Jefferson City, Our Capitol!

My wife recently took the Bar Exam over a couple of days in Jefferson City. This was the view from our hotel window. My son and I had a pretty good time. My wife, not so much.

Longbeach, CA

More palm trees, this time from 10 years ago. I believe this is around the time of the "Rodney Dangerfield Encounter".

Yuma, AZ

Random images from a flophouse in Yuma, AZ. I was keeping mum about the cockroach I noticed on the carpet by the table. This was on the way to San Diego. On our return, we would stay in the same room, this time, I'd have a massive fever and no way to tell if the cockroach was still there. On the back of this page, my son had the creator of the cartoon "Flapjack" draw a sketch for him, hence the pink marker bleed.

San Diego

A quick one out of the window overlooking the pool. We were at the end of day 2 of ComiCon and I was lucky to lift even a pencil. Attending that convention has a way of wiping out any creativity or, for that matter, faith in humanity. The first ComiCon I went to was in 1995, with an attendance of 13,000. Last year's was over 131,000. I don't think I'm going back.

Heard Museum, Phoenix AZ

A tree I sketched in the courtyard outside of the Heard Museum in Phoenix, Arizona. By this time I was getting a little burned out on Southwest-themed museums, adobe, pots, etc. This museum took me completely by surprise! It had an incredible Native-American collection, including all of Barry Goldwater's Kachina Dolls, and many of his photographs. The show that really caught me off-guard was "Mothers and Daughters, Stories in Clay". On the surface, not a title that beckons to me, personally, but I was truly blown away by both the concept and the work.

It involves several women artists all from the Santa Clara Pueblo, all in turn have artist daughters and everyone is drop-dead brilliant. The works of Roxanne Swentzell and her daughter Rose B Simpson, particularly affected me. A true highlight of the trip.

Long Drive, Short Temper

We're back from California. I believe I was able to post once from the road, and that was really more than I thought I'd do. To see the landscape change from Missouri to San Diego was unforgettable. What was forgetable was sharing a small space with 5 other "humans" for 2 weeks. Oh well, one day we'll all look back and laugh .... yes we will ....

Above, a navigator and below, a relief driver from the first day.