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June 7, 2008 – Batman in Arkansas!

by on Jun.07, 2008, under Other Travels, What\'s New?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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June 6, 2008 – Touring Hot Springs, Arkansas!

by on Jun.06, 2008, under Other Travels, What\'s New?

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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

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June 5, 2008 – Touring the Clinton Presidential Library!

by on Jun.05, 2008, under Other Travels, What\'s New?

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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.

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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.

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Art: Chilhuly original in the library.

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June 4, 2008 – More Arkansas touring!

by on Jun.04, 2008, under Other Travels, What\'s New?

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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.

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

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June 3, 2008 – Touring northwest Arkansas!

by on Jun.03, 2008, under Cartooning, Other Travels, What\'s New?

By Tuesday I rejoin Sandra for the Eureka Springs familiarity tour. We’re both still sick. I’m feeling better but thinking Sandra needs to see a doctor.Since Sunday a great lady with the State of Arkansas, Kerry Krauss, is our tour guide. We had a lot of fun with her.

We were taken everywhere in the area. One stop was a boat ride. I pulled out the sketch pad and the watercolors. I guess it was sickness that got me thinking that I should be watercoloring on a boat. To the right is one watercolor sketch I did. By teh way, the water I used for the paint was the water that had splashed onto the deck. 

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2008-00603-ark-tiger.jpg Our last stop of the day is at Turpentine Springs where critter preservation is maintained. Click here to leran more about them. We toured around and saw plenty of tigers (Like the one above), lions and bears. I did a ton of sketching as quick as I could and keep up with the tour.That night we stayed in the camping type cottages they have there.

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June 1 – 2, 2008 – Sick and Color in Arkansas!

by on Jun.01, 2008, under Cartooning, Other Travels, What\'s New?

2008-00601-ark-crescenthote.jpg Sunday we were taken up to Eureka Springs, in northwest Arkansas. To the right is a photo of the Crescent Hotel we stayed for the next three days.2008-00602-monkeyart.jpg

By this time Sandra and I realize the plane ride has greatly enhanced our illness. Sandra goes on the familiarity tours around the area for the next two days. I hold back for the next two days for two reasons: 1) To get rest and drink endless fluids. 2) To finish a project that is due. I never thought that the illness I had already had had for a week would get worse. Especially after the doctors visit last Wednesday. I was feeling awful. I still got the project finished. The last part of the project was coloring lots of illustrations. It was tough coloring such a happy monkey as the one above.

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May 25, 2008 – National Cartoonists Society!

by on May.25, 2008, under Cartooning, Other Travels, What\'s New?

2008-0525-ncsbrkfst-tomstan.jpg Sunday morning started with brunch. Here’s Archie comics cartoonist Stan Goldberg (seated) speaking to a fan. Behind him is cartoonist Tom  Stemmle asking when the Reuben Awards start. Tom and
I spent most nights talkin’ Sinatra and cartooning until the wee small hours throughout the event. We were both pretty bleary eyed each morning.
2008-0525-neworlpalacerest.jpg Sandra, ‘Dick Tracy’ artist and with the ‘Dick Tracy Museum’, Richard Pietrzyk, cartoonist Ann E. Sabo and myself made our way to the Garden District of New Orleans. There we strolled the rich architecture of the residential neighborhood, got coffee at ‘Just Perkin’ and books at the Garden District Bookstore’. The sketch to the left is of a restaurant in the neighborhood.
There were, of course, the neigborhood cemetery. The sketch is looking in the gated ‘Lafayette Cemetary No. 1’.We had a great time at the 2008 N.C.S. Reuben Award dinner and look forward to next year in Hollywood, California. 2008-0525-lafayettecemetary.jpg
2008-0525-ncs-josedelbo.jpg That Sunday evening we had a Mardi Gras parade. Here’s comic book artist and former teacher of mine, Jose Delbo dancing. Actually I’m still learning plenty from Jose, so he’s a continuing teacher.
Joe Wos, cartoonist and of the Pittsburgh Children’s Museum, and Mike Peters think they are twins. That’s my fedora Mike has swiped.The parade from the Ritz-Carlton to the restaurant and dinner afterward was terrific fun!I was pretty exhausted by then and unknowingly getting really sick by then. Nevertheless had a great conversation on the future of the future, a favorite subject, with Sam Viviano at dinner.Later Tom Stemmle shut everything down again, with help from editorial cartoonist Paul Fell. 2008-0525-ncs-joewospeters.jpg
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SINATRA!

by on May.14, 2008, under What\'s New?

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This marks ten years since Francis Albert Sinatra passed away. It’s hard to believe. Not only that Sinatra is gone but that ten years has slid by. My father first introduced me to Sinatra in my most early years. I was fortunate to be able to purchase his albums when they came out and see him in concert a number of times. I’m still a huge Sinatra fan. Obviously I’m not alone. Turner Classic Movies is saluting the anniversary with films this month. Life magazine has published an anniversary issue and the U.S. Postal Service has issued a Sinatra stamp yesterday. We might put our Sinatra dreams away for another day but, nice and easy, he’ll always be under our skin. It’s witchcraft! That’s life! That’s Sinatra!

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May 10, 2008 – Birthday Travels!

by on May.10, 2008, under Books, Florida Restaurants, Friends, What\'s New?

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We spent the day visiting Sarasota and the bookstores there. From the old Charlie’s Newstand (or whatever it’s called today) to Parker Books to Helen’s Books to The Main Street Bookstore. We had  a very good lunch at El Greco Cafe. I drew the drawing on the right looking out the window to this building down the street.

We drove out of Sarasota and through Parrish into Plant City where we met my Aunt and long time friends Susie and Russell Noel and their family at Fred’s Market where we had another Fred’s outstanding meal. Many thanks to them for joining us. Getting home we had cake, ice cream and presents.

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May 9, 2008 – Caricatures!

by on May.09, 2008, under Caricatures, What\'s New?

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Guess what I was doing at the Anna Maria Oyster Bar in Sarasota?

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May 3, 2008 – Cartoonist Day/ Free Comic Book Day!

by on May.03, 2008, under What\'s New?

2008-0503-philboyle.jpgPhil Boyle, owner of the ‘Coliseum of Comics’ stores that stretch across Central Florida, and myself gave a talk at the Orlando Public Library in Downtown Orlando to celebrate Free Comic Book Day and Cartoonists Day. The library system gave out comics throughout it’s seventeen branches. I sketched Phil while he spoke.

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