We had our first Suncoast Inkslinger meeting in a few months. We gathered at Bay Coast Coffee Market in Clearwater. Below is a photo of the gathering. To the right is a sketch I made during a discussion with Ron Johnson and Jim Fern about the possibility of Ben Franklin being a mad scientist.

The next day (the 9th) I slipped over to the 1713 Powder Magazine. Please click on the links to lean more of each location.

The first tour for Tuesday was to Patriot Point. Photos below. Patriot Point is home to the U.S.S. Yorktown naval ship which is so large that inside is a naval air museum full of airplanes.

The locations honors our Medal of Honor recipients. Below is a photo of the wall of those who earned the honor.

Below our exemplary guide, Ken Goodman, helps writer Stuart Newman locate a school buddy of his who posthumously received the first Medal of Honor during WWII. The terminals are set up to look up all those honored with the Medal of Honor.

From Patriot Point we made our way to Fort Moultrie. The fort is where Seminole leader Osceola was imprisoned and then killed. More about that soon at our Genuine Florida site.

Our next tour was a movie set tour. Amongst the places we stopped is the current working set for Lifetime network’s ‘Army Wives’. Below are sketches from around the sets we visited. We got to get a very private tour just for our group that included watching scenes being shot.

Below are photos from the costuming area. Buckets of military boots and racks of military shirts.

Later that evening we were driven out to Middleton Place and had a farewell dinner with some fine entertainment from this bluegrass band. Middleton Place is a fantastic site of gardens and history.

The next morning (the 8th) was a breakfast meeting for the SATW. I went out and got a photo of one of two neon signs left in Downtown Charleston.

The first of our tours of Charleston was to The Citadel.

I loved these hand painted metal soldiers. I wish I had that kind of patience to paint such intricacy!…Well, a lot of people wish I had that kind of patience!

The second tour was to Magnolia Gardens. Below is a page of sketches made there.

Below is a few photos from Magnolia Place.

We made our way north to the annual meeting of the Society of American Travel Writers/Atlantic-Carribean Chapter in Charleston, South Carolina. Upon arriving the Chapter board hit the town and had dinner at a snazzy spot (I forget the name of). Above is a sketch of folks at the bar just beyond our table.

The next morning (the 7th) I ran outside and got photos, including the one above of a staue of the father of our country.

There was a reception for the membership. Afterward we went on a ghost tour. Photos below.

We got ourselves together for an early morning trip home. Here Jeff Mallett, Bil  Hinds, Mike Ramierez and Jeff Bacon wait for the van to take us to Frankfurt airport.

On the plane I sketched Jack Davis, who sat just in front of me. His airline tickets are in his top pocket.

After landing in London, we had a looooooooooooooooong wait at the Heathrow airport. Here Bill Hinds, Bill Amend and Mike Ramierez relax and chat.

Jack Davis and Jeff Bacon share tales.

We finally got to Washington DC and stayed overnight at a nearby hotel. We exchanged good byes and a hope to gather again for another trip to entertain our troops and realize how incredible our military is and more over how lucky we are to live in the USA!

I had a ton of time before my flight. The rest of the guys were gone and I was told that going into Washington DC itself might have me missing the plane. Soooo, I went to a mall….and I found the Easter Bunny!

The troupe for the USO lands in Frankfurt, Germany.

Here’s Jack Davis and Jef Mallett coming off the plane in Frankfurt.

We arrived at the Hotel Christine and settled in for a nights rest and get ready for a very busy next day.

The next morning we were welcomed by the USO’s Konrad Braun who guided our visits. He’s at left and then Bill Hinds, Jack Davis and Dave Coverly.

We were taken first to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center where we visited many troops and did our best to leave them with a smile as we had at Walter Reed Medical Center. Above is one of the surgeons.

My lunch. That is Pecan pie.

At the USO Warrior Center we all gathered and drew away! Above is Jack Davis and below is Jeff Bacon.

Above is Kyle at the Warrior Center and below is Colonel Harris who escorted us around the medical center grounds.

The group photo at The Warrior Center. Jeff Bacon, myself, Bill Amend, Bill Hinds (in the back), Dave Coverly, Jef Mallett, Mike Ramierez and Jack Davis.

My only time spent outside the itinerary was following a few of the guys to a place called The Tree Bar. The three drawings above and below were down there. Below that is an interior photo of the underground spot. Unfortunately for me, no milkshakes served there.

It was a group of us that made our way from various locales across the country to meet in Washington, D.C.  Our objective was the military bases around Ramstein, Germany.  But first a stop at Walter Reed Medical Center to entertain the troops there and hopefully put a smile on the faces of our greatest American heroes.

This is Sunday night at dinner after we all arrive in Washington, D.C. Bill Amend shows Jack Davis a photo. Bill Hinds &, our fearless leader who brought this all about, Jeff Bacon.

It was an early call Monday morning. We had Walter Reed to cover and then the flights to get to Germany.

Here we go enteting Walter Reed Medical Center. That’s Jack Davis, Bill Hinds, Mike Ramierez, Jef Mallett,  Bill Amend and Dave Coverly.

Here is a fuzzy photo of the amazing statue that greets you at the door of Walter Reed.

Here we are drawing at the hospital. Jack Davis, Bill Amend, Mike Ramierez, Jef Mallett, Jeff Bacon and Dave Coverly.

Here is Alexis, a USO volunteer, who has a niece and nephew that go to the same elementary school I did, Princeton Elementary in Orlando, Florida.

Here is our guide William that lead our way through the corridors of the medical facility.

Our Saturday morning started with Mindy Bianca, public relations director of Hershey Entertainment and Resorts, who had specially shipped for the SATW group the hot out of the Hershey chocolate ovens the above Reese’s bat shaped candy. It’s a promotional tie-in for the new Batman movie coming out in a month. Funny, they tasted nothing like a bat.

The Saturday speaker was Shel Holtz, an expert on multi-media communication. This was an extremely good talk that spanned three hours. I was floored by the amount of travel writers not yet plugged in to the internet.

Later we went on a culinary tour of Little Rock. Above is plant life in a restaurant named ‘So’.

We were up the next Sunday morning for a 4:30am bus ride for a 6am flight home.

The SATW chapter group was carted off to Garvan Gardens, an extention of the University of Arkansas, near Hot Springs. It’s quite an expanse of natural Arkansas. Loys of hiking trails and waterfalls. Above is a sketch of a smaller waterfall.

We were next taken into Downtown Hot Springs. There we toured the Fordyce Bathhouse historic site of what we would call today ‘Spas’. A photo of it is above.

Above is an early version of human steam cleaning. The head of the person would stick out of the hole on top. The sink beside it is to clean whatever someone wants to clean of ones self.

Here is the men’s steam room. An elaborate place and quite the opposite of the ladie’s area. It seems men more used these places than women. Notice the elaborate statue that is a center piece of the room. The dolled up lady was our period guide.

We ended the day taking a ride on the Arkansas Queen, which provided food and music. Above is a sketch I did at the top of the Queen of a bridge we went by. While there a nearby table had the last members of a WWII group of  Navy veterans. There were three of the naval USS CAPPS reunion. Apparently there are five left of this submarine crew who, according to member Al Saunders, had eight missions and saw plenty of action. The action is subsiding now that time is taking the crew away. Saunder’s commander was there across from him. Appearing to be in his 90s, you could still see the seaman in him. I did a drawing of the two with Saunders, who has a great sense of humor, bumbling in front of his commander on a sub. They loved it! I’m sorry i didn’t get a phot of the drawing or them. The commander’s wife told me this would be the last gathering of this CAPPS group. They were getting to old to travel so far to meet. They are a tribute to our country and all should be better educated to understand the importance of our military and their maintenance of our liberty.

Above was our entertainment for the evening. That rounder fellow sure can play a banjo!

The Society of American Travel Writers had a big soiree at the Clinton library in Little Rock. Obviously not one of my favorite places to be, but I got lots of reference material out of the trip. This is the only location, besides the White House, with an exact replica of the Oval Office. Above is one of many photos I took of that.

Above is a photo of a fractions of the Clinton papers kept at the library. All of the papers at the library is a fraction of all of Clinton’s papers.

Art: Chilhuly original in the library.

We awike to the roar of lions and tigers in our little cottage in Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge. We had heard the day before of the baby tigers born in the last two weeks. We were the first people outside of staff to see the little fellers. There they are above.

Kerry Krauss, of the State of Arkansas tourism was all prepared to take me, Sandra and St. Petersburg Times, Bob Jenkins, around again. Sandra and I had a request for a stop. A doctors office. Kerry took us to the best place she knew of minutes away. What a place! Eureka Springs Hospital. We’ve never been seen so fast. Sandra was first. She was seen within FIVE MINUTES! Out again within halk an hour. WOW! The attentiveness and thoroughness was staggering. Even the connecting pharmacy was careful to go over each medicine. We had six medicines each to take. The diagnosis: Sinusitis. Sandra’s is determined to be severe.

We contined the tour with Kerry and Bob. We made our way back to Little Rock. We stopped at Neighbors Mill Bakery and Cafe. Below is a sketch I drew there. I picked up a loaf of bread for my youthful 100 year old friend, Lucile Fair, a bread connoisseur.

Soon we were back at the Peabody Hotel in Little Rock.