(Sunday, July 14, 2013) One of the events of the IASD Dream Conference is a guided nature walk. Bonnie, Peter, Pat and I joined the walk to the First Landing State Park, which is a cypress swamp a short distance from the convention hotel.
We all became lost, but Bonnie and Peter’s group realized that fact early on and headed back to the hotel. I was in a separate group of 13 people, including Pat, who did not figure it out till nearly sunset.
Someone in the troupe called the hotel and asked them to send us a shuttle. While this was being negotiated, however, a few others had flagged down a man in an SUV, with a fishing boat in tow, and talked him into taking them out of the woods. There was room for three people in the open boat. Two people were already seated and an extended discussion among The Lost ensued about who the third passenger should be. Finally, the impatient and surly driver stuck his head out of the window of his SUV and informed us he had places to go.
I was worried Pat would miss the opening reception for the art show, so I talked him into hopping into the boat. So away they all went, down the darkening road. Someone then wondered, sardonically, if we would later discover the three dumped in a ditch somewhere.
Finally the shuttle arrived, with Pat and his two boating companions already seated inside. Apparently the surly driver had only taken them to the end of the road, which was about a quarter mile away.