A Step Back in Time, Rod and Gun Club, 1864, Everglades City, FL

Bye, Marco Island

Mom's going to let me tell about our day today mostly through photos...I wasn't a happy camper when the 1-2' became 3'-5' waves started crashing and the boat was a rolling thanks to the strong East winds and waves...


                                                 Coming into Everglades City via Indian Key Pass

Some lovely homes as we came in, but most are already boarded up for summer.

Loved the big Banyan tree next to this house

A serene looking view after all the turbulence out in the Gulf

I made it clear to them that I wanted to be down in the salon on my pad with the fan. Mom came down and kept me company.  Then she accused me of peeing in the salon. Suddenly, she realized one of our side sliding doors had blown open and waves were pouring in. The door curtains were soaked as was our rug...what a mess she had to clean up! Even our dingy ended up bow first on our swim platform...Crazy... Since it wasn't our worse ride by a long shot!!

Everglades City, FL  Rod and Gun Club is an interesting step back in time...Mom's photos make this place/area look a lot more beautiful than it is...
Here's a wonderful link that gives you more history of this white Victorian pecky cypress 1864 inn and it's cast of characters which included five US Presidents and even more Hollywood moviestars...http://www.visitflorida.com/en-us/cities/everglades-city/rod-gun-club.html

Rod and Gun Club 1864, Everglades City, FL

You could hold a dance in the entrance hall/lobby

We were hungry for lunch, so we headed to their outside enclosed dining porch

Our view of Moondance while mom ate a delicious grouper sandwich and dad, a shrimp basket...

This outdoor dining area was very large and led to their outdoor pool

Met Jeannette & Karl who own the Angler Inn on Matlacha, they were just leaving by truck

My understanding is they don't have the upstairs open to the public any more 

Definitely it gave you the feeling you were in a museum or on a movie set

Having grown up in Dayton, OH, I'm always on the look out for National Cash Registers

Can't imagine how they got that pool table in here?

Sorry, I couldn't get a better photo of the bar, but it so dark and they rarely turn on the lights anymore...sad because it looks amazing!!! 

Lots of interesting items mounted on the walls in addition to artwork and dead animals/fish

Had a few other boaters in here getting out of the bad Gulf...


What is actually the backside of Rod and Gun Club...it looks so large & it is but they only rent 17 rooms which are mostly in their cottages now

The American Pickers on the History Channel would love this item

May 19, 2017
So thanks to the weather, we are staying another day at least??? Mom and dad plan to explore the town by foot/bike, but thankfully they will leave me here since it's so hot. I'm guessing they will enjoy the pool here later as well...
As always, dad is alternating between weather sites, nautical reports and US/World news on the Internet; while mom checks out Facebook and the local sites for places to go and see.
She came across this website that had a lot of local knowledge: http://myoldflorida.com/everglades-city.html 

I always get a little anxious when I know that they are leaving, but mom always gives me a treat before they leave which lessens my unhappiness. It seems they rode the bikes across the street to The Everglades Museum which they seemed to have loved...

First a laundry, than a Women's Club and now, a Museum...small but quite interesting! 


The empty lot on the street opposite the museum was the site of the Everglades Inn which burned down over a two week period thanks to kerosene treated wood...

                                             Everglades City Hall still stands and is used

The Calusa Indians, who it is believed predate Christ had quite involved civilizations...including building higher places on these islands with shell mounds which were thought to be part of their religious and burial ceremonies??? Around the time of the Spanish arrival they started dying out...to be replaced by the Seminoles and Miccosukee Indians who were descendants of many Indian tribes. The later tribes combined with Creek Indians who migrated south along with escaped African American slaves and other tribes. The two groups spoke two separate languages and their ancestors exist down here today.

Despite the rugged climate, the land was incredibly fertile and wildlife/fish for meat were abundant, so it became a popular place for squatters. By the 1830's the horrible treatment of the Florida Indian tribes were reaching it's zenith... they were bribed, cheated and ordered off their lands...Even the US Navy got involved fighting them. The sailors were called the Mosquito Squadron or Swamp Sailors as told by nautical author Robert McComber, one of Mike's favorites! The couple hundred that remained hid out in what is called the Ten Thousand Islands, but it's really more like 40, 000+. Even the South, used these islands during the US Civil War..

As it was deemed safer, more settlers came in planting not only feed crops and raising cattle, but they discovered how well sugar cane grew. By the 1920's, Barron Collier, a Memphis native who made his initial fortune in NYC as an advertising entrepreneur, recognized Florida's value and purchased thousands of acres in what is was southwest Lee County. He went to the Florida Congress and agreed to pay for the completion of the southern most part of the Tamiami Trail highway, if they would rename his property, Collier County. They agreed and so did he. It took the combined efforts of many Seminoles, locals and hires who came down looking for work to complete this monumental effort...at the time it was liken to the building of the Panama Canal: fortunately no one died.
One of the places he bought from the Storer family was their homestead which became the Rod and Gun Club...it really was the hotspot for fishermen/game hunters and their wives during the Victorian era and beyond..Ernest Hemingway and John Wayne were just some of the wealthy who came here to enjoy the offerings...

As the road was completed Collier decided to make Everglades, FL Collier's County's capital and went about turning this community into a model company town complete with cultural amenities like hotels, hospital, theater, laundry, schools, gardens and so on... This city continued to flourish until his death in the late 1930's. In the 1950's the Collier heirs and business decided to move their base to Naples and sell their many other businesses here... About that time Hollywood discovered southern FL and this city in particular with "Wind Across the Everglades," 1958,  "Just Cause" 1995 (Sean Connery & Laurence Fishburne) and "Gone Fishin" 1998 (Joe Pesci and Danny Glover)

Collier's Bank has gone through lots of various owners in the past years...

Martha,M & D's museum greeter sent them to Sweet Mayberry Cafe for lunch...Wow!!! It was so good!!! M & D were bummed that they didn't find it sooner, so they could have enjoyed their coffee this AM. (I was not pleased when mom didn't give me anything upon their return.) Mom being the shy women she is got into a long discussion with Annie, one of the owners (who is Basque from San Sebastian, Spain.) In between customers mom had a wonderful time talking to her.
They stayed there longer than usual waiting out one of the many rainstorms to let up today..


                                   Can't wait to come back and try something else...

Love the looks of this weeping bottle bush tree, but what a mess it has made on our boat!!!

M & D returned thinking they would go to the pool, but decided they didn't want to fight the mosquitoes & no seeums. After stowing the bikes and a bit of boat cleaning, thankfully the rains did most of M & D's work for them...We snuggled in for the night. knowing that we had another day here thanks tomorrow's weather reports...

May 20, 2017    Happy 45th Anniversary to Us!!!

The Good News is Mike had a wonderful latte, while I enjoyed Kevin's carrot smoothie!
We both enjoyed bagel egg sandwiches with fruit...YUM!

Due to the heat, humidity and bugs, none of us are exploring today; but enjoying quiet time on the boat reading, relaxing and loving life...

Tomorrow the weather prediction is far better and we should make it to Marathon Yacht Club. 

According to my Dragon Draggin's team's updates on the Internet, they are coming home with another gold medal...So thrilled for all of them!!! Sad for us that we missed all the excitement...

We had an surprisingly good Anniversary meal of "Grouper Roxie" at Rod and Gun Club served by the charming Nicole...Lily loved the first part of her treat when we returned to the boat...Going to bed fairly early since it's early to rise tomorrow, as we go out as the tide is rising...

Life is all relative as we heard from the Shetter's, our Upper MI friends. It's 42 degrees, 25 knot winds and bay flies with no green buds showing on their trees. Even happier to be where we are!!!