As the day started out, we all had to pack our bags for the weekend away on the first DOOR retreat of the year. Destination…Florida Keys! While packing, thoughts back to my first trip ran through my head. The trip where the bugs ate us alive, and the bites survived my scratching fingers for at least 2 weeks afterwards. However, we would be sleeping in a “condo” compared to a tent this time around. Therefore, packing seemed to be a bit easier this time.
As everyone had everything piled into my house, we took out to Heidi’s house, our director, supervisor and every other name given to one in charge of a group. The six of us would soon start the long drive across bridges and over islands. We set out and had made it about 5 miles when we spotted a man with a huge backpack and a nice little sign with “KEY WEST” printed on. A fifteen passenger van with six Christian Missionary people could not pass by this man, going to the place of his destination, and not pick him up, right? We turned around, and I stepped out of the van to “interview” him to see if he was safe. After two seconds of finding out he was German, and that he was 21, I thought he sounded safe enough and we loaded him up. With our final passenger aboard, we took out for the keys.
Our first stop was for lunch at a favorite of the DOOR house, Alabama Jack’s. A nice, typical hick fishing hole right in the Everglades; the last stop before actually being in the keys. Once again the food proved to us the reason they have won many awards. With Moritz, the man we now found out came to America to travel before going on with his education and who has been in America since September 6 and is staying until mid March, we continued with our plans, discussing a book talking about the diversity in Miami, and how different cultures have proven their ability to take over a major American city and run most of the major positions both politically and in business. He fit in as if he was too, a part of the group. He humored us with many jokes, including asking the waitress if he could sign up somewhere for the bar fights that he had heard they were having. It was much funnier to hear this scrawny German boy with his German accent, asking to sign up for a bar fight. Great humor!
We continued on with him, down a few of the keys until it was time to get our groceries for the trip. As we unload the van, we asked if he wanted to shop with us, or continue on his journey, seeing if he can catch another ride to try and catch the sunset on Key West. It would take us a bit in the store, altering his plans a bit. We bid ourselves goodbye, took a few pictures, and parted in our own directions.
We shopped for a good while, buying all sorts of goods that we can not afford on our poor budget, and even had a little fun doing it. Fun is something that usually does not go along with being in the grocery store. It never is a pleasing even for me. Anyways, after we got out of the grocery store, the first thing I spot is two cop cars, lights flashing, with an innocent looking German figure in front being questioned. Obviously, our friend Moritz was not trusted in these parts. Before anything would go wrong, we rushed over and rescued him from the cops. It really is a great story to be told!
We took him about 20 miles on down the keys with us, protecting him from harms way thus far. We then dropped him off at the last bus station for him to try and get a ride there, once again, parted our ways and left him in the horizon. What a great guy with a great spirit. I will most likely pick up a few more hikers in my life.
We got to our retreat center, a waterfront house on stilts overlooking the beauty of the Keys. After we unpacked everything, we did multiple tests, which seemed to be quite accurate, revealing that I am indeed the person I knew I was, but needed an expert to spend multiple years of his life to develop a formula, just to tell me an others, what we already knew about ourselves. While they seem cool, I already knew these things. It is just more impressive to me how accurate these studies are, and match me 100%. Maybe, just maybe in the future I will understand them a bit more, but at the moment, they just tend to creep me out a bit. These people have never met me, yet, seem to know me. Now, I think I am very extraordinary, and there is no one quite like Isaac Shue, however, this test proved to me that this guy has been secretly stalking me, or there are other very odd balls out wondering the country sides who are just the same as I am. I wish I could come across another number 6 in my life time!
The evening was spent talking about everything and anything from Texas to Iowa, across to North Carolina and down to the Keys. We hit every topic and even sipped a bit of wine from South Africa to go along with it. What a day for adventures, and even more are on their way, I feel, in the next two days here at the keys.
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