Thanks to a tip from Crooger, I was informed that an exquisite collection of vintage automobiles recently reopened to the public (by reservation only), for the first time since 1986. A bit of research and I was able to book a docent-lead tour the following day at 1:30PM. Sueshan wasn't interested in viewing the auto collection, so Saturday morning we headed for the beach at Delnor-Wiggins State Park, where she would spend the day on the beach.
Below is the view of the crystal clear waters of the Gulf of Mexico at Delnor-Wiggins Pass State Park.
I headed back to town for my tour of the Collier Collection at the Revs Institute to enjoy the collection of rare, exotic and very expensive vintage cars. The museum is located in the large and immaculate building below, in an industrial area of Naples near the airport.
A bit of history on the collection: The collection is in private hands, owned by Miles Collier, grandson of early twentieth-century advertising and Florida real estate magnate Barron Collier. The Colliers were once the largest private holders of real estate in the state of Florida, and Collier County in which Naples is located is named for said Mr. Collier. Fast forward a century and grandson is still living off the residuals, with this wonderful 105-car collection of many sole-in-the-world autos worth in total not hundreds of thousands, not millions, but easily tens-of-millions of US dollars.
Approximately half of the collection was purchased at once in 1986 from family friend Briggs Cunningham, who being a man of inherited means as well, became determined to build a race car that would win LeMans during the late 1950's. Trouble is, at the time the FIA rules stated that in order to qualify for the race, the race cars had to be based on "production cars," obviously thoroughly worked over. So Briggs Cunningham set about establishing his own car company in his winter haven of Palm Beach, FL to produce the homologated types with beautiful European bodies clothing powerful, high-displacement American V8's. The Cunningham race cars had mixed success during the late 50's and early 60's, but credit is due to Briggs Cunningham for his efforts at realizing his dream; his story in the link above is surely worth reading if you are at all interested in vintage automobile history or what rich people do with their old money.
Back to the museum, Briggs was nearing 80 years old in 1986 when he decided to divest himself of his awesome open-to-the-public collection, when Miles Collier stepped in and purchased and took it private until late Feb 2014. The Collier Collection is chock full of one-off vehicles, LeMans winners from several years, Enzo Ferrari's own personal Ferrari from the late 60's, etc. The collection contains not simply an example of some of the finest and most valuable cars in the world, but the best example, or in many cases, THE example.
Some photos follow; I was using my tablet to take photos and it doesn't take the best indoor pics. Also, I was too interested in viewing the vehicles to take many good pictures - my 2 1/2 hour long guided tour wasn't long enough to both view and take good photos. You'll simply have to visit on your own.
Porsche 904
Bentley 4 1/2 Liter and Mercedes Benz SSK
Ford GT40 and GT40 Mk. II, both LeMans winners from 1960's
The entrance atrium
McLaren F1
Sunday we decided to visit a different beach, Clam Pass Beach Park. Below are some pictures of me playing in the water. Both beaches were spectacular and we very much enjoyed spending our days there.
By Saturday we were able to further research our initial intended camping spot in Picayune Strand State Forest, and learned that there was another camping area on the opposite end of the reservation, approximately 40 circuitous miles from our first attempt. We located this site, and spent Saturday and Sunday nights in the equestrian camp there. Of course, after our full days we arrived after dark and had to try out our newly-installed spot light.
This area of the forest is undergoing Everglades restoration efforts as well; our camp was at the end of this gravel road.
On the way into the State Forest, and when viewing maps, there were miles and miles of gridded, dead end roads with virtually no housing or development. As it turns out, there is a very interesting story of why the Picayune Strand State Forest exists beyond simple conservation and recreation (as nearly is always the case), and it involves one of the quintessential and best-known examples of the old saying "I have some swamp land in Florida to sell you."
In the late 1950's, brothers Leonard and Jack Rosen, the developers of nearby Cape Coral, FL, purchased a 103-square mile section of undeveloped Collier County for $678,000. They cleared and paved hundreds of miles of roads, and dug canals giving many of the lots water access in what was to be the largest residential development in the world, Golden Gate Estates and Belle Meade. Using a team of salespeople employing high pressure sales tactics and a fleet of aircraft to fly potential buyers over the area during the dry season, they proceeded to sell over 17,000 lots of mostly unbuildable, Florida swampland (usually covered by water during the summer rainy season) to unsuspecting buyers typically from out of state, and usually sight-unseen. When it was all said and done, they sold enough 1.25 acre-average lots to turn their initial $678k investment into a reported more than $800 million US Dollars. By the 1980's, the junk land had been developed very little by the duped buyers and the grid of disused paved roads were being used as runways for drug traffickers to land aircraft loads of drugs from central and south America, before the state bought the land to turn into a public resource. So the origination of Picayune Strand State Forest lies in one of Florida's greatest examples of un-developable swamp land scamming.
On another tip from Crooger (how has this poorly-behaved dog spent so much time in Naples?), we skipped lunch on Monday and headed for Richey's Produce on Airport Pulling Rd. We stocked up on free samples of excellent fresh fruit and produce, homemade fresh salsas and guacamole. We didn't leave empty handed however, we procured our own stash of strawberries, pears, homemade salsa and guacamole.
After leaving Richey's, we rode our motorbike south about 20 miles to Marco Island, FL, essentially the southernmost resort point on the Gulf Coast of Florida. Everything south of Marco Island is virtually undeveloped and part of the Everglades National Park as the coast rounds the tip of mainland Florida.
Marco Island is a quiet town made up primarily of very nice (but not completely over the top) residential neighborhoods and high-end high-rise resorts and hotels along the southern beach. Beach parking can be difficult to find for non-residents or "non-members" (obviously engineered that way), and the beaches are extremely long in many areas, meaning in excess of a 1/4 mile walk across pristine white sand to the water. Marco Island seems great if you aren't interested in going to the beach all that much and want a quiet residential Florida experience without all the hubbub, shopping, expensive restaurants and boutiques of the more "happening" cities.
We rode back to Naples and checked out the City Docks on which they were filleting some very nice large fish caught on a charter that day, and checked out the "downtown" and historic neighborhoods. Many of the best views in Naples can't really be caught on film, but instead are fleeting glimpses as you ride by.
All in all, despite the fact some of it is a bit pretentious and over the top ("Bentley Continentals are like squirrels," commented Crooger) we really liked Naples and can understand why it was ranked as one of 10 pricey cities worth its high cost - some parts are truly that nice. As long as someone else is footing the bill. :)
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