Moving on over to the other side

18:37 |

Welcome friends to what will likely be my last post on randlestateside.blogspot.com!

but never fear I'm still going to be irritating you all it will just be in a different location, details will follow at the end of this post.

So I sat down thinking this would be a quick, relatively uneventful blogpost compared to what seemed a relatively packed and emotion filled one last time but after uploading the photos from May and June I soon realised I seem to pack quite a lot in in the space of 5-6 weeks!

I left off having graduated and said goodbye to my Gainesville home and telling you all that the next step was to head off in the Airstream with Joe and the dogs. Well that is still the case but there was much to be done before that could start, plus I need to wait until July for my working visa to kick in. After leaving Gainesville I set up camp back at the ranch, a place as you all know, Randle and I love!

We were both very happy to be back! Randle especially as Roger has come to stay for the summer so they were reunited!

although he doesn't look particularly pleased in this picture...

Our first weekend back was spent out on the lake with my parents on their shiny new boat. We went out on Lake Okeechobee, one of the largest fresh water lakes on the planet! Unfortunately it is hugely infested by alligators so no swimming, despite that it's still really beautiful.

To keep me entertained whilst looking for a job and waiting for my visa I was charged with building a website promoting the ranch and what is done there. Mainly this means driving or riding around taking photos - not bad work if you can get it ;)

Shortly after getting back from Gainesville it was my birthday and as you probably saw on Facebook I was massively surprised/spoilt by Joe.

This was how my day began....

And this is what happened....

I've done some pretty cool stuff in my life but this has to be up there with one of the most exhilarating and something I could definitely get addicted to!

After this we needed some time to come down from the rush and then spent the evening on the beach drinking a smuggled in bottle of my favourite bottles of cider from England followed by a trip to my favourite sushi restaurant - all in all a gooooood day :)

The next day we had a little gathering at my parents house with Joey, Jessie, Ornan and Deborah and then my parents new friends, Robin and Rachel. I made Gin and Tonic ice lollies! and my lovely mum, despite being ill, made this amazing looking cake, unfortunately I can't report on how it tasted as my dad thought it was a squishy cake and decided it would be funny to hit me in the face with it but instead of me sinking into it, it bounced off and hit the floor - it was a heartbreaking sight to behold!

There has been lots of other stuff to keep me busy. We had a lovely visit from some Gainesville, faves, Dave and Katie.

We went on a very windy jeep ride, ate tacos at the best taco place on the treasure coast and then went and played the longest ever game of jenga at an open air bar!

We had a new litter of puppies on the ranch so as always I've spent as much time with them as possible, this time it was 5, all black puppies and as always they are all cute as buttons.

As usual I do have a favourite though - at first I called him Meatball as he was by far the fattest in the litter, later though I changed it to Pedro as he looks like he has half a mustache!

Randle has been enjoying himself immensely. Hanging out on the ranch, getting fed steak by my mum and going on jeep rides!

As we will be leaving Florida soon Joe and I have been trying to make the most of our surroundings before we don't have it on our back doorstep so there has been some lovely evenings spent on the beach (it is waaaayyyy to hot to go in the daytime.)

Randle loves getting to run around on the sand and swimming in the sea with us.

Despite all this I still managed to squeeze in some dress making. I totally fell in love with the 60's mini dress style of the dress I wore to my graduation so I made this one in honour of that.

Last Sunday I worked cows for one last time....hopefully not ever but perhaps for some time :(

I've been on many a excruciatingly hot run - It's safe to say my runs are now much shorter and much slower, hopefully that doesn't mean I am much less fit than I was! I honestly think I deserve a medal for training in this! Some mornings it has been 92% humidity at 7am! - GROSS

I needed a break from this one morning and got it in the form of going roller blading with Jessie!!

It is the first time I've been since I was like 15 - Amazingly I managed the whole thing (about 2 miles) without falling over! Jessie put me to shame with her skills but was lots and lots of fun!

It's not just me learning new skills, Joe wrote a News Years Resolution list and on it was "Ride a horse" so I decided it was time and with Jessie's help we did just that! He did really well! And like everyone else fell completely in love with A.J

Don't worry though, it hasn't been all fun and games. I've been desperately trying and failing to get a remote job (virtual teaching mainly) to finance my trip and the main thing that has been taking up all my time is working on the airstream. Joe bought one in Arizona and whilst she was in perfect condition and so beautiful on the outside she was your usual sea of brown oak, floor and cabinets, inside - it even had curtain pelmets (valances to my american buddies)- PELMETS??? it's 2016?!? it basically looked like a bucket of friend chicken wrapped in scabby old blue fabric - YUCK. So despite concerns we decided to go all out and renovate the whole thing!

It's very hot in Florida right now and an Airstream is essentially a metal tube so as you can image the heat is CRAZY. There has literally be blood, sweat and tears but yesterday we finally finished her!

And that is it! We are packing her up and heading off on Thursday.

So byeeeee....

haha not really, I know you are probably all like "whaatttt, wait, what does it look like inside now, where are you going etc etc" Well never fear, that is where my new blog comes in. My first post will be a detailed account of the battles we suffered to take her (The Airstream is a girl) from what she was into what she is now - our new home on wheels! Give me a few days and you will get the full account.

The new blog can be found at www.campeatcompete.com, I'll let you all know when there is a post to read. I hope you will check it out and stick with me, following us on our journey, seeing Randle be grumpy in some of the most beautiful places on earth and learning how to be real gypsies.

In the mean time here is a little post box porn I managed to find a few weeks ago (I'm hoping to find some great ones on the road)