3-4 feet high and yielded 5% latex into a variant that was twice as big and had a yield of 12% latex.  This is just one example of many ingenious inventions not many people ever knew came from the mind of Thomas Edison.  Over the course of his life he would be granted 1,093 US patents.

Here are two pictures from his restored botanical laboratory on his winter estate

As I mentioned before, Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were to become good friends.  The Ford family purchased the property next door to Edison in Fort Myers and made there winter vacation home here as well.  Henry Ford is as you know the father of the automobile.  The founder of the Ford Motor Company, Henry Ford developed the assembly line technique for mass production.  He was able to create and produce the first automobile affordable to the middle class, converting this luxury into a product attainable to many.  The small amount of research I have done about Ford was quite interesting.  Ford had many cutting edge ideas about business instituting the 5 day (40 hour) work week (it was previously 6 days) and profit sharing for his employees.  He was one of very few large companies to actively employ African American employees as well as women and those people with handicaps.  Unfortunately he also held strongly antisemitic views.  In 1938 for his 75th birthday the German consul in Cleveland gave Ford the Grand Cross of the German Eagle.  This was the highest medal Nazi Germany could bestow on a foreigner.  Henry Ford was far from a perfect person, however he did contribute many good things to the world.

Two of many antique cars in the Ford and Edison Museum

After two unsuccessful auto companies, Henry Ford became the prinicpal founder of the Ford Motor Company in 1903.  As I mentioned above, Henry Ford was instrumental in applying the assembly line to the auto industry.  This lowered costs and increased production.  Instead of 25 cars a day, his plant was able to produce 1,000 cars a day by 1913.  Total production time to build a car went from 12 hours to 90 minutes.    In 1908, when many cars cost over $2,000, the Model T cost $850 and by 1926, the price had dropped to $290.

View out across the lawn of the Ford's winter property.  Caloosahatchee River in the backround.

Shared dock of Edison and Ford estates

It was another successful outing.  Ft Myers is a nice town with lots to see and do and we have enjoyed out time here greatly.