Sandra, myself, my brother, Jeff, and our father made our way to Lakeland to the Florida Air Museum. I was feeling lousy, the illness still godding me. We purused the various planes and the history of air flight in Florida. This is a great historical compliment to combine with a trip to Fantasy of Flight. I did what slketching I could. There’s a plane above.

We had some time before dinner and wandered into Downtown Lakeland and settled for a bit in the Black and Brew coffee shop set in an historic building. Above is the inside doorway I sketched while we were there. We then went to dinner at Louie Mack’s Steakhouse.

We had lunch with Tom and Glenda Armstrong at the 1945 created Linger Lodge. Known for it’s fine Southern fare, it’s been recently bought by others and now has a “chef”. The food showed it. Worse, no fried chicken that I was looking forward to.

Though less than what was once there, the Linger Lodge can still boast quite a collection of stuffed critters that decorate throughout. To the left is a mounted water moccasin that hung near our table. Just above us on the wall was a ten foot gator. There is also a bar that has no mirrors from which to sit across. Instead various snakes and wild animals stare back at you. That seems like a great opportunity to me. One who gets tipsy might experience something else still.

Though the food was average we had a great time with the Armstrongs.

I was stopped by my elementary school which was celebrating it’s 81st year. The school was open to the public so I got the chance to roam the halls and snap photos. Click here to see one of the photos at Genuine Florida.

Above is a piano I found in the upstairs auditorium. It looked old enough to be the same one used to teach my third grade class piano way back when. It’s the only class I failed.

I attended the monthly meeting of Orlando Remembered. Here are drawings of Robert Serros, Dan Pottinger and, the ever graceful Grace Chewning.

A clipping from the Sentinel Star was brought in of a large group of children who were celebrating birthdays. Most known by the group at the meeting. Member Duke Crittendon estimated the photo to be from 1940 or 41. Amongst those in the photo was a little girl who stood a bit away from the group. I did a little drawing of her holding her package.

Afterward I got a haircut at Jim’s Barber Shop. Click here to go to Genuine Florida for a photo and details.

We made our way to Apalachicola to celebrate our anniversary. Sandra had us staying at the historic Gibson Inn and we had dinner at the restaurant inside- Avenue Sea. The sketch is of a table setting in the restaurant.

On Friday we wandered Apalachicola. I had to go back to the room for a while as I had a project to work on.  Later we had dinner at Papa Joes Oyster & Grill. The sketch here is of a dredging crane that sat still in the bay.

We made a trip to White Springs so that Sandra could drop off a ton of materials for the upcoming hiking festival and to test a hike she will be leading a “V.I.P.” group on Saturday. The test was to see how much of the trail was passable due to recent high water levels of the adjacent Suwannee River. We tried getting through a number of ways but kept running into the Suwannee running over the trail or thick clusters of saw palmetto being impossible to find a way around the water. The hope is that the water recedes and the trail will be passable Saturday. Otherwise, Sandra will have to take them down boring dirt roadways used by government vehicles to do whatever they do. It was a lot of walking for me, but much needed. Above is a sketch of a native azalea. Click here to see a photo of the azalea flowers at Genuine Florida. 

Here is a sketch of the former Adams Dry Goods Store that has clocked a hundred years and still stands proudly at the main crossroads of White Springs.

It was Sandra’s birthday and that evening headed to Alachua and had dinner at a great and very popular spot, Conestoga’s. Friend Phyliss Walinsky joined us. We had a terrific meal of steaks and, courtesy of the restaurant, birthday cake ice cream. Below are a few drawings of  a few sitting near us. The middle lady was a bit odd and ended up creating a bit of a spectacle in the restaurant. The end guy looked a bit Burt Lahr-ish.

I was out in southwest Florida. While there I roamed Punta Gorda. See a couple photos by clicking here. Then I was in Englewood where I saw a bobcat in the Rotunda development. See the bobcat photos by clicking here. 

Then I found the Cape Haze Trail. To the right is a sketch I made of the Placida Bunk House. To learn more of it, click here.

I then made my way south on US41 and took lots of photos of Florida historic sites and cool signs. I was actually retaking most of them involving the switch of the Swampy doll and the Stuckey’s monkey doll used before. I’ll slowly sprinkle the trips photos on the Genuine Florida site. Click here to see one I just put there.

I gave a talk of the history of Movies in Florida to the Moveable Feast group. I included drawing (Though not as much as I had planned) along with travel ideas as to how to visit locations where Florida films were made. It all dovetails with the map brochure I created for VisitFloirda last year about thye same subject and available across the state of Florida. Below is a photo of me talking about the Georgia birth of Oliver Hardy and his subsequent trip to Jacksonville to be a star. The t-shirt I’m wearing (an odd choice for me) was of the Florida made film, ‘Return of the Creature’.

Another attendee was someone I hadn’t seen in a few years, Dena Wild. Dena was a planner and over the design division at the City of Orlando when I was there. We also worked on a bunch of historic preservation projects outside of the city amongst other things. I admit to being a bit tired when I got there and when I saw first Dena, I was jarred and had to be sure it wasn’t 1986 and I was back in City Hall! She looks just like she did twenty years ago. Obviously I don’t - See photo above! It was great to see and have a chance to talk for a bit with Dena!