The Journey to Orlando

On Thursday January 11 the Parousians set off from Baton Rouge in a van with the destination of Orlando in sights. The trip started off a little rocky thanks to unneccessary and unreasonable delays by the rental car company. However, as Angela pointed out "a bad start means a good trip." How true that was. So we grabbed some meat pies and began the long trip. There were six of us: Toby Danna, Ryan Halford, Mary-Grace Westphal, Angela Miceli, Matthew, and Michael Denton.

We went without much of note until we hit Pensacola. It was about lunch time, so we decided to pull over for lunch. Finding a place wasn't too easy, but we eventually drove around until we found a place to park near the beach. It was windy and kinda chilly but we put the blanket on the beach, took our shoes off, and enjoyed it. We made sandwiches, which was complicated by the wind and the sand that seemed to find its way into the sandwiches (but hey, sand diversifies the diet, right?). So we watched the gulls and waves for a while and then packed up. We took the, er, scenic route back to the interstate and were on our way until Tallahassee.

In Tallahassee we decided to look for a church since most of us had missed mass while dealing with the rental car. So we drove to Florida State University looking for the Church. I suppose one exists but no one on the campus knows where it is. We did find out that they know where the Anglican Church is as they sent us to that twice. So having found no church we were kinda stuck as to what to do. Then as we drive we see a sex toys shop right off campus. We made the split the decision then and there to go in front of the store and pray the rosary. So we stood on the sidewalk and offered up prayers as cars whizzed right behind us in rush-hour traffic and a small crowd gathered at the tattoo shop nearby. I'm not sure what about this made such an impact on me personally. Whether it was the sponaneity of such a dramatic move or the striking contrast between the beauty of the rosary and the depravity of the shop, or the fact that people who passed us were obviously startled, something about saying that rosary struck a chord with the group. I would not be surprised if later we returned to FSU to do it again.

When we were finished there we went across the street to where we had parked and another picnic of sorts, this time with a spread out on the hood of the van to make the sandwiches. From there we went to Gainesville. More interesting Florida road signs made the trip to Orlando an adventure. Eventually we arrived at our hotel and went to bed...well, not really. Some of us decided to watch a movie so that we didn't get to bed until 4:30. AM. That was not a bright idea on my part as I would discover and hour and a half later when we had to wake up...

During the entire trip and especially during the drive up we did a devotion to St. Raphael. St. Raphael, if you don't know already, is the chosen patron saint of the University of Florida chapter as well as the patron angel of travelers. So we read the book of Tobit and the litany of St. Raphael throughout the trip. It is probably due to his intercession that we managed to pull ourselves out of the directional messes we found ourselves on Thursday and throughout the weekend. The reading of St. Raphael and the rosary at the porn shop I think set this trip out on a proper spiritual start so that we would see the trip blossom into more blessings than I could have hoped for.