Saturday, 13 April 2019
Cape Coral, Florida, USA
Watch the Weather Channel whilst having breakfast. Big storms forecast over the route I’ve just driven: Texas, Louisiana, Georgia, Alabama. Large hailstones the size of baseballs predicted and tornado warnings in force. Good job I’m not in the middle of that. Later learn that there was devastating tornado in Texas, close to where I was driving only a few days ago.
Scoot down the Insterstate to Fort Myers and the winter homes of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford.
Enroute, see a ‘Trump Shop’ set up in a tent by the roadside. Told that Florida is a ‘red’ state (Republican) and that there’s a lot of customers for their Trump branded garments. Am also seeing a lot more Confederate flags flying down this way.
Edison visited Fort Myers in the late 19th century and bought some land to build a winter home. Ford used to work for Edison before setting up the Ford Motor Company and subsequently became friends. Ford was a regular visitor to Edison’s home in Fort Myers and when the next door house became available, Ford bought it.
Everybody needs good neighours.
Having been to Vanderbilt’s house, and others, in Newport, Rhode Island, with their massive stone built mansions, the Edison and Ford winter homes are quite small and modest in comparison.
Nice setting, right on the river front with a pier that stretched 1,500ft into the river to enable Edison’s electric powered boat to travel up and down the river.
A few years later with their mutual friend, Firestone (as in tyres), they developed a botanical laboratory with the intent of developing a rubber tree suitable for the American climate so that they could process rubber in America rather than import it, and use it in the manufacture of Firestone tyres. The botanical laboratory still stands today, as it was a 100 years ago. Outside is a big Banyan tree (known as the walking tree) which had been grown by them but later decided that it was too slow to grow and the rubber it produced wasn’t suitable for their needs.
Ford’s garage has a few Model T pick up trucks and cars on display. A pick up truck is so called because in the old days they were often purchased by mail and the new owner would have to go to the local rail depot in order to ‘pick up’ his truck. You learn stuff on this blog.
Interesting to be told that Edison didn’t actually invent the lightbulb. He merely perfected the filament part of it.
Short drive over the river to Cape Coral.
To meet Miss Germany.
The evening starts with champagne…
