Food, Glorious Food!!!!

 

As I am sitting around Jacksonville, I am trying to figure out where I want to go next. I know that I want to go south into Florida. Usually, unless you make reservations a year in advance, Florida in the winter is a tough nut to crack. I figured I might have a better shot at it this year since the majority of the Canadians cannot cross the border. I think I read someplace that normally, the RV parks in Florida during the winter, is up to 50% Canadian. Then I heard from my friend Jon – Jon who I had hung around with in Arizona and Nevada around the turn of the year. He said that he was going to be in Ft. Myers, which gave me a direction to go. I had a tool of Jon's to return, but the real reason I wanted to go there was because of John Mariucci, not the famous Minnesota hockey coach, but his son. Mariucci went to high school with my brothers, which is why I call him Mariucci - that is how I knew him back in the day,  and I hadn't seen him in 40-50 years. Most importantly, he was a phenomenal chef, interning in Aspen and then eventually becoming an executive chef at some upscale restaurants in the Miami area. I needed Jon to reintroduce me to Mariucci. Well, that isn't exactly the reason I went to Ft. Myers but that is what I told Jon. My plan worked and Mariucci ended up cooking us several meals. Prepare to be astounded:

The appetizer - deep fried calamari

Salmon in a lemon butter caper sauce

A shrimp, mussel, pepper pasta

Dessert - presentation is everything

A different dinner, but no less astounding - 

I wasn't the only one who came to Ft Myers. Back in 1885, Thomas Edison came and built a winter estate. About thirty years later, his good buddy Henry Ford bought the estate next door and thus was established the Edison-Ford estates. Actually the estates didn't become joined together until 1990. Edison has been described as being America's greatest inventor – he held 1093 patents, most of which were improvements on other people's inventions. He was totally deaf in one ear and barely hearing in the other. Edison said this was why he could focus and concentrate more easily on his work. His house in Ft Myers was where he came to get away from it all. The estates were lovely, they overlooked the Caloosahatchee River.

My friend Linda and a very massive tree on the estate

I seem to be on a food binge here. 
This came from a food truck on the estate - a giant hot dog with onions and teriyaki sauce. 
Most excellent.

Mariucci's fiance, Sherry took us to Matlacha (said Matt-La-Shay), a little island community. Matlacha is an “Old Florida” fishing village with many art galleries and traditional Floridian cottages. Vibrant, vibrant colors.

This was a front walk into a shop

oipii

Florida does like bright colors. 
 Leoma Lovegrove was the resident famous artist who lived on the island.

Just down the road from the Shady Acres RV park, was the Koreshan State Park which told us of the utopian communal society called Koreshan Unity. They believed that the universe is all contained within a sphere and we live on the inside of the sphere, with centrifugal force holding us up on the edges of the sphere. The sun is actually a battery in the center of this sphere.

Koreshians also believed in celibacy and immortality. The founder – Cyrus Teed was very charismatic and claimed to be the new messiah. If you are celibate, all that energy would go to making Teed immortal. He would then come back and help everybody else become immortal. The community was made up mostly of women. Besides their some-might-say off-beat teachings, I am of the thought that perhaps the celibacy rule caused the Koreshians to eventually die out.

A trail along a river

The river - very peaceful

oipi

I seem to be into tutles lately.  Here is a gopher tortoise in his burrow

The man himself - the Koresh.  I guess he did eventually find some sort of immortality.

I must mention my visit to Cassadaga, Florida which I visited on my way down to Ft. Myers. Cassadaga has been named the “Psychic Capital of the World”. Cassadaga was created by the Cassadaga Spiritualist Camp which promotes and certifies psychics and mediums. It was interesting, on one side of the main street are all these signs “See Your Future”, “Cards Read” - sort of a Coney Island side show type of feel. On the other side of the street, land owned by the Spiritualist Camp, there is a whole different vibe. They take their spiritualist leaning seriously. I did have a consultation/reading with one of the certified mediums – Rev. Patty. I won't go into detail, but it was very much worth my time and money. No future prognostication, just a good therapy session.

Miko chased a squirrel up a tree.
She never noticed that there was another squirrel on the opposite side of the tree.