I attended this year's Southeastern Yearly Meeting's Half Yearly Meeting, an annual affair that takes place each Thanksgiving weekend. While I have been in Florida and an active member of the Sarasota Friends Meeting (Quakers) for the past five years, I had never attended HYM before. It was held at Wekiva Springs State Park, north of Orlando. Preferring not to drive up by myself, I found that a couple of my friends, Jen and Nate--first-timers as well--were planning on going, so we decided to carpool together.
At 9 AM on Thursday, Jen and Nate came to the house and we packed up and got underway. Jen had volunteered to assist with the preparations for the Thanksgiving dinner that evening, so we headed out that morning. It took us a couple hours to get up to Apopka, the city where the park is located. The drive up I-75 to Tampa wasn't too bad, but I-4 was a completely different story. That highway was thick with cars headed toward Orlando. I suspect a lot of the traffic was headed up to the Disney theme parks. Anyway, when we got to Apopka, the first order of business was to find someplace to eat. Unfortunately, on Thanksgiving there are not a whole lot of places open, so we drove down the main drag and came upon a bodega, Mi Mexico, in a Latino strip mall. There was a small restaurant section so we stopped in and each of us had a fantastic dinner at prices probably half what one would pay in a conventional Mexican restaurant.
Arriving at the HYM, eager to help out, we found that there was nothing to be done, as the turkeys were already in the oven, so the three of us drove down to the springs in the main part of the park and did some exploring. Wikeva Springs is the head of the Wikewa River and is enclosed within a large concrete ring. The weather was a bit cool--possibly in the mid-70s--but there were a few people, mainly Muslems, swimming and enjoying themselves. We walked on a boardwalk nature trail, which wound through the marshy part of the area with all nature of palms and gradually moved up to the area where deciduous trees prevailed. Returning to the camp area, we enjoyed a traditional Thanksgiving dinner. That evening it was fun and games, with me winning the first of the three Trivial Pursuit games I played throughout the weekend.
Friday was another day of schmoozing and enjoying each other's company. I had brought along several tomes and did quite a bit of reading. There were several workshops offered and I chose to attend one on centering prayer. That evening several of us gathered around a campfire which was initiated by Jen. She brought up some firewood and invited those in attendance to join her. It was the first time I can recall sitting at a campfire since I was a youngster and I really enjoyed telling and listening to others' stories.
Saturday was pretty similar to Friday, although several of those in attendance opted to rent canoes and go canoeing down the Wikewa River, including Jen and Nate. I wasn't up for such an adventure, so I satisfied myself with doing some more reading and listening to my iPod. After lunch, as I was enjoying others' company a member of my home meeting, Ann Sundberg, asked me if I had seen Jen and Nate, which I hadn't. We were quite concerned, since the other canoeists had returned while they had not. There is a path down to the springs which terminates near the area in which we were staying, so I suggested I walk down that path while Ann and her husband, Rolf, drove down to the main parking lot to look for them. They found Jen and Nate, who had taken a longer canoe trip than the others. Jen was content to hike back to the camp, while Nate felt discretion was the better part of valor and rode back with Ann and Rolf. As I got to the place where the path I was on crossed the road, I saw their car waiting for me, so I gladly accepted a ride back to camp, myself.
Sunday morning, as I was getting dressed, I happened to look out the cabin window and saw eight wild turkeys walking through the cabin area, apparently in search of food. Obviously, these guys escaped the Thanksgiving festivities and felt it safe to make their presence known. After breakfast, it was clean-up time. Of the 60 or so who had been at the weekend retreat, perhaps 20-30 remained, so it was up to us to make sure everything was in ship shape. That was accomplished in short order and, after getting the thumbs-up from the park ranger, we retired for Meeting for Worship and then headed home.
Rather than fighting Interstate traffic on Thanksgiving Sunday, I happened to have the original GPS device in my car, aka a map, which I checked out and found an alternative, cross-country way back to Bradenton. Sure, it took a bit longer but I didn't have the headache of dodging other cars on the way back. It was so good to get back home. Unfortunately, the nights were fairly cool and I ended up contracting a cold. I'm doing a bit of sniffling and sneezing but, it was well worth it. Now that I know what Half Yearly Meeting is all about, I amadding it to my list for future years.
