In high school, he chose to take classes in industrial arts, including: general drafting; mechanical drafting; and architectural drafting. Each of his three high school years he would submit his best drawings in the industrial arts district competition and always received a ribbon for his entry.

However, it wasn′t until his senior year with his complete set of architectural drawings that he was to receive first place ribbons in both the district and regional competitions. It was by doing thusly, that he qualified for the state competition.

Joined by his others classmates in a school van, all of these state qualifiers travel together to College Station, Texas, home of Texas Agriculture and Mechanical College (Texas A&M) for a weekend of competition and fun. He had worked on his architectural split-level home plans for two months prior to the state competition and spent more than ten hours each day during the two weeks to complete his entry. He even beseeched the help of his older brother, Fred to help him do the landscape artwork on his cover page. (In looking back, he now believes that it was his brother′s adroitness that helped him receive second in state due to his brother being an accomplished artist.)

So, with a background in both art and architectural drawing, he decides to carry a sketch book on his journey and capture some of the scenes along the way. Now, many of his sketches, both past and present have been digitized and are displayed in the pages that follow in this Art Gallery. Too, with his introduction to computer and computer assisted drawing, a whole new path to walk has become open to any artist who just wants to take the steps necessary to learn the applications.

Also, future drawings will be added.

While preparing for this journey and determining what to carry and what not to carry, it occurred to me that the top flap would be perfect to keep books and writing materials, an office. The first three items to include were a given, my Bible, my journal and the guide book. Then, methought, there is need for something upon which to draw, a small bound drawing journal, one which would be lightweight but durable.

After a search through the local merchants, I found just such a book to include with those other three books in my top flap and upon it′s page began capturing some of those sites viewed with walking upon the Appalachian Trail.

This gallery include some of those drawings