Thomas Edison's Winter Home
Fort Myers, Florida (2/10/00)

From Orlando we headed south to Fort Myers, Florida to see Thomas Edison's winter home. We drove through many orange groves and saw many trucks carrying oranges. Two trucks were stopped along side the road due to loosing their oranges all over the road.

Arriving at Mr. Edison's home, we were greeted by the second largest Banyan tree in the United States. (Picture above) The massive root system is created by shoots growing off the limbs. In other words, the tree roots grow from the limbs down to the ground. Once the new root fibers take hold and begin to grow, they grow in girth like a new trunk feeding the ever expanding branches. The grounds were well groomed and clean since we arrived the day before Mr. Edison's birthday celebration.

Upon entering the museum we noticed a flag commemorating Mr. Edison by being voted #1 man of the millennium by Life Magazine. He had over 1,000 patents filed within his 84 years of life. He filed one or more patents for 65 consecutive years - more than any other person. His inventions, such as lead acid batteries, ticker tape machine, phonographs, irons, waffle irons, refrigerator, light bulb, film projectors, Portland cement and light switches helped our country to quickly advance into the Industrial Revolution.

Our evening was spent with Karen's cousin, Jack and his family. The children enjoyed playing with their cousin, Zach, while we caught up on the news of each others lives from the past six years. Jack cooked us a delicious BBQ dinner, too!

We took many pictures which we hope you will enjoy on our Photo Album pages.

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