2018 Florida Road Trip Part 3

A Slice of Life 

 Bill Lites

Day 3 Sunday 10/21/2018

After a full complimentary hot breakfast at the motel this morning, I headed about five miles west to visit the Gold Coast Railroad Museum located just north of the Miami Metro Zoo. This is a relatively new museum (founded in 1956) and displays historical railroad artifacts and memorabilia to educate the public about railroad history.  Along with 40+ pieces of rolling stock, the museum has 3-miles of track on which visitors can take short rides in a restored vintage Florida East Coast steam engine, a Western Pacific Silver Crescent Passenger car, or their Western Pacific caboose.  The museum also displays several model railroad layouts of various scales.

Now it was just a few miles northwest to where I visited the Wings Over Miami Air Museum located adjacent to the Tamiami Executive Airport.  This small one-hanger museum displays 8-10 beautifully restored aircraft, most of which are in flying condition. I was told the museum’s goal, with the restoration of vintage aircraft, is to be a tribute to those aviators and veterans who pioneered civilian and military aviation in our country.

It was time to head west across the Florida Everglades to Naples.  I had planned to take the Tamiami Trail (U.S.-41) but one of the guides at the Wings Over Miami Museum warned,“That two-lane road could be a problem if there was an accident anywhere along the route.”  So, I elected to head north, a few more miles, to where I could pick up I-75 (Alligator Alley) and use it to transition the “Glades.”  Boy, those 95 miles were the longest and most boring I have ever traveled! Not a thing to see but swamp grass, in all directions, the whole way.  I stopped at two rest stops, to stretch my legs and get the kinks out of my back, but that didn’t help much.

I finally got to Naples and visited Naples Motorsports, Inc. which was located just south of I-75. This turned out to be a top-of-the-line exotic and high performance car dealership. I have never seen so many expensive sports cars in one place except at museums.  There were Ferrari Spiders & LaFerraris, Lamborghini  Aventadors & Gallardo Spyders,  Maserati Grand Turismo Sports & Stradales, McLaren P1 & 675LT Spiders, and Porsche 911 Targa 4S & 918 Spyders.  All the big names were there.  It was all too rich for my blood!  When I Googled their website, it listed some 80+ automobiles, from all over the world for sale.  Wow! What and inventory!

While I was in Naples I visited the Naples Railway Depot Museum.  This small depot museum is located in the restored 1926 Seaboard Air Line Railway Station building.  This museum displays artifacts and memorabilia related the railroad development and use in the city of Naples and Collier County in the early 1920s.  The museum was closed, so I just took a photo and was on my way to check out the next museum on my list.

—–To Be Continued—–

Bill is a retired Mechanical engineer living with his wonderful artist/writer wife, DiVoran, of 61 years in Titusville, Florida. He was born and raised in the Southwest, did a tour of duty with the U.S. Navy, attended Northrop University in Southern California and ended up working on America’s Manned Space Program for 35 years. He currently is retired and spends most of his time building and flying R/C model airplanes, traveling, writing blogs about his travels for Word Press and supporting his wife’s hobbies with framing, editing and marketing.  He also volunteers with a local church Car Care Ministry and as a tour guide at the Valiant Air Command Warbird Museum there in Titusville.  Bill has two wonderful children, two outstanding grandchildren, and a loving sister and her husband, all of whom also live in Central Florida, so he and DiVoran are rewarded by having family close to spend lots of quality time with.

One of Bill’s favorite Scriptures is:  John 10:10

Tags: #Travel series, Florida Road Trip