Leaving Bike Week, made a stop in Ormond Beach at Dustin’s Bar-B-Q. The restaurant has been recommended many times and this was the first time I had made time to stop there. Great Bar-B-Q! Not eating all day probably enhanced the taste. Being exhausted from working all day, unfortunately, also has the memory fuzzy.

The drawing is decoration at the restaurant of a wall shelf with water can and dolls.

Here’s my rendition of Alec Woollcott. He helped found the infamous ‘Algonquin Roundtable’ and thus also a contributor to the Harold Ross ‘New Yorker’. Woollcott was also a very close buddy of Harpo Marx.

Next week, back to current celebrities: Tiger Woods.

We went off looking for trails in Alachua County Sunday morning. I had originally planned to work on quite a few projects. Maybe even take a nap after the last few days of a pretty strenuous schedule for me. Sandra was also planning to tackle her huge myriad of writing projects. It was decided that we needed to go spend some time together. So off we went to into Alachua County.

Our first stop was a trail with a big name of ‘Hogtown Creek Greenway’. A kind lady left her 30 acres to Alachua County for a park. There was no map for the park and it seems folks are going around and creating their own trails. I like that. I don’t like what I call the “Driveway Trail”. It’s a trail that’s big enough for vehicles. Even the boadwalks. That’s usually because the guv’ment folks who are suppose to be stewards to the park use the trails as roadways to pick up trash, make sure the trails are clear at the end of the day or as thoroughfares. I know it’s easier for them, but it sure does ruin the trail effect with trails so wide and giant truck tracks on the ground. At least there were no paved trails!!! What’s great about the self made unofficial trails is that they are more hiking friendly and a terrific experience.

Our next stop was Alfred Ring Park. It started off as a ‘Driveway Trail’ but continued on to a good trail and hilly walk. I started getting exhausted less than halfway through, which might be evident by the drawing I struggled to create. The drawing is of what is left of trees that had fallen at some point and would otherwise be under water if not for the drought that is a very obvious problem across the state as we travel around.

Here’s this week’s celebrity illustration of actress Keira Knightley.

Next week: The great Alexander Woolcott.

As we were leaving Jacksonville looking for botanical wonders for Sandra to record for her newst book we came across this park very near the Southernmost edge of Duval County. It’s a terrific historic park with a small village of structures from the 1800s. The farm house above is from 1876. There are cracker homes, logging machinery and a dock that leads far out into the St. Johns River. This would be a great place to create some outdoor art. The park is off State Road 13.

When the ‘Ghost Rider’ comic book was out in the 1970s comic book artist Don Perlin was the main artist for the title. When it was known the movie was coming out another cartoonist, Jeff Parker, thought it would be neat to have a bunch of artists accompany Don when he saw the film. So he contacted Don’s son-in-law and the secret plan to surprise Don started brewing. Jeff then contacted members of the Florida Chapter of the National Cartoonists Society (FLNCS).

On Saturday a whole bunch of cartoonists gathered inside the Jacksonville movie theatre and waited for Don, his wife and her brother. As Don entered the artists began approaching Don a set of groupees would. Don was flabbergasted. It was a wonderful experience to see Don so celebrated for the hundreds of pages of art that he produced back when and for being an all around good egg.

We all enjoyed the movie in rows reserved by the theatre and afterward went to a restaurant next door for dinner. We moved from there to the hotel many of us stayed at and loitered in the lobby until the late night hours and decided to reconvene the next morning for breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant. It was a great time of fellowship and will be hard to forget.

Jeff parker had brought along a recent discovery of a new brush pen and we artistic types gave it a spin. From the top are drawings using the pen by Don Perlin, Dana Summers and Ed Gamble. Above are some great doodles by Mike Wright.

We were up in White Springs, Florida, for the opening of the City of White Springs being a Gateway Community for the Florida Trail Association. It was a great celebration. Afterward we hiked a bit of the park. The drawing is from that hike.

 After this we had lunch at the Suwanee Cafe with author Tim O’Keefe.

That evening we ate dinner at the Teleford Inn’s restaurant in White Springs. This is a drawing of a lamp in the restaurant. We stayed overnight in the bed and breakfast, The Adams House. The Adams House is owned and operated by Watkin Saunders, who was born in the house.

Was in Melbourne and found a set of these fellows waundering around a series of professional offices that are newly built. Clearly they were wondering what had happened to the habitat that used to be there and they had lived in? What’s left for them? A borrow pit. How humane!

Here’s this week’s humorous illustration of Chico Marx of the Marx Brothers. The pronunciation is Chick-O, by the way. He was named because of his chasing the ladies (Chicks) around. Chico laso liked to chase the dice and cards around, too. This being the reason the brothers got together for their last films to help out their brother in a bit of financial distress.

Next week- Back to current celebrities: Keira Knightly.

We left from Bok Tower to find Slocum Gardens in Winter Haven. All we found were two worn signs and a parking lot. Apparently the hurricanes did away with this landmark that had been in Polk County since 1938.

We next went to Bartow. First stop: My hero, Jacob Summerlin’s grave. Anytime I’m in Bartow I stop by. This was Sandra’s first visit. Next stop was to find a park Sandra had heard of but didn’t know where it was. Where else to get answers but at the local ice cream shop??? The proprietors of The Cool Shoppe Ice Cream Cafe, indeed, did point us to two parks. Unfortunately neither met Sandra’s criteria.

We finished in Hollis Garden on Lake Mirror in Downtown Lakeland. You can learn more here about this garden. This is a very British park with individual areas of specific flowering plants. The drawing above is of one of those flowers that Sandra called a yellow pansy.
 

We were on a day long trek during this Saturday through Polk County researching Sandra’s current book she’s working on about Florida’s botanical wonders. Our first stop was Bok Tower Sanctuary. I’ll let you learn more about this National Historic site for your self by visiting here.

The park has changed a bit since I was last there a few years ago. The hurricanes did some tree trimming throughout the park. If you didn’t have that ability to compare, you would have no idea that hurricanes pummeled the area.

Many people know of Bok Towerand it’s being on the highest point withing the Florida peninsula and that there is an abundant array of flowering plants to walk amongst. What many do not know is that the park also maintain’s natural Florida areas. We took a walk on a natural trail. Two of the drawings are from that hike.

The other drawing is of a decorative fence door along the pond that makes it way to surround the tower.