Blog Entry 10 - Trip to Downtown Fort Myers

Smilodon (Souce: My Camera)

Museum (Source: My Camera)

When I first heard that we would be taking a trip to Downtown Ft. Myers, I had mixed feelings about it. Having lived about 5 minutes from that part of the city my entire life, and traveled through there possibly hundreds of times, I thought I had seen all there was to be seen. But, at the same time, the thought of learning more about the history of Fort Myers was appealing. The first thing we did was visit a museum that used to be an old train station. The interesting thing about the museum was that it featured the history of the area in chronological order as you walked through the area. So we would start off where Florida was underwater, to when the area was inhabited with Mastodons and Smilodons, to when the Caloosa and Seminole Indians resided here, then finally when settlers from up north moved in and the area became what it is today. I was surprised at the amount of history there was about this area, especially relating to Billy Bowlegs and the Seminole Wars. Following this, we took a tour throughout the city, which included the chance to see the landscape of the city from the roof of a building. While not as impressive as Chicago, or New York City, Fort Myers has still come a long way when one considers that it was basically nothing a few hundred years ago. A particularly fun part of the trip was when we were allowed to break off and explore the city on our own. I walked with Brittaney, and together we worked our way towards Centennial Park and the boat ramp. Along the way, we saw all sorts of monuments and memorials, including the one of Edison, Ford, and Firestone near the small park by the ramp. When we eventually reached the river, we noticed a platform (almost like a pier) we could go on and essentially walk about 25-30 feet into the river. We walked on it and spent quite a while on it and looking out into the river. It was a overcast that day, and a bit windy, which made it nice as it wasn't too hot. While we didn't get to see much wildlife on that trip, we did manage to see a dolphin breaching on the surface of the water while we watched the river. Overall, the trip was very enjoyable. Aside from the canoe trip (which really wasn't a trip considering that we didn't really leave Vester), this was my favorite.

De Tomaso Mangusta (Source: My Camera)

On a small side note, among the interesting things I saw that day, there was this strange car at an old (perhaps abandoned) gas station. As a pretty big car fanatic, I am usually very good at identifying specific makes, and years of cars - even some of the less interesting ones, but this car was one that had completely stumped me. I took a picture of it, and later when I returned home I did a little research and learned that the car was a De Tomaso (Qvale) Mangusta, an Italian Sports car. Doing a bit more research, I learned that only 284 of this type of car were produced in the entire world! To put this number into perspective, Ford makes over 90,000 Mustangs each year! Just in the United States too. This was undoubtedly the rarest car I had ever seen. Considering its rarity, I would guess its owned by one of the lawyers that practices in the city. I consider myself very lucky for getting the chance to see one!

The Caloosahatchee River (Source: My Camera)

Strange monument (Source: My Camera)