Ft Myers Campgrounds and Friends

Koreshan State Park

Aw - back in the woods - the kind of site I love!

And no sight of the neighbors!

We are here at the Koreshan State Park in Estero. This park is very nice.  I thought we had stayed here before but I was wrong.  There is TV here, so Big Bob is content without the satellite dish.  The only draw back is no sewer hook-up so it's the bath house for me since I love a long hot shower.  We will be here five days and that is a stretch for us without sewer but we should be OK as long as we stay watch the water usage.

 There is a lovely picnic area

  

With a large playground

For the kayakers and canoers  there are rentals available and a nice launch area to the paddling trail

There are many trails in the Park

With some running along side the Estero River

 

 Cypress Knees

Not many squirrels here but gopher turtles at almost every turn.

  

There is an old historic village that we visited.- the Koreshan Unity Settlement, settled in 1894 by Dr Cyrus Teed. It sets next to US 41 and the Estero River.  The Koreshan Unity was founded on communal living and property with the goal of everyone working for the good of all - Utopia!

 Amazing how many of the buildings are still standing.

 Te Demkohler House - 1882.  This house was on the land when it was donated to the Koreshans

The Planetary Court - 1904  The governing council lived here

 The Founder's House AKA Teed House and Children's School) - 1896

Although you can't go inside most of the buildings, they have large pieces of glass that allow you to look inside to the period furnishings.

Gulf Air RV Resort

Our second campground on this trip.  This is an Encore Resort and is part of the Encore Trails package so the only cost is the $57.00 monthly payment to Thousand Trails.  Sweet!  

We have a nice site, although we are in the short term RV field, no immediate neighbors.

As is the case with most RV Resorts in Florida (we haven;t found this any other state)  thy have a large number of annual and seasonals who live in Park Models (basically a single wide trailer with a enclosed porch).

I get that the parks need a steady income, but I always tend to feel like an intruder under these circumstances.  But the folks are always nice to us, so I guess it is me.

The park is landscaped beautifully, with a lovely area to sit and chill.

 A large pool

A large club house, with lots of planned activities and games.

If I were a snow bird, I could be happy here!.

Seen in the park

Gator on the move 

He seems awful big to me to tote along, but he is cute!

Time with Friends

While we were here, we were able to hook up with two of our friends for something to east 

Sue Krietinz -  We first met Sue about 10 years ago while visiting another friend in Wisconsin to celebrate her birthday.  The three of us hit it off at once as Sue is such a hoot!  She relocated to Ft Myers a few years after that and  we have been trying to get down here to see her since then,  Nice it finally happened.    We met Sue at Bahama Breeze for 1/2 price appetizers and a few beers. We had never been to one of these restaurants and it was delicious as well as the price was right! But the bet was being able to catch up with Sue and her life now!

John Schafer - We meet John at the El Cap.  He actually lives in Ft Myers and commutes to St. Petersburg for work, staying with his old fraternity buddy Monday thorough Thursday.  We were able to meet his wife, Cynthia and sister-in law, Donna.  They took us to Grandma Dot's for lunch (best grouper ever!)  The after lunch, we went back to our campground and relaxed with a few beers!

As usual we found we had to make a trip to Camping World.  The GPS died (it was four years old so I guess it was time) and although we don't need one here, the Back Friday sale had started and I had a coupon..  And of course, we couldn't just buy a GPS LOL.

Same goes for the Harley Dealer - a trip to Seven Bends for t-shirts and a chip.

We stayed busy checking out the area.  We had been done this way before but it was with our grandson for Travel Ball so there wasn't much sightseeing then - game after game after game!

Estero, Ft Myers and the Islands
 

Estero. Ft Myers and the Islands

The reason we are here in Estero was  to see Willie Nelson.  The original concert had been scheduled for February but due to his illness, was postponed to this week.  And he was well worth waiting for!  The last concert we saw, about 30 years ago, was Willie. And he will probably be our last.  We have just gotten too old for the stairs and the seats.  He is now 85 years old and can still rock the audience. He has slowed somewhat, talks some rather than sings, but he still puts on an awesome show.

Sanibel Island

Growing up, my family did not take many vacations due to the type of work my dad did.  Most trips were to North Carolina to see family. He would work on Friday, drive all night, and go to work on Saturday for my Uncle.  He would would all week and then do the same thing again -  work all day and drive all night to get home in time to go to work the next day. But we did take a few weekend trips and one was to Sanibel Island so it was nice to be able to do it again.  It has changed a lot since then (probably close to 60 years ago)  from a sleepy little town of locals.  But it has grown the right way -  sign ordinances preventing huge signs and billboards, lots and lots of native landscaping, bike and walker friendly, and has lots of nature preserves..  It is beautiful and friendly!

The first thing I wanted to do here. was go to Doc Ford's Run Bar and Grill, based on the Doc Ford novels written by Randy Wayne White, my favorite author.  The food was awesome!  I hope the one the are building at the St Pete Pier will be just as good!

And we added another lighthouse to our list that we have visited - Sanibel Lighhouse . It is 98 feet tall. and was first lit in August of 1885.

Now I'm wishing we had bought the passport book and gotten and stamp for us one we have visited.

Ft Myers Beach

This is adjacent to the causeway leading to Sanibel Island.  The beaches are beautiful and are tourist friendly, with lots of access and parking

Ft Myers - Edison and Ford Winter Homes and Museum

We spent almost an entire day here.  Such a beautiful place and it was already decorated for Christmas.

Thomas Edison originally bought the land that sits on the Caloosahatchee River in 1885. The first thing constructed was the Edison Pier so that he could transport his building materials to the site.  The railroad did not come through until 1904.

The caretaker's "Florida Cracker" house is the oldest property a well as one of the oldest in Ft. Myers.

The pool, built in 1910 with Edison Portland cement 

The home is known as the Seminole Lodge and was designed by Edison.

The main house

 With the attached Guest House

 The rules

The porch furniture is original to the home

 As well as some of the furnishing, like the light

Caught by Ford's daughter  in the river

The fire system

Cars in Henry Ford's Garage

 Ford's Home

 

The Museum

More cars

 

Even a 1916 Chuck Wagon belonging to Henry Ford.  He took lots of camping trips with Thomas Edison, Harvey Firestone and John Burroughs (a naturalist and nature essayist, active in the conservation movement)

 Tools

 

Thomas Edison's Lab

Pine Island

We spent an afternoon touring all five cities on this Island: Pine Island Center, St. James City, Bokeelia, Pineland and Matlacha.  There are all  very picturesque!  We had lunch at the Capt'n Con's Fish house at the point in Bokeelia and it was delish!.  And the view was awesome!

We had a great time in a beautiful area surrounded by water - no wonder the snowbirds love it so much!

Next Destination:  Red Oaks Campground in Bushnell for New Years with our Camping Buds