Thursday, May 15, 2014

Animals!


Chipmunk! (As seen from Sheridan Lake Marina, Front Window)

Can you see them?

How about now?

Definitely Deer! aka Mickey Mouse in the Headlights!

Black Lab!

Black Lab Scoping the Deer!

My Handsome Man!

Turkey!
Mtn. Goat at Mt. Rushmore!

Magpie!
Cold Sheep!

Bison!

aka Buffalo!

Skipper in the Snow!

Big Horn Sheep.

The First Turkey! (Badlands :) 
Human in the Badlands 
Skipper in Arkansas!

Elk in Arkansas!

My Animals in Arkansas!

Twin Falls! (Why there are three, I don't know. I do know they are not "actually" animals, but hey...)

Also, not "actually" animals...

"Glory Hole", also not an animal.

View from Above :)
 Also, not pictured...

Mallards
Canadian Geese
Ground Squirrel
Red Wing Black Birds
Crappie (Fish, which were excellent, thank you Sheridan Lake Fishermen)
House Cats (Not to be confused with Mountain Lions)
Great Blue Heron
Woodpeckers (Heard, not seen)


We have been busy getting to, and settled in, South Dakota! I think we are fitting in with the family quite nicely here and have enjoyed our time so far. This post is for my Dad, because we think of him each time we see some wild animal!

xxoxoo,

Nicole

Friday, March 28, 2014

The Sheep's Engine is Rumbling!

We are on the move! We have left Palm Springs and are waiting for a bit more frost to thaw before heading towards the Ozarks of Northwest Arkansas for a week or so and then... the Black Hills of South Dakota!!!!

We are SO happy to announce we have accepted a job from this May to October, just outside of Hill City, South Dakota! We have never visited this state, my closest is Wyoming and Steve's is Colorado. We were contacted by the owner, and after a phone interview, hired to help run his small RV park and nearby marina on Lake Sheridan. The town has an interesting history, and used to be known as "a town with a church on each end and a mile of Hell in between."

I know some of you are thinking..."Man, South Dakota is FAR." ...So are we.

We have decided to break up the trip into three legs so make it a bit easier and plan on only traveling around 200 miles per day. Everything in RV life seems to take about four times as long as we imagine, so leaving ample travel time is key to our sanity.

We have already completed the first leg of our journey, about 500 miles, back to Tallahassee. This is where we will be camped out on my dad's property for a week or two. We need to see our friends and family before we leave for a few years, and we will also have a couple of small projects to tackle while we are able to have covered parking and access to tools.

We stopped in Cape Coral and St. Petersburg on the trip up to visit friends. We had our fill of delicious ice cream when we stayed at Ice SSSScreaming in Cape Coral. It is owned by a good friend of ours, you should stop in if you are ever in the area. Robert's RV Park, where we stayed in St. Pete was much less delicious, but it was nice to meet some other RVers.

Our two night home in Cape Coral, Fl.  Boondocking behind Mike's Ice Cream Shop.

Taking the Sheep over the Sunshine Skyway Bridge. A detour I highly recommend.

Robert's RV Park in St. Petersburg, FL.

So good to be back under the trees. -Roberts RV Park

Around the beginning of April we will leave Tallahassee for Northwest Arkansas, where I have some family. This second leg of the journey will be about 900 miles. Again we will take it easy on the drive up, stopping frequently at Walmart's or other free camping destinations. We are also thinking on staying a night or two in Holly Springs, Mississippi where there is a nearby campground, Wall Doxey State Park. The town itself is known for its antebellum houses and Southern charm.

After a couple of weeks in Arkansas, around the end of April, we plan to begin heading to South Dakota. This leg of the trip will be the longest, at almost 1000 miles. At this point I haven't looked at much that lies en route, but we are keeping our ears open for can't miss stops along the way. We will see how things pan out. We like to live by chance a little and just see what fate brings us. It is usually pretty awesome.

Maybe I will post our route, and if anyone knows of anything we can't miss along the way they can let us know!

Peace and Love,

Nicole and Steve

Monday, March 3, 2014

Steampunk Day or Attack of the Glitter Fairy

Today we gave the Sheep a bath and washed our car, the Blueberry. But yesterday...

Sir Stephen Hierro del Fuego and Countess Cola
Yesterday we went to the Florida Renaissance Festival in Deerfield Beach. The theme for the weekend was Steampunk and Time Travelers. We had so much fun! It was held in Quiet Waters Park. The park has lots of trees, paved paths and a lake, which they launched rocks into from trebuchets and catapults. Pretty cool.

About five minutes into our exploration, a Mardi Gras masked, purple winged fairy addresses Sir Stephen...

 "My good sir, you MUST let me kiss your beautiful lady!" the fairy coos.

We inch closer, game for a little fun. Sir Stephen replies, "By all means, please do!"

We have no idea what is about to happen.

She beckons me closer. This is the moment I notice the wand in her hand. She directs it to her palm, circles it not once, not twice, but five times, dumping out a mound of gold and silver glitter that would make a drag queen blush.

She looks at me and says "Close your eyes my sweet, and let me deliver my kiss."

Oh no. I'm too far in, there's no turning back. I lower my lids, lift my head and hope for the best. I feel the glitter fly...or rather, stick. I open my eyes, gaze down, and observe that my entire chest is now coated in blinding, sparkly fairy dust.

Thanks.

Even as I write this, I look like an overzealous third grader's art project gone horribly wrong. Also, we will never get the glitter out of the RV.

But...

They also had naughty, lewd jokes by Iris and Rose which were hilarious. They had tons and tons of great vendors, selling lovely costumes and jewelry. We saw beautiful, yet sturdy wings for sale. The artist/creator listed a great many activities he had participated in while wearing the wings - including sky diving - and claimed they stayed intact.

We also got to see a glassblowing demonstration! I now get to check that off of my bucket list.

They had pubs serving beer and cider. Steve had the beer, I had the cider.

And, surprise...we only took one picture at the event itself, the one at the top. I think we were  having too much fun checking out all the cool stuff to think about taking pictures. I wish I had some of the glassblower and the other Steampunk outfits, especially this skirt a  lovely lady I met standing in line for the bathroom had created out of curtains.

I also wish I had taken more detailed shots of our own outfits, they were pretty neat. Steve made the guns out of all kinds of materials, candlesticks, car parts, light bulbs, etc., as well as holsters for our belts. I made my bustle skirt out of an old dress and created my little antlers out of scraps of wire. Also my necklace is a petrified shark tooth my friend gave me years ago. I even crocheted a small pouch which I used as a purse!

I love this picture :)


Antlers!

I love to play dress up and create all kinds of costumes. I think I am even beginning to convert Steve. We are hoping to attend another Steampunk themed event, much smaller this time, up North if we can make it in time.

Peace and Love,

Nicole

P.S. I would like to thank everyone for all of the enthusiasm, kind thoughts and words of encouragement we received from the grand unveiling of our blog. We are excited to share our adventures with each and everyone of you and it means so much to us to have interested and caring souls accompany us on our journey. We also look forward to finding many more kindred spirits who are participating in our newly adopted lifestyle!


Thursday, February 27, 2014

Banishing the Brown

When we purchased the Sheep, there was so much brown.

Matching, custom brown vinyl sofa, dinette, too many window valences to count, ( I just did, there were seven, we are down to three!) and three captains chairs. Brown lamp shades, wood grain cabinets, sand paint (it's sandpaper textured and colored paint...), brown and slightly lighter brown curtains in the bedroom, brown towels to match the brown shower curtain and brown bath mat in the bathroom...the list goes on.

As a result, one of our new life goals has been to "Banish the Brown!!!" We pretty much don't allow anything of the brown persuasion to be added to the rig, we need color! Anything to lessen the feeling that we are living inside of a cardboard box (which in a sense we are, but that is a story for another post). Below is the only picture I have of the inside before we touched anything. It's of the day the Sheep became a part of the family.

This is just a taste...
The Living Room

One of the first areas we worked on is directly behind the passenger seat, where the third captain's chair used to be. We needed this extra floor space for a "Skipper Spot", a place for his bed and water bowl. His bed currently consists of three bed pillows which I intend to deconstruct, and then reconstruct into one big doggy pillow, but it works for now since the sewing machine hasn't been put into commission yet. Steve also tacked up a small tie dye piece we made a few months ago to cover up some more brown.

Steve also made me a small window box/shelf for some greenery! I like to take small cuttings and grow my own little plants. You can also the Colombian statue on the left and bird flute on the right of the shelf, Steve is Colombian.

(Side Note: I apologize for these terrible pictures, I am too lazy to drag out the nice camera, and I took some of the ones below the other night with my phone as well, so I wanted them to match. I promise to improve the quality soon!)

Skipper and his "Trippy Skippy Spot"
Just last week we found a futon on Craig's List that we liked, so we got to rip out the terrible brown vinyl sleeper sofa! The giant sun blanket has been Steve's for awhile. Also, notice I included one of the remaining brown window valences for your pleasure (top right corner, above the chair), along with the matching brown vinyl driver's seat (said chair). The super old computer does not permanently live in the spot on the right, Steve is removing from files from this dinosaur so we can leave it behind before our trip North!

New futon.

The whole shebang!
The Kitchen

We haven't done much to the kitchen except remove the microwave, put up a magnetic knife bar, remove a window valence, add some white Christmas lights and put up a few decorations. This and the bathroom are next on the list.
The Kitchen!

And Now... The Bedroom!

Oh yeah...
Looking into the bedroom from Nicole's mirror.

Curtains, scarves and costumes on Nicole's side.

As you can see from the pictures, we also made some improvements to the bedroom. Here we didn't have to remove much aside from two lamps by the bed and some audio cables, but I LOVE how it turned out. The lights are shot gun shells zip tied to a strand of Christmas lights which make the light nice and soft (Contact us if you are interested in purchasing a strand or two!). We saved the shells from our Christmas visit to my dad's where we got to do a bit of skeet shooting. The Mardi Gras beads are straight from Bourbon Street, 2012. They may or may not last past Mardi Gras 2014, but they are fun for now. The purple, draped curtains over the bed are from when I started college and have traveled many miles with me.

Skeet shooting with my dad!
We have really enjoyed decorating the RV with mostly found, donated and thrift store items. I enjoy walking into a store with Steve with the purpose of seeing what we find rather than seeking out a particular object. It seems like things present themselves to us, almost like they want to come along on our adventure.

Lots of Love,

Nicole & Steve








Saturday, January 4, 2014

First Post!

Honeymoon in Live Oak, Florida
Hello! We are Steve and Nicole Torres. We quit our 9 to 5 jobs last year after much soul searching. We knew we weren't happy in that lifestyle and wanted a change. We knew wanted to leave Tallahassee, but weren't quite sure where we would like to go. This, combined with our love of traveling, music festivals, art, and not doing things in the traditional manner, led us to the idea of living, traveling and working full time in an RV.

We are finally getting settled into our new lives, which has made this the perfect time to start the blog we have promised everyone we would do! Our "RV Adventure" as we have dubbed it, truly began to come to fruition in mid-September of last year when we purchased our RV and quit our jobs. Nicole worked as a conference coordinator, and sat at a desk on a computer 99% of the time. Steve Hulaween and Bear Creek music and arts festivals at the Spirit of the Suwannee Music Park in Live Oak, Florida. The music festivals were about a week and a half apart, during which time we stayed at the beautiful park and Honeymooned! We took long walks in the woods, field trips into Live Oak to eat and shop at Pepe's, we also had yummy fried mushrooms, a burger and beer the Brown Lantern. We made it into Lake City as well when our toilet broke and we needed a new one.
installed signs for a sign shop, and stood on top of a ladder 99% of the time. We were then married on September 21, 2013, at St George Island, Florida. After the wedding we moved out of our rental (horror) house on October 30, as we had plans to attend both the

We are still finding pine needles in unmentionable places...
After the festivals and the Honeymoon, we made our way to South Florida, utilizing Wal Mart parking lots for a place to spend the night. It took us about three days to make it from Live Oak to West Palm Beach, where we are wintering, along with many other snow birds.

Our first work gig came in the form of selling Christmas trees in the heart of downtown West Palm Beach. The hours were long and the work was sticky, but it was an amazing first job to have as full timers. Nicole learned how to make fresh wreaths from the tree trimmings, and also worked on her Spanish. Steve was happy to be back outdoors, playing with chainsaws and strapping trees to the tops of Porsches, no kidding. Here is Nicole, being a good reindeer and looking after Santa's trees. (An early disclaimer: We are terrible at taking pictures and documenting our experiences, but we promise to try to be better for you!)

As for now, we are working on getting the Sheep in tip top shape so it is ready for our next adventure. Somewhere hopefully far, far away from Florida!