We were at the closing party for the Belleview Biltmore. Above is me sketching in Maisie’s Ice Cream shop in the Biltmore. Below’s a photo I took.

I was at the monthly Orlando Remembered meeting. Above is Duke Crittenden, Tana Porter, Charles Gray and Mayor Carl Langford. Below is a new comer, Melanie King, whose Grandfather designed the former Orange County Courthouse that the history museum is now using. Here Melanie King get’s the opening poster of the museum from museum curator, Sarah Van Arsdel.

I drew a lot of signs during the Orlando Tea Party. Here is one. For more photos of crowds and such click here at Rob’s Right.

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.

Guess what I did Friday? Above is Craig Taoka, who always does a great job as D.J. at the event! Below is Cook Neilson, who in 1977 became the first and only winner of the Daytona Super Biker series with a Ducati motorcycle.

Three more books read. Another exciting Vince Flynn Mitch Rapp book finished. Ready for another one!

But I wanted to get a James Lee Burke novel wrapped as I knew I was seeing my good friend Jeff Parker, who has often recommended the author. Rob, the coffee shop fellow, warned me I wouldn’t like it. He was right. The main character was reeeeeeaaal depressing and I didn’t like him or much of anyone else in the book. In that way, it reminded me of Randy Wayne White.

I went back to reading through the Laurence Will series. This time ‘Okeechobee Catfishing’. It’s a history of catfishing in Lake Okeechobee in it’s prime years of 1900 to 1920. A lot of repetition of stories from earlier books, but still fun stories and fine information is included.

We made our way to the Webber Center at Central Florida Community Center in Ocala for the annual set up of the Ocala Model Railroad Historic Preservation Society. Click here to learn more.

Click here for photos at Genuine Florida.

Sandra and I made a holiday visit to our dear friend, Lucile Fair. We had a great time with her. She told us a story of she and her Grandfather shopping at the Geurnsey store on West Church Street in Orlando and how he taught her what a ten-penny nail was. As I listened it occurred to me that here was Lucile, soon to be 101 years old in one month and two days, speaking of her Grandfather who was alive during the Civil War. Sandra and I later marveled at being able to touch so far in the past with such ease.

We went from there to pick up my father and head back to Ocala. Along the way we stopped at Venetian Gardens and wandered through their wonderful light display. Above is a sketch of a different kind of light at the park near a cypress lined lake. Below is Sandra and my father at the “North Pole”. To see more Christmas lights from Leesburg, click here to see them at ‘Genuine Florida’.

Guess what I did today? This event being a bit different. It was in the area where I was born and raised of Orlando. A couple of fellow helpers of Orlando Remembered were there like Bobby Duncan and Hartwell Conklin (below). Hartwell was instrumental in the expansion of the media in Florida from the development of WESH, WFTV, WDBO, televising the U.S. conquest of space to his P.R. duties with the Sentinel Star. Above is Howard who ran in Orlando  the well known Champagne Color, which handled everything involving film.

My journey through Palm Beach continues. I was going to jump back into fiction with three Lawrence Sanders. After finishing one of his McNally series set in Palm Beach, I was back in non-fiction again. I always thought the McNally series was a throw back to another time in how it depicts the time period Archie Mcnally dwells. Nah, it apparently is how it was and as it it. Like new York City, Palm Beach has a mond set of the past and hardly willing to proceed to the future.

‘The Season’ and ‘Palm Beach Babylon’ both came out in the ’90s and cover the various scandals of the 12 mile stretch strip of land. ‘The Season’ is one person’s account of what he saw and what he was told. The ‘Babylon’ book recounts generous amounts of historical vignettes over a hundred year period. Both are good reads as each has well written perspectives. However, both are bitter-sweet in that so much told is sad with sad wayward people like Addison Mizner, Joe Kennedy, Roxanne Pulitzer and Donald Trump.

Butch Wilson is the curator of the Clewiston Museum. He also has a large family. He left his home with forty people there to open the museum for our group of mostly hikers the day after Thanksgiving. He gave us a tour, a twenty minute talk and all the courtesy one could. It is heartwarming to see such dedication to educate and inspire others of the history, heritage and culture of our great state of Florida. A sketch of Butch is below along with sketches I made of inhabitants of the Lake Okeechobee region at one time.