After a brunch with cartoonist friends we made our way to New Smyrna Beach. We walked Canal Street to see what might have changed since we were last in the area.  Then we made our way to Flagler Street in an area we hadn’t been before. There we found many gems. Amongst them was the Riverview Hotel. A drawing of part of the building is above. For more info. click here.

Later that evening Georgia Turner of Volusia County Tourism joined us again and we all had dinner at Bubba Gump Shrimp which is directly adjacent to the famous Daytona Beach Bandshell. Below is a drawing I made from our table in the restaurant. Learn more about this great structure by clicking here.

We made our way to Volusia County for two reasons. One was my National Cartoonists Society Florida Chapter meeting. The other was how we started the four day trip, an update of one of Sandra’s travel guides. We met one of Volusia County’s tourism folks, Georgia Turner, on Beach Street and had lunch and roamed up and down the shopping area.

Amongst the shops on Beach Street is the Halifax Historical Museum. Considering other historical museums in the state, this is one of the best. Set in an old bank the museum deftly strides through such diverse histories as the Civil War, tourism and auto racing.

Above is a drawing of binoculars used by one of the most famous of the rumrunners in Florida, Bill McCoy.

Later I joined other Floirda Chapter members at a charity eveny, ‘Cartoonists and Cocktails’. Unfortunately for me it wasn’t called ‘Cartoonists and Milkshakes’. I have no photos of the event in which we all drew for the audience.

I do have a photo from later that evening where we all gathered in a hospitality suite. Below is ‘Mother Goose and Grimm’s Mike Peters draws Grimmy.

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‘Gator Creek’ by Carol Overstreet tells of the well-known Overstreet name, the people who have carried it and of the reason we should hold them in such high esteem.

The book tells the story of the Overstreet family from the 1800s to present. The Overstreet family have been major cattlemen for generations and have had major landholdings all across Central Florida.

It was odd for me to go from one book focussing on the life of Charlie Wall, gangster and all around bad egg, to Charlie Overstreet, just the opposite. Oddly their parents were very similar. It was very much like looking at what might have happened to one person depending on the direction they took.

Unfortunately, this book is going to be tough to find. Though, I do urge you to see if your library has it if you live in Florida. Mrs. Overstreet could’ve used an editor and there are too many loose ends. I admit the book is frustrating in that way. However, it is a great tale – Very uplifting – of people and their practical and realistic approach to the ups and downs of life. I wish children were made to read this to read what hard work is all about.

Another personal aside: My friend Susie Noell let me borrow this book to read ( I can’t find it) and is featured in the book. She was a connecting force that brought the Overstreet family together again after an accident that then only made them stronger.

Got to the Orlando Remembered meeting for the first time in a few months. This month it was at the Citrus Club with breakfast and always good fellowship. To the left is Andy Serros, one of the orginators of the group, and below is his brother Robert.

After the meeting I donated some time at the Orlando V.A. nursing center and entertained with caricatures.

WOW! Whattabook! It’s hard to grab all of the adjectives needed to praise this novel. Just read it!

This could be the best fictionalized non-fiction telling of more recent Florida History since ‘A Land Remembered’ by Patrick Smith.

It covers Tampa, Ybor City and Gibsonton history. Most of the figures in the story are real: Charlie Wall, Santo Trafficante, Hampton Dunn, George Raft, Fidel Castro, etc. Ace Atkins ties all of this together with a narrative that puts you at the scene in ’54. It’s a terrific book!

The novel had a bit more interest to me as my grandfather there in Ybor City in ’54-’55 and was part of a team investigating the very crimes that got Wall killed.

‘Hurricane Punch’ is Tim Dorsey’s 9th novel about his comdeic serial killer anti-hero. The more you know about our great state of Florida, the funnier the books are. This has some great scenes. Covering everywhere from Everglades City to Bok Tower in which the state is understtack by innumerous hurricanes.

As we headed home we made a stop at the Elliott Museum in Stuart. See the website for details. Amongst the items in the museum is the gun above purported to have once belonged to John Ashley of the notorious Ashley Gang. Learn more of the Ashley Gang by clicking here.

New at the museum is a great exhibit of Floirda native, Frances Langford. Langford was an actress, singer and is best known for her joining Bob Hope on his many military visits. The display itself is worth the trip if you’re a fan as I am.

There are art classes taught at the museum also. I’ll highly recommend these. I saw quite a bit of the results coming out of the classes and was very impressed. Whoever was teaching got a lot out of 6 year olds.

We headed out to the grand and historic Biltmore Hotel in Coral Gables, just blocks from where my mother was born and raised. Sandra was there for a tourism board meeting. We had a number of meals in one of their restaurants, 1200 Courtyard Grill.

The fellow on the left is a chef there and the fellow on the right was one of the waiters.

Rob Labby drove up from Fort Lauderdale to have lunch with me. While there a pigeon had escaped quite a torrential downpour outside and wandered around the restaurant. I tried to help chase the bird out, but only succeeded in getting the bird to fly into the lobby of the resort. Sorry, Biltmore!

The first talk I attended today was a discussion of Southern fiction. My favorite line quoted I believe was attributed to Harry Crews, ‘Mosquitoes sing beautiful songs’. This is a drawing of the speaker, Ron Cooper.

The second talk given involved Key West. The speaker was another Jose Marti sympathizer and crying for a new Cuba. Marti was a piece of garbage who hated America and all it stood for. He was the Reagan of the hope-to-be-dictator set and swooned many as he travelled the U.S. riling up Spanish migrants to force one kingpin out for another and tripping the U.S. into the Spanish/ American war. The plus side to all of this is we later got Teddy Roosevelt as president. Folks can’t face that Cuba is a spit of dirt that has been a despot’s paradise and still is and apparently will always be. Bad news for those hoping for Castro’s death – Things ain’t changing.

The second talk about Key West was from a fellow from Illinois (Drawn at the left) who pointed out that Jimmy Buffett is the “Patron saint of Key West”.  He compared Key West to Galveston, Texas.

There was a wonderful reception for the attendees of the Florida Historical Society Annual Meeting. This was held at the heritage village at the Pinewood Cultural Center in Largo. Click here to learn more.

The drawing is of one of the buildings in the park.