Our first stop this day was to the Florida Caverns State Park. You can see a photo of the caverns here. 

Here is a sketch I drew while taking the tour.

From there we toured Marianna. Making stops at the Chamber of Commerce and the wonderful building it’s in.

	We made many, many, many stops afterward. We went through ten counties and ten times as many stops. Not that we mind. What an outstanding way to experiencing our great State of Florida and all it has to offer!Our final stop was at Staff’s Restaurant, the oldest seafood restaurant in Florida. Here’s a sketch of a part of the fascinating interior.

We started the day at the Panhandle Pioneer Village in Blountstown. We trekked through the Panhandle Friday through Sunday. There’s a photo at our Genuine Florida blog of the location.

I took advantage of the deer busts that line the restaurant in The Ice House in Marianna.  We had dinner there with friends, Marti and Jeff Vickery. There’s also a 12 foot stuffed gator in the restaurant. Great seafood and view of the Chipola River below.

Here’s a rough pencil drawing for a book project I’m working on.

Sandra and I headed east to Brevard County to explore. That brought us to our friend Lauralee Thompson’s Dixie Crossroads for dinner. Here are sketches of a fellow there and a sketch of some folks at a table. Sorry I don’t have time to color the sketches right now!

For more go to our Genuine Florida site!

After Dixie Crossroads we went to the Moonlight Drive-In, also in Titusville, for ice cream. It’s located at 1515 S Washington Avenue, U.S. 1. It’s one of the last drive-ins still functioning as a drive-in in Florida. OF course there are the ice cream (soft-serve) treats and hotdogs, etc. There is also an indoor eating area. Here, hanging from the ceiling inside are a couple of speakers that used to grace the outside where folks would call in their order.

Guess what I was doing these few days?

Today is Lucile Fair Day in Orlando! Lucile turns the big 100! With an exception of 2 months, Lucile has lived in Orlando, Florida her whole life.

Above is a portion of the card I drew and given to her this past Wednesday at a celebration for her. At the event, City Commishoner Robert Stewart presented Lucile with a proclamation declaring today ‘Lucile Fair Day’.

Over the years Lucile has painted cards for folks for holidays. I have a small gallery of a few of the cards from the past two years. That is  she was 97 and 98 when she painted these. I’ll add more to the gallery as I can.
Here’s the gallery:
http://robsmithjr.smugmug.com/lucilefair

We started off at the Orlando Remembered meeting where we celebrated Lucile Fair’s upcoming 100th birthday. Above is a photo of Peggy Jo Van den Berg handing a card I drew for Lucille’s birthday. Beside that Banning Radler signs the card. Amongat the guests that came is City Commisioner Robert Stewart. Here he is with Lucile below.

Sandra then went on to meet up with our friends the Singers. I went on to accomplish a number of chores and then an afternoon meeting with Kris Woodson at the Orlando Public Library and the owner of the 8 store Coliseum of Comics, Phil Boyle. We’re cooking up big plans on May 3rd. Moreto come soon!

I then went on to do an oral history with Terry Ivy, a fifth generation Florida native.

After that I met with Sandra at Harris Rosen’s new spot, The Shingle Creek Resort. We had dinner at ‘A Land Remembered’ , named after the book by Patrick Smith that I think should be mandatory reading for all Floridians. We had a  yummy dessert they serve at the restaurant, Key Lime Custard.

Below is a drawing of  the back of a person at the restaurant who gestured quite a bit. Beside that is a photo of the butter serve. We had to watch it’s bite.

This ia an outstanding book!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It looks beautiful, the layout can’t be beat AND it’s a powerful story that gives a comprehensive look at the Florida attration Weeki Wachee, springs in Florida, the associated attractions, the fellow (Newt Perry) who started it all and mermaids!
This is a must-read for Floridians.

The book is also profusely illustrated with tons of photos that do an excellent job of giving a visual understanding of what is written. The photos are extremely well reproduced. I even like the fonts used.

A big part of this is the obvious love and care given to representing the Weeki Wachee attraction and Florida in general. A non-native Floridian would not be able to have written this book. The writers have such a firm grasp of our state and its tourism. It comes out in each page. The majority who write about Florida, fiction and non-fiction, don’t get it. There are the  writers who fall for the beach and flamingo fluff. Or the Disney stuff. There are those appeasing businesses (Disney, again) and the real estate market (Sidenote: That would include the authors of the Amendment about property taxes we Floirdians had better vote down January 29th for our own good No corporate welfare!). I truly hope the authors will endeavor upon more books about Floirda history. Maybe Silver Springs? Marineland? Please! I want to see the tale of Monkey Jungle!!!

Sandra gave a talk to a group I’ve been involved with for fourteen years. ‘The Moveable Feast’ is a group of folks that wander from home to home to listen and learn from whoever the speaker might be. A member opens their home. Members bring finger food and drink. All settle in for good cheer and fellowship.

This months speaker was Sandra Friend Smith about – Surprise! – hiking. Sandra made a special presentatiuon about special hiking spots throughout Central Florida. The crowd loved it and asked many questions. Above is a quick sketch of the novie projector (or whatever you call it these days).

The Inkslingers met at the Belleview Biltmore. Here’s Dan Smith with scans of recent paintings and Sioux Hart with a recent sketch.