I joined the Thursday morning hiking group of the Florida Cracker Chapter of the Florida Trail Association for, what turned out to be, a strenuous 6 mile hike through San Felasco State Park. There are many more photos at the Swampy’s Florida site. You can see those by clicking here.

Along the way I got some sketchin’ done, too. Not as much as usual. Below are a couple of the slight scribblings I made along the way.

While hiking it’s always good to be prepared for emergencies by carrying a well stocked Pez container!

We found ourselves in an empty bed of a cypress swamp.

This should be under at least some water. Below is a lonely cypress knee.

It was park day last Sunday, October 2nd. It was also the 121st birthday of Groucho Marx. A trip to Homeland Heritage Park and Mosaic Peace River Park was in store. Had a great time with Terisa Glover and Sparky as we traversed the area of Homeland, Florida. More photos of the trip will show up at Swampy’s Florida.

It was from the boardwalk at Peace River Park that I drew the sketch above. Below is video of part of the sketch.

Above is a photo of the natural wonder you can take in at Peace River Park.

Here’s a church, which is part of the Homeland Heritage Park.

I later ran over to the week old opened Marshall Hampton Reserve near Lake Hancock in Lakeland. There’s a photo of that soon to appear on the Swampy’s Florida site. My non-Swampy photos didn’t turn out well. Very wild there. Posted as open to foot and equine travelers and apparently to bikers, who nearly ran me down.

Saturday was ‘Take a Hike, Florida’ day! I joined in at the Grand Opening of the Charles Bronson State Forest in east Orange County near Christmas, Florida. There was a great turnout for the hike and the trail is EXCELLENT! It was great to run into a number of Florida Trail Association friends. As I hiked, I sketched. Above is one where I kept walking and sketching.

Here are some photos!:

I took advantage of free entry into Florida State Parks Saturday and got to eight parks… and sketched away. I also got a lot of Swampy photos some of which can be found over at Swampy’s Florida.

To the right is a sketch I drew at Crystal River Archaeological State Park.

Next are fish lingering over the spring boils at Rainbow Springs State Park.

The turtles are from Homosassa Springs State Park.

I took about a two mile hike at the Lake Panasoffkee Conservation Area near Wildwood. Below is a sketch I wrapped up as a storm started in.

Headed over to Silver River State Park about 5 miles. Above is a sketch from across the Silver River at the boat landing at the end of the River Trail.

After that I took the Fort King Military Trail. Below is a sketch from that I added color to.

At the boat launch all these little children were squealing about seeing a turtle. The softshell poked more of his head out and part of his body. He was a huge sucker. I pointed out to the little folks that the turtle was about the size of a little red head there and he was probably hiding under the launch to keep away from hungry gators. Their eyes got all big and scampered back so they might spot the shy critter again. Below is as much of the turtle I could get in a photo.

There’s more about this hike at Swampy’s Florida.

My newest Florida illustration! Prints available soon!

Here’s a Florida illustration in progress. More to come as it comes along.

Sandra and I went down to Punta Gorda to review a number of places for one of Sandra’s travel guides. Jennifer Huber, with the visitor bureau was kind enough to meet us for dinner at an interesting Mediterranean restaurant and then to a wonderful 1910 building that houses an ice cream shop, Chubby’s. Above is a sketch of the are underneath the porch of the 1910 structure.

We also covered the new Muscle Car City. It’s a museum of ‘muscle cars’. The most incredible part is that it’s in an old Wal-Mart building. See photos at Genuine Floria, by clicking here.

We later had some excellent seafood at Peace River Seafood and then Sandra and I made a return trip to Chubbys.

Wednesday we started off with breakfast at Brenda’s Restaurant, which also houses the Masons.  Brenda lost her original place because of Hurricane Charley in 2004 and the Masons were very kind to let her move in and save her business. Which clearly is a large and loyal one.

Then we continued on to hiking parts of the Babcock Rance. Below is a sketch of what’s left of a tree.

We made our way south out of Charlotte County and stopped in Bradenton and toured Robinson’s Preserve, along Tampa Bay and across from the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. Collectively we hiked 7 plus miles. Below is a sketch from there. We had hoped to stop at the infamous Shake Pit, but is had closed early. Instead we took US41 south through Ruskin and Gibsonton, Sun City Center and Tampa. We stopped in Temple Terrace and had some vittles at the Dairy Queen.

Wow! I thought I’d be in and out in five hours tops. After 25 years of being contacted about every year and a half to serve on Jury Duty, I’ve never been there so long! Ten and a half hours. Does this mean more people needing lawyers to solve their problems or lawyers being better at getting cases?

Nevertheless, I got A LOT of artwork finished! I brought more than I thought I could get done. I finished all of that and still had time to work on other projects, too!

Included here are pieces of art I finished.