New Years in Fort Myers

What's not to like? The temperature is on the mid 20s, we are in short sleeves cruising down a six lane expressway in a new car. We have a king suite with free internet and breakfast for less than a crummy motel at home, and I've just finished a healthy (vegetables, nothing fried and reasonable sized portions) two course meal and drinks for $15. I'm settling back to watch one of 150 cable channels with great company, and a decaf coffee in my hand.

Mind you there are still some quirky things. Like sections of their highways which are all adopted by groups who keep them litter free. Today we came along a portion of the motorway tended by the Sarasota Nudist Association. Couldn't find any of them out collecting litter unfortunately.

As we are basically travelling south along the Gulf of Mexico, we keep stopping at beaches for a walk. This morning after waffles for breakfast at our hotel, we went down a few miles to Venice Beach, bought a coffee and strolled along the beach a way, before heading off to Fort Myers - where the winter estates of Thomas Edison and Henry Ford are located side by side. Being good friends, they would come down for the winter to think, relax and invent.

Edison is one of the greatest inventors of the modern era, having received over 1000 patents in his life time - at least one in each of 62 consecutive years. He either invented, developed or perfected a huge range of things we now take for granted. The light globe is well known, but the list includes the phonograph, the long distance telephone, the telegraph machine, rubber and the pneumatic tyre, dry batteries, the Remington typewriter, Portland cement, movie cameras, safety fuses, insulation material, solar panels and light sockets as well as more whymsical ones like an automatic writing pen, and automatic shaving machine. His company's became ones we know today such as GE and Remington. Edison is credited with the saying that genius is 5% inspiration and 95% perspiration.

We toured the estate and saw the houses, as well as the museum and the laboratory, and suitably inspired went to find our hotel for the night. This time a king suite at the Hampton Inn and Suites at Fort Myers Beach. Went back to another Perkins for dinner at about afternoon tea time as we hadn't eaten any lunch. The meals were healthy and tasty there last night, and there was one of their restaurants near our motel, so they got our business again, and it was just as nice.