June 20, 2015

Day #17
Key West

     One of the strange things in Key West (and believe me, there are many) is the chicken population.  They are everywhere.  The beautiful, colorful, strutting roosters grabbed my attention right away.  I have a kitchen and dining room full of everything roostery.

Famous Key West Rooster

     The roosters, hens, and baby chicks are seen everywhere, even crossing the streets of Key West whenever and wherever they chose.  It is said that the population began growing when killing a chicken for Sunday dinner no longer happened in the average household.  Most of the backyard chicken eventually flew the coop into the streets.  Also, when cock fighting became illegal, many were turned out to take care of themselves. 

Beautiful rooster

Mama and baby chicks.  So cute.

     At one point, the city hired a chicken catcher.  That didn’t seem to work out.  So, the chickens are now protected by the city, and it is illegal to pick them up.  Dang it.

     My brother-in-law, Ronnie, is retired military.  He got us onto the base, and we stayed in the base campground.  It was right on the Gulf of Mexico.  Right outside our door was a seagrape tree.  I didn’t know until we had left there that the grapes were edible.  I would have tried one.  Someone told us they are really good.  Right next to that tree was a tall coconut palm tree.  At several places along the streets they sold coconuts with holes drilled in them and a straw stuck in to drink the coconut water.  Heavens to Betsy, they were everywhere.  I really wanted to try one, but had too much going on to get around to it.

Seagrape Tree

Coconuts right outside my window

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

     I’ve always considered myself a country gal.  I don’t want a snake or an alligator for a pet, but I don’t come close to having a heart attack should I come across one.  We have plenty of wildlife in our neck of the woods.  Deer, armadillos, raccoons, box turtles, snakes of all varieties.  I haven’t packed up and moved out yet, but please do not make me come into contact with, or even look at a lizard.

     Okay, I’ll admit that over the past 12 years, I’ve had plenty of confrontations with geckos.  I’ve even, since the GEICO gecko came along, grown a little less freaked out by them.  I’ve been pretty proud of that fact.

     While we were in the Florida Keys, I came face-to-face with more iguanas than I even realized existed.  They are not indigenous to Florida.  No, they came here just like the Burmese pythons.  By people who had them for pets, but no longer wanted them.  Evidently, they are fertile creatures.  THEY ARE EVERYWHERE!!  Everywhere, I tell you, everywhere.

 

This little beautiful is about 18 inches long.
 

     If I sit at the picnic table outside the bus, they sneak under there and sit there looking at me until I feel their evil stare.  If I recline of the chaise loungers on the sandy area at the front of the bus, they go under my chair and touch my butt, which apparently sticks through the plastic slats.

My special place when the iguanas
are elsewhere.

     Evidently, they don’t speak my language.  Get the H%&* out of here or scram bud, doesn’t compute in their brains.  I can tell that by the way they look at me.  Their eyes move in a strange way.  “Don’t roll your eyes at me,” also goes over their head, which, btw, is pointy.

     Finally, I hid out in the bus so they couldn’t find me.  I was looking out the window when I saw a gigantic iguana run up my coconut tree.  I swear I think it had a saddle on.  Yikes.  Still gives me chills.  I stayed inside mostly because I had a headache.  It went away after we left the Keys.

Brody took my picture while I was
suffering with a headache.

Until next time,
Dolores

 

June 19, 2015

Day # 16
 

     Back in the early 1980’s, John Davidson hosted a television show called That’s Incredible!  One of the stories he told was about Edward Leedskalnin (1887-1951), a Latvian American, strange little man who built a stone structure now called Coral Castle.  The story goes that on the night before Edward was to marry his “Sweet Sixteen” in his home country of Latvia, she ran off with someone else.  He moved to America, but came down with allegedly terminal tuberculosis.  He claimed to be healed, and that magnets had some effect on his disease.

     Edward spent more than 28 years building Coral Castle for the woman who jilted him with the hope she would come to America to see it.  It is said he worked mostly at night because he refused to allow anyone to view him while he worked.  If anyone came by, he would charge them 10-cents and then take them on a tour.  Even then, he wouldn’t tell them his secrets.

Chairs made of coral
Ty, Brody, Drew



-

9-ton gate on ball bearings
that will move with only one finger

     The structure is comprised of numerous stones, mostly limestone from coral, each weighing several tons.  There are many features and carvings in the castle. Among them are a two-story castle tower that served as Leedskalnin's living quarters.  The walls, consisting of 8-foot high pieces of stone, an accurate sundial, a Polaris telescope, an obelisk, a barbecue, a water well, a fountain, celestial stars and planets, and numerous pieces of furniture. The furniture pieces include a heart-shaped table, a table in the shape of Florida, twenty-five rocking chairs, chairs resembling crescent moons, a bathtub, beds and a throne.  The boys had a good time climbing on the furniture.  My favorite thing in the castle yard is the 9 ton, precision-balanced, 8-foot stone that serves as a huge gate.  It will swing around by pushing it with one finger.

     When Leedskalnin became ill in November 1951, he put a sign on the door of the front gate "Going to the Hospital" and took the bus to Jackson Memorial Hospital in Miami.  Leedskalnin suffered a stroke at one point, either before he left for the hospital or at the hospital. He died twenty-eight days later of a kidney infection at the age of 64.

Edward Leedskalnin
flanked by Brody who is doing his
Leedskkalnin imitation
and Drew.

     Online there is a lot more information about the history and building of the castle.  If you are interested, please read more about it.  I’ve found all the info worth the time to read it.

Richard and his baby brother, Ronnie
Coral Castle

Ronnie and his wife Gail
at Coral Castle
 

Be sure to check again tomorrow night.  I plan to tell you about the interesting and fun places we visited  during our 5 days and nights in the HOT, but exciting Key West, Florida!!  We hated to leave there, but the cheeseburgers in paradise were adding extra pounds to all of us.   And suddenly, it's 5 o'clock somewhere took on a whole new meaning. 

Until next time,

Dolores

 

 

June 17 & 18, 2015

Day #14 & 15

     In recent years, snakes from around the world have been turning up in and around Everglades National Park.  One of the largest snakes on earth, Burmese pythons, are now breeding in the park and spreading throughout south Florida.  The female can grow to be 15 feet and the males to 12 feet.  Since 2002, over 2,000 pythons have been removed from the park and surrounding areas.  They believe this to be only a fraction of the total population.

     Burmese pythons have been introduced into the Everglades either accidentally or on purpose by people who have had them for pets, but no longer want them or can no longer handle them.  They have been found to feed on a variety of mammals and birds in the Everglades-even the occasional alligator! By preying on native wildlife, pythons are seriously impacting the natural order of south Florida's ecological communities.

     Since a female reproduces about once every two years, with an average of 40 offspring each time, reproduction has played a huge factor in the establishment of the snakes in Florida.  The female will protect her eggs, which discourages predator wanting to eat the eggs.

     Now that I’ve told you all this, I’d like to show you the campground where we stayed for 2 days ( I repeat—2 days) on our trip through Alligator Alley.  Yes, it is empty and pretty much stayed that way except for Richard’s brother, who is traveling with us, one other camper and a man in a tent, who came in on a motorcycle.  Richard took him a hot plate of spaghetti and salad I’d fixed for dinner.  We were happy to see he had survived the night.

Empty Campground Midway Alligator Alley

     BTW, we were warned to be on the lookout for black panther.  They actually have signs for panther crossings like we have for deer.   Also, the pond we were parked next to warned us not to swim and not to feed the alligators. 

 

 

 

I found this sign on the road in Alligator Alley
It won't mean anything to my non-writer
friends, but for them, I need help figuring out
what Romance Writers of America
has to do with alligators?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

 

 

     Needless to say, we did not venture out after dark.  Road kill takes on a whole new meaning through Alligator Alley.  It certainly isn't the armadillos and possums we have in NE Florida. We literally saw several alligators crushed to death on the side of the road. 

     We took a back road through an Indian village and had to stop while a gator crossed from a housing development to a canal, which had another group of houses on the other side of it. 

 

We stopped for this 6 footer to
cross the street.  I guess he wanted
to get to the other side.  hahahahaha

 

     While we were in this area, everyone but me took an airboat ride.  If you know me well, you know I don't do boats.  I've taken the tour of the Everglades on an airboat a couple of times back before I went to boat-riding rehab.  The boys had a ball.  They saw something the guide said he had never seen before.  A huge alligator jumped out of the water and caught about a 12-inch fish perfectly.  They made a quick refreshment stop at an Indian village.  


From the airboat

Richard's brother, Ronnie and his wife
Gail on the airboat.  Not sure what
they saw, but it must have been something
exciting.

Peter, Paul and Harry at the Indian
Village

     Fun was had by all including Grandma, who enjoyed the peace and quiet.  I would have loved to have gone for a walk by the water, but I was the only human in the whole park.  Well, you know . . . gators and snakes and panthers, OH MY!!!

Until next time,

Dolores 

 

June 16, 2015

     Note:  We've been without Internet or phone service for about 72 hours.  This day was before that happened and I haven't been able to post.  I'll catch them up tonight and tomorrow.  I hope you are enjoying my ramblings.  Hope everyone is doing well.  I want to give a special shout out to my friend Vickie King.  She is home from the hospital after surgery and is doing well.  Can't wait to get back to Jax and go visit her.  Also, Richard said to say hello to Walker Norman.  Hello, to Carol, too.

Day #13

     We visited a place I’ve been to several times in the past 40 years.  Each time it is a little more of a tourist place, but still rich in history.  Thomas Alva Edison (1847-1931) wintered every year with his wife in Ft. Myers, Florida. In 1886 they built their winter home on the Caloosahatchee River and later they called it “Seminole Lodge”.  It was a winter retreat for them until his death in 1931.

Thomas Edison's Winter Home
Seminole Lodge

      A man named Robert Smith of New York (no relation to Marge even if they have the same last name and both came from the same part of the US) owned the property next door to the Edison’s.  He’d built a craftsman-style bungalow in 1911, and it was called the “Mangoes”.

     Edison’s good friend Henry Ford, who in 1913 started the first moving assembly line for the mass production of an entire automobile, purchased the “Mangoes”.  In 1947, Mrs. Mina Edison gave the property to the City of Fort Myers in memory of her husband.  It was opened for public tours soon after.

 

Henry Ford's Winter Home
The Mangoes

 

     By the time he died on October 18, 1931, Thomas Edison had amassed 1,093 patents: 389 for electric light and power, 195 for the phonograph, 150 for the telegraph, 141 for storage batteries and 34 for the telephone. 

Edison's Laboratory

 

     The homes are beautiful and the laboratory is just like it was when Edison worked there.  The gardens are amazing.  My favorite is the banyan trees.  As the banyan trees’ branches grow out and become heavy, an aerial prop root grows from the branch to the ground and props the branch up.   As the branch continues to grow, another aerial root grows to the ground to support it. 

Brody, Drew, Ty and Thomas Edison
under the biggest banyan tree planted in 1920

 

 

     Harvey Firestone sent Thomas Edison a Banyan tree from India in 1920.  It still grows on the estate today.   One of the guides said that particular one covers about an acre of land.

     Also, the estate has one of the first in-ground swimming pools.

 

  The boys were interested in all of it, even if Grandma felt like the melting Wicked Witch of the West.  Lord have mercy, it was soooooo hot.  HOW HOT WAS IT???   Well, let me tell you, it was so hot I couldn’t eat.  That says it all.

Ty, Drew, Brody and
Henry Ford

Dining Room of Edison's home

 

 

Until next time,

Dolores

 

 

 

June 15, 2015

Day #12

     John and Mabel Ringling came from humble mid-western origins.   After many years of wintering in Sarasota, Florida, they decided to make the town their permanent home.  Ca’d’Zan (House of John) stands as a testament to the American Dream of the Roaring Twenties.  Designed in the Venetian Gothic style of the palazzos that surround the Venice canals, their palatial mansion captured the splendor and romance of the Italy the Ringlings loved.

 

Ca'd'Zan (House of John)
John and Mabel Ringlings' Mansion

 

     Ca’d’Zan sets on Sarasota Bay and not far down the shoreline, John’s brother, Charles Ringling, also built a mansion, which is now used by Florida State University as part of their Sarasota campus.  We walked all through Charles’ home.  Even without any furniture other than FSU offices and waiting areas, you couldn’t miss how magnificent the mansion is.

 

Foyer in Charles Ringlings' Mansion
now used for registration, class rooms
and professors' offices for FSU College of Fine Arts.

 

     We toured the bottom floor of the Ca’d’Zan , but didn’t take the extra tour of two more floors above us.  Mainly, because we thought the boys wouldn’t really enjoy the tour.  We were wrong.   They were very interested and wanted to know why we weren’t going upstairs.  They also asked questions about some of the rooms, what they were used for (Tap Room) and questioned what exactly a Westinghouse Automatic Range was.  By the way, it was one of the first models of an electric stove.

 

Westinghouse Automatic stove in the Ca'd'Zan.

 

     The Ca’d’Zan is 5 stories tall, has 36,000 square feet and 41rooms and 15 bathrooms.

 

Tap Room in Ca'd'Zan

Reception hall in Ca'd'Zan
Chandelier came from Waldorf-
Astoria in New York.

 

    

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

    

 

     John and Mabel Ringling left their estate to the state of Florida.  In 2000, the Florida legislature placed the stewardship of The Ringling under Florida State University.  FSU has a long tradition of excellence in the arts, and the College of Fine Arts contains some of the leading arts programs in the nation.

     I was absolutely fascinated with the Art Museum.  The Ringling is the state Art Museum of Florida.  While traveling through Europe looking for circus acts, John and Mabel started acquiring a massive collection of art.  They also bought art books which are now in the Art Museum Library.

     John built a 21-gallery museum to house his treasured collections of paintings and art objects, highlighted by his collection of Old Masters, including Velazquez, Poussin, van Dyke and Rubens. The museum and a courtyard filled with replicas of Greek and Roman sculpture, including a bronze cast of Michelangelo’s David amazed me.  If you enjoy art museums, this should be put on your bucket list.

     Here are three of the hundreds of paintings I found fascinating:

 

The "Blue" Madonna  c.1670
Carlo Dolci, Italian, 1616-1687

 

Salome with the Head of John the Baptist, ca 1520's
Giovanni Antonia da Pordenone, Italian, 1483/4-1539

 

Saint Joseph with the Standing Infant Christ Child c. 1670-75
Bartolome' Estaba'n Murillo, Spanish, 1618-1682

 

 

Until next time,

Dolores

June 14, 2015

Day #11    

     We spent the last two days in Sarasota at the Ringling Bros. Barnum & Bailey Circus Museum.  We could have spent another day there, but we had to move on.

     John Nicholas Ringling (1866-1936) and four of his brothers started their first show in 1870 as the "The Ringling Brothers United Monster Shows, Great Double Circus, Royal European Menagerie, Museum, Caravan, and Congress of Trained Animals", charging a penny for admission.  In 1882, it was known as “The Ringling Brothers Classic and Comic Concert Company”.

     In 1905, John married Mable Burton.  In 1907, the two-remaining brothers bought the Barnum & Bailey Circus for $400,000.  Charles Ringling managed the operation of the everyday circus.  John and Mable would travel ahead and book the appearances.  They traveled in their own train car completely set up even more elaborate than some motor homes of today.  They had servants’ quarters, full-working kitchen and bathroom with a claw-footed tub.  They had the car there (named Wisconsin) in all its refurbished glory.  Absolutely beautiful!

     The Ringling Brothers Circus was known for its honesty and fair dealing.

     Scattered over the complex, are several different types of museums.  Mable and John had built a mansion by the water.  Charles also built a mansion not far from John’s.  I’ll tell you about them in tomorrow’s blog.

 

Stove in the kitchen on the train car

Bathroom with tub taken from
outside window

From back outside platform
looking down the hallway.

 

     I found the whole place fascinating, but I was amazed at the Howard Bros. Circus handcrafted model representing the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus during its Golden Era, 1919-38.  Constructed by Howard Tibbals, a successful hardwood flooring businessman, who built his first circus railroad car from fragile balsa wood at the age of 13.

     From there, Tibbals built tiny, fully-equipped train cars, historic wagons, a four-foot-high big top, 500 circus animals and thousands of other items making up the 3,800-square-foot, 1/16^th scale model three-ring circus. 

     Tibbals asked permission to use the circus’ name, but Ringling Bros. declined. He named it the Howard Bros. Circus, which contains thousands and thousands of pieces including 1500 performers, 152 wagons, 7000 folding chairs for spectators, and dishes and tableware to serve 900 people.

     This really has to be seen to appreciate, but here is a picture taken from an upstairs-viewing window looking down on it.

A view of only part of the replica
built by Howard Tibbals.  What fascinated our
grandkids was that in the horse tent, there was horse
poop.  Acutally, I guess I was amazed by that, too.

 

 

     Now, I’ll leave you with a few pictures of the grandsons (Emmet Kelley, Clem Kadiddlehopper, and Bozo the Clown) and the fun they had in a couple of the museums.

 

The Wonderful WilsonWhitecotten's

Tightrope Walkers

Please notice there is no net. 



Brody

Ty

Drew

Brody and Drew in clown car

Drew the great horseback rider

Brody on left--Drew on right

 Until next time,
Dolores

Day #10

     Flag Day is celebrated in America on June 14, commemorating the day the first flag resolution was passed one year after Betsy Ross had received the order from General Washington to make the first flag.  The Second Continental Congress passed the flag resolution on June 14, 1777.

     It was resolved: That the flag of the United States be thirteen stripes, alternate red and white; that the union be thirteen stars, white in a blue field, representing a new Constellation.

     Many teachers began conducting patriotic ceremonies commemorating Flag Day to teach children about the history of the flag.  One such school teacher, Bernard J. Cigrand, lobbied Congress for many years for Flag Day to be officially observed.  It was 100 years, June 14, 1877, before our nation observed Flag Day.

     Other patriotic groups like Sons of the American Revolution, also spent years trying to convince Congress to make Flag Day official.  In 1916, President Woodrow Wilson issued a proclamation stating that June 14 shall be National Flag Day.  In 1949, it was made official by an Act of Congress.

     I got most of this information from an article I read with the info being supplies by the Betsy Ross House.  I thought it was interesting. 

I Pledge Allegiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the Republic for which it stands,
one Nation under God,
indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. 

I hope all of you had a wonderful Flag Day, and long may it wave.

Until next time,

Dolores