Was at the Ormond Beach Memorial Art Museum at their annual fundraiser.

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!

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.

We celebrated Sandra’s birthday by – SURPRISE! – Hiking! WE tromped throughout Lake County at P.E.A.R. Park, The Florida Scrub Jay Trail, Palatlahaka River Park and the Crooked River Preserve. Above is a sketch of the many, many cypress knees at the P.E.A.R. Park interpretative trail.

For more of these hikes, Sandra will write more on her Florida Hikes blog shortly and the Genuine Florida Blog will feature the Florida Scrub Jeay Trail shortly.

Took a swing at Illustration Friday’s word for the week – ‘Subtract’. I wasn’t going for a gag cartoon. Just something to illustrate a scene. Above is the finished part. Below is the rough pencil, inked with marker to work out towards the final inked lines. Then it was all digitally colored.

Spending a lot of time at the drawing board. To the left is a part of a larger illustration I finished today. Physically inked and digitally colored.

This was the first time of our years of meeting at the Belleview Biltmore that they didn’t have our space for us despite my arrangements. Since this was our last meeting there I guess it didn’t matter. We gathered in the coffee and ice cream shop, Maisie’s. Above is a group shot of our last gathering there.

Below is Katie. She works currently at the Belleview Biltmore in Maisie’s until it closes on May 31st.  She’s been there for a few years and is the only one who know how to make the souped up hot chocolate I like. She has gotten me out of plenty of binds when I’ve done something there nearly half asleep until she cooked one of those drinks up. I remember a Florida Historical Society meeting there a few years ago where she saved me and I could be minimally consious during the terrific lectures. Anyway, as a thank you I drew a caricature of her and wished her good luck in her future endeavors.

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.

I was a part of a panel discussion and exhibit at Florida A&M University. The exhibit runs through March and is titled ‘Disappearing Ink’. It’s an exhibit showcasing Florida editorial cartoonists and how editorial cartoons are quickly disappearing from publications everywhere. 39 colleagues were fired or took a buyout from the newspaper company last year alone. We’ve already seen quite a few go this year and will probably see more going.

To the left is a sketch of the view of being on the receiving end of a camera. The entire event was filmed and I tried to stay still as they filmed. I’m a hyper-active person and staying still was tough!

It was a big crowd that came and was standing room only.

There are lots of photos and I’ve posted some on my new editorial cartoon blogsite, Rob’s Right. That’s alos where, from now on, my editorial cartoons will be found. So leap right over to Rob’s Right by clicking here.

We had a relaxing time hanging out with Marti and Jeff Vickery and then wandering Elam Stoltzfus‘ property. In between we visited Connie’s Kitchen in Chattahoochee. That’s a Connie’s Kitchen Customer to the right.

Below is a quick sketch made at Village Pizza in Tallahassee. We joined friends there for a fine dinner.