Sandra’s parents celebrateda big 49 years together. Many congratulations to them! Above is a part of the card I painted for them.

Being the Florida Chapter Chairman of the National Cartoonists Society meant putting on the annual meeting. It started on September 11th with a reception at the Hilton in Ocala. The next morning there was breakfast and the business meeting.

We had a terrific room for a business meeting, thanks to Debbie Fulgoni and the folks at the Hilton. Our usual 20 minute business meeting turned into a 2 hour workshop. In the photo from the lower left & around the table is Jose Delbo, Linda Gialnella, Ann Sabo, George Peiper, Bruce Beattie, Eddie Pittman, Tom Armstrong and Dana Sumemrs.

Afterward we moved on The Appleton Art Museum for the opening of ‘Florida Inkslinger- Cartoonists of the Sunshine State’. I assisted the opening by giving a short talk and draw on creativity.

I left the Appleton and stopped at nearby coffee shop, Chelsea Coffee, to slow down a minute and join Sandra, Ann Sabo and Dick Daniels.

I was very fortunate to have former Tribune Media Services cartoon editor, Mark Mathes, come and speak to us about the future of our business.

Mark’s daughter came also and asked cartoonists for an autograph. Dana Summers, editorial cartoonist of the Orlando Sentinel and the comic strip ‘Bound and Gagged’ obliges.

After dinner gag cartoonist George Peiper speaks to cartoonist/illustrator and gag writer, Mike Osbun, and his wife, Jackie.

Comic book artist Jose Delbo and his wife Maybelle take a peek through Mark Mathe’s dauhgter, Rachel’s book of collected art.

Mark Mathes listens as Tom Armstrong talks shop. Tom’s wife, Glenda, is behind him.

One of the big surprises coming from the Appleton event was the appearance of Earl Engleman, one of the most prolific gag cartoonists in the past few decades. Earl and his wife, Shirley, just came out to see the exhibit and stayed for dinner. It was great to uncover another professional cartoonist in Florida!

A couple weeks after the kidney stone affair and a trip the the doctors office to have a stint removed I attended with Sandra the annual Florida Outdoor Writers Association meeting. I picked up the pen for the first time since the medical mess and tried drawing. I had a heck of a time with focus and depth perception. A doctor there said I was still suffering from a form of disorientation from the anesthesia. As I drew I was able to better focus, but the whole thing was very disturbing to me. After 30 years of drawing I hadn’t felt like that before.

Above Sandra adds to her multi-numerous awards! Here presenter Ralph Allen congratulates her.

Here’s FOWA members Sandra, Pat Pochurek, Charlene Johnson and Doug Kelly.

Sandra and I had a meal at the Charley Horse Restaurant in Ocala. Above is a sketch of a fellow chowing down there.

Sandra and I made our way through Palm Beach County to visit a few parks in the area. We started off at Serenoa Glade Park. The posey below is from there.

From there we visited Sugar Sand Park. The sketch to the right is of a very rare plant sprouting from a sabal palm. We also stopped at Blazing Star Preserve.

The film above was shot at Grassy Water Preserve. Below is the sketch I made.

On the way home we saw this was the weather we encountered.

I attended the Friday luncheon of the Florida Press Association at historic The Breakers in Palm Beach, Florida. During the luncheon the Florida Press Association presented awards to those of the daily papers. Also given were awards from The First Amendment Foundation. The Pete Weitzel/Friends of the First Amendment Award was given to Pat Gleason, who is an assistant to Governor Charlie Crist on many things including open government. She is a great lady. She assisted Sandra and I when visiting the Governors Library & Sandra donated many of her books. Governor Crist was at the luncheon to present the award. Below is a fuzzy photo of Pat Gleason speaking, to the right of the photo.

I was honored to receive the Sunshine Award for my editorial cartoons on the subject of Sunshine Week. Below the photo are the two Sunshine Week cartoons. My time at Orlando City Hall greatly helped my constructing these two cartoons. Director  Barbara Peterson was a big help!

To the right is a colored sketch of drapery in The Breakers.

While at the Florida Press luncheon I met Mark Mathes who once editted a ton of cartoonists when he was with Tribune Media Services. Amongst those is cartoonist and editor, Dick Kulpa. Dick was one time editor of the infamous Weekly World News.  I once penciled a week of comics strips for Dick’s comic strip ‘Ghost Story Club’ many years ago.

Anyway, Mark invited Dick over and we went to dinner. Dick and I drew each other and a photo of such is below.

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.