Take Me To The River...Drop Me In The Water

Greetings:
(click on pictures to enlarge)

The ride from Savannah was fairly uneventful and we passed the time with some decent oldies stations and a CD or two of our own. However the actual location of Elayne and Russ’ house is beyond the capability of any GPS mapping system and some simple directions were relayed by mobile phone as we approached.

Elayne was jumping up and down in the yard when we came through the gate and made our way across an open field to the house. The property is a ten acre strip that is narrow and very deep, terminating on several hundred feet of frontage on the Santa Fe River north of Gainesville, FL. Many homes, such as theirs, are built away from the river to afford river traffic a natural view of the flora and fauna.

Elayne and Russ have been married six years which accounts for how long we have known Russ but Elayne is another story. Thirty six years ago Gini took a job with an orthodontist in White Plains, NY as her first newly-married-income-producing endeavor. Elayne was working there. It was not long before there were ‘shenanigans’ going on during lunch hour, during work and eventually we were shenaniganning regularly as a group.

Elayne did not last much longer with the illustrious doctor and soon diversified. She helped Dr. Dubin, her husband at the time and a great optometrist, developed her own optician skills but really just kept gathering momentum towards her real talent as an artist. Our departure from White Plains after just two and a half years (Chris got himself fired from Archbishop Stepinac High School: “Too much Star Trek and rock music, Mr. Duggan!”) did not stop the maintenance of our friendship.

Eventually Elayne would travel to Spain and support herself solely on her income from art and even sojourn in Bristol, NH. She had an apartment and a studio in the old Abel’s Restraurant and had some success in town. She would wend her way to Maryland and then High Springs, FL. There she would initially have a store front and studio in the nearby funky town of Alachua and begin taking on art students. At one point she was teaching forty students. Currently she has downsized to another studio and still maintains many students.

So here is our star:



The house is filled with wonderful pieces of her art. Here is an example:




Russ is a man of many traits. He has recently retired from managing air traffic controllers. His list of accomplishments is most impressive but the one that we most attribute to his natural abilities is river guide, but more of that later.

Here is the house:



Elayne also has a small studio on the property, there is an old VW bus waiting to resurrect and yard scultpture (object d'yard) but Russ’ pride and joy is his Big Deck (hear, hear):



This multi-leveled platform is backlit, frontlit and sunlit for the exclusive purpose of fun and frolic. There is room for a band and about thirty or forty seated friends/guests. The bar is eclecticly resplendent with fishing gear and fiber optics.:



And of course there are the groupies:



Mother Nature dominates however as you go down their passage to the water to their dock. You pass about 8 or 10 canoes, skiffs and kayaks along the way until you are struck with the beauty of the river:



Elayne had to address a local woman’s club and could not join us on this one day of good weather and temperature. However Russ bundled Gini and Chris into a large canoe and they were off.

We were the only humans on the river but it seemed to be Turtle Day as we skimmed along:





The wind had died down and movement seemed effortless, especially for Gini who sat oarless between Chris and Russ. There was some concern to her vantage point:



Many springs feed the Santa Fe River and we made our way to one of the more public ones called Blue Springs. It could have been the Caribbean or Hawaii as the transparency of the water of the springs allowed for color and the beholding of fish:





Though it was Russ’ idea, Chris crumbled some dried leaves to make the fish think he was offering food. Later it was noted that there were underwater posters with Chris’ picture with warnings about a no good northerner peddling false wares:



The entire community is in love with the river and tries not to impact it negatively while still providing themselves access from their property:



One of the more interesting members of the community is Naked Ed. We had met Ed at Russ and Elayne’s wedding. The wedding, itself, was fabulous. The wedding party arrived in canoes and the ceremony was performed at the dock. The event had been synchronized with the full moon and later that night the members of the reception all paddled along the moonlit river. A destination was Lily Springs where guitars, etc were produced under the approving eye of the owner, Naked Ed (in all his glory).

This time the weather was a bit much and Ed was almost unrecognizable. He does provide an announcement to casual paddlers:



But perhaps the most glorious component of this escapade was the paradisical glow of our native guide:



We are wealthy and fortunate in our friends. In this way life has been very kind.

Next is a visit with Chris’ office mate from many years ago, Cyndy. Leaving High Springs was difficult and we took to the road with some reluctance. But thanks to our initiation by Rick and Hanna in Myrtle Beach we were able to notice a great place for lunch as we headed further South. ‘The best hamburger you ever tasted’ claimed Rick and was verified for the second time as we pulled into a Five Guys hamburger place. May you all be so fortunate.