Naked.....

was the theme for our weekend away.  I don't think either one of us knew this would be the case but the "naked" theme runs deep...I want to write about our adventure together because I don't want to forget it!  When planning some time away, I told John I had always wanted to go spend the night in his two man tent with him.  I like an adventure and I thought it might be romantic and prove to him that I can and will hang with him.  He researched some different places and finally decided that in this heat we had to be near the water.  We weren't diggin the beach so he looked into a canoe trip near Madison (where our kids would be) and came across the Santa Fe River.  We have done it before with kids but never overnight.  He then found a quaint little Bed and Breakfast to stay at one night and called the canoe shop to make plans for a second night. 

The Bed and Breakfast was awesome.  We had never been to one.  It was called the Grady house and to my surprise, John had reserved the risque RED room for the night.  I really don't think my sweet husband knew exactly what he was reserving but it was fun and we laughed and laughed and laughed!  It was the romance, naked room...had naked pictures everywhere....the old ones from the 30s and 40s...paintings, sculptures, drawings, books, etc.  There was a huge tub with a mirror over it.  There were big comfy robes and chocolates.  The hostess had cookies, cokes, wine, and beer available the whole time...the place was decorated so nicely with small classy touches everywhere.  She served a 5 course breakfast to all guests in a formal dining room with china.  We had cream cheese stuffed french toast with raspberry sauce...it was to die for!!!  It was lovely and John and I had a great time....

We went to a great little local restuarant called the Outdoor Restaurant for dinner.  John had a big steak and Naked Ed Pale Ale. I had mahi mahi wth a pomegrante martini (so yummy!)...we talked and just sat there with no interuptions! 

We got on the river about 10:30 or 11 the next day.  We had a cooler, a backpack, a dry bag, and two sleeping pads...

We started canoeing and boy was it hot.  It was nice to splash the water on our bodies because it was so dang hot. We only had to canoe about 3 hours the first day to our campsite.  We stopped at Poe Springs along the way which was a beautiful private owned  park with a nice cold spring to play in!  It helped us get cooled down.

The thunder started and the skies started looking dark...and I got nervous.  John knew we weren't that far from Lily Spring which is where we were going to camp for the night.  But in my mind that didn't do us much good considering we had no shelter, were near the water and under a million trees! I don't like storms...my parents can attest..bad weather is NOT my thing!  My heart was racing a little as we canoed into Lily Spring for two reasons..

1.) It was about to really storm! and 2.)  A man named Naked Ed lived at lily spring...or so we were told by all the locals and the canoe shop guys. 

The guys at the canoe shop had told John that the best place to stop and spend the night on the river was at Lily.  They told him the caretaker of the property was a man, a nudist, named Naked Ed.  They said he was harmless, sometimes wore a loin cloth and sometimes did not, Naked Ed charged $20 to stay the night and he didn't spend the night on the property.  They said he would give us fire wood and "light up" the springs for us at night with his "vey primitive" electricity. 

We rowed up to lily and there he was....sitting up on a wooden dock, a tiki type hut beside him, and naked as a man can be!  There were several travelers there cooling off in the spring and they would ask him if they could jump off his dock...he'd say "I don't care" in a raspy old man voice.  We pulled up to the dock and John stood up on it to introduce himself to Naked Ed.  Naked ED was indeed very naked and John informed me that he did not have a circumcision....like I really wanted to know.  Apparently the canoe shop guys had told him we were coming because he seemed to know and told John some general instructions about the campsite.  Naked Ed gave John some lighter meanwhile explaining to others fun facts about the Spring.

We went to the campsite to check it out and wait for the rain.  John wasn't sure whether to put up tent or just hang until the storm passed so we just sat there...and the storm started.  Lightening was flashing and John could tell I was about to flip a lid so he decided to make a shelter.  He grabbed an old wooden table that was sitting around (Naked Ed had miscellaneous chairs and two very old wooden tables sitting around) and used our handy dandy rope and a tarp to make us a little shelter.  We pulled all our stuff under it and just sat there.  We used the canoe floatable cushions to sit on.  John put his arms around me and prayed for our safety and then called the canoe shop to ask about the radar!  They said the storm would quickly pass and there wasn't a system behind it.  It made us feel better that they were aware we were out there in the storm and that we had a cell phone.  We heard a truck drive up behind us and there was Naked Ed checking on us.....and he had JEANS on!  So we figured that Naked Ed sits on his dock all day naked and gains a lot of notoriety by doing so...I mean dang the man has a beer named after him!!!  but when he comes off the dock and when all the crowds leave...he wears jeans.  We were relieved.  He asked if we were o.k. and told us if it got bad, he could take us to a "pole barn" to get under cover...he said his cell phone number was on the sign by his dock.  He seemed plain civilized!  I actually felt comforted by the fact that we could call Naked Ed in an emergency.  After he left, the weather cleared and John set up the tent.  We started making dinner and I ate my first ever MRE.  It was spaghetti and meatballs and really pretty good.  We boiled water with a little stove and gobbled it up! 

My very clean husband had bought body soap for us to bathe with and well the only way to bathe was in the Spring so feeling very at one with nature, we got naked and took a bath in the Spring...it was freezing so that didn't last long but it felt really good to be clean and put clean clothes on.  After that, there ain't much to do besides get in the tent so we did.  We talked and talked...found out John's favorite book growing up was the Lion's Paw(he said that his favorite teacher in 4th grade read it to the class)....and I was so excited to tell him that I have that book on our reading list for the year!  We answered questions, talked about homeschool, trips we want to take, and what bothers us the most about each other and what we love about each other.  Surprise, Surprise...John's doesn't like it when I start screaming at the kids!  Ha ha ha!  When we ran out of things to talk about I read 7 chapters in a book I had brought along and John used my phone to look up Tomahawk Nation to read articles about FSU football.  I guess that's what you do when you go to bed at 7:00 at night.  We were cozy in our tent and eventually fell off to sleep.

Mr. Armadillo came sniffing around in the middle of the night...John rolled over and there he was face to face with him. 

We woke about 7 am and boiled water for our instant coffee...meanwhile I tried not to think about having to go to the bathroom....finally I peed in the woods and dared to think about going #2....I managed to hold off on that until we hit Ginnie Springs later that day where there were restrooms! 

We packed up after eating banana bread and drinking coffee.  Naked Ed never showed up to say goodbye!  Instead we rowed over to his dock and I took pictures of all his make shift signs...they certainly portray his personality well!

Off we were on the river again.  It was nice and cool at 8:30 in the morning...we were alone on the river...the scenery was beautiful.  We saw hundreds of turtles, talked more, found a really pretty shallow spring that we waded in and just enjoyed the beauty of nature! 

We got to the popular Ginnie Springs around lunchtime where we came across every redneck known to man...riding in tubes on the river...so much for our peaceful canoe trip.  We fought the crowd long enough to park the canoe, get out the snorkel gear and snorkel in and around Ginnie Springs...then got back on the river and ate lunch in the canoe. 

The rest of the trip, John paddled me around in the water...so that I could turn around and look at him and chat.  We talked and talked some more...and sat in the quiet looking at the surroundings..

1pm came very quickly and there we were at the end of the road ...the Bridge..our take out point.  The canoe shop guys were there waiting on us and I was kind of sad!  We were both ready to see the kiddos but so glad to have that time together...I mean when you run out of things to talk about and you feel comfortable just riding down the river sitting in quietness...you know you are with your best friend!  It was so nice and so exciting and hopefully another couple time will come again soon!  I really would go anywhere with that man...