CATCHING SOME OF FLORIDA’S GULF COAST HIGHLIGHTS

Departing the Everglades we headed west on the Tamiami Trail Hwy 41 across the southern peninsula through Big Cypress Swamp Preserve. Spotted several dead alligators along the roadsides being scavenged upon by turkey vultures as we sped passed. Collier-Seminole State Park about 17 miles south of Naples was our destination.

After securing a campsite, a short afternoon Jeep excursion to Marcos Island nearby quickly becomes a bit of an eye opener about Florida’s overdeveloped coastal urbanization. 

Tall masses of condominiums lined the Gulf of Mexico professing to be the utopia of senior retirement living. Neither of us finds any appeal in how the land has been ravaged by land developers. The drive on the island definitely impressed upon us to carefully rethink how we would approach our journey northbound in the coming weeks ahead. Avoiding all big city density areas as much as possible would certainly be the game plan.

Florida State Parks are much less expensive places to spend the night than staying at RV parks. The latter all double their rates during the winter peak season due to the high demand from northerners who escape south to avoid the cold. So along the Gulf Coast northbound thus far we’ve managed with some finesse to spend the evenings in state parks along the way. Skyrocketing gas prices aren’t getting any cheaper here either.

But continuing on this leg of the journey there have been some great discoveries northbound along the way. The Edison and Ford Winter Estates in Fort Meyers along the Caloosahatchee River for starts. Thomas Edison and his new wife Mina Miller had lumber brought down from Maine in 1885 to build their winter family home and guest house known as Seminole Lodge. 

The two houses are connected with a pergola draped by colorful bougainvillea. Veranda porches with wicker lounge chairs surround each one.Both buildings have lovely open air cottage windows that overlook the beautiful and relaxing views of the river and property’s tropical plants, fruit and palm trees.

Thomas Edison and Henry Ford were great friends who shared their winter residences as neighbors in Fort Meyers overlooking the bay. The two men worked together with Harvey Firestone here forming a research botanical laboratory to produce a domestic rubber supply source. Edison had acres of exotic plants such as tropical fruit trees and banyan trees he cultivated on his property. 

Mina Edison's Moonlight Garden

The banyan trees with long roots have grown to be the largest in North America.It was fascinating to learn about his 10,000 ideas and 1,093 invention patents, visit his laboratory and residence, and walk the thirteen acre estate.

Sanibel Island happens to be one of the better places to collect sea shells around low tides, especially after a storm. The winds were gusty creating white caps and the currents too strong for swimming. Shell collecting didn’t yield much, but folks on the beach were enjoying the warm breezes and beautiful white sands. 

We watched three people trying to extract a fishing line and hook from a pelican’s bill without much success.

On the island J.N. “Ding” Darling National Wildlife Refuge has a visitor center at the entrance to a five-mile wildlife drive. There are good exhibits, duck stamp drawings, wonderful nature photography displays, and a film on the refuge. We opted to do the wildlife drive with our Jeep rather than take a guided tram tour with a naturalist. Tarpon Bay and the preserve are best for observing birds during low tide. A flock of white pelicans and a small common heron was about all we spotted. It was slim viewing for us especially after all the wildlife sightings we saw in the Everglades.

Leaving the refuge a short stop at the Bailey-Matthews Shell Museum provided a good assortment of Sanibel-Captiva Island sea shells and exotic shell samples from around the world. 

One might say we hit the highlights of the island, however to truly experience the place try relaxing on the beaches, paddle a kayak through the mangrove tunnels, ride along the bike pathes, or go fishing in the waters of Tarpon Bay for a few days would be the ideal way to enjoy Sanibel and Captiva Islands. Better yet go when the winter tourists haven’t migrated in hordes. By 5:00pm we were caught in traffic gridlock getting off Sanibel Island.

At Koreshan State Historic Site we came upon a gopher tortoise feeding and another one heading into its burrow.

And hooray finally that first armadillo sighting occurred recently as one scurried through our campsite at Little Manatee River. Gotta get out in those state parks folks where real action happens far away from Florida’s urban overdevelopment.