Arrival and bad news

Hi everyone, sorry I haven't written about my trip. I was not hooked up on the internet until yesterday. My trip was basically uneventful, albeit long, totaling over 1700 miles. Texas was 880 of those miles. Very big state, but amazing terrain. I expected flat barren deserts, and instead, had rolling hills, mountains, flat top mesas, farmland with very interesting forms of irrigation. They mound up dirt around sections of the fields to hold in the water. Almost looks like the rice paddies of Asia.
Got a speeding ticket so I get to pay that off. I was talking to my husband on the phone while driving; someone pulled in front of me, so I hit the brake and that stopped the cruise control. Tried to push it back up to resume with my knee since one hand was on the steering wheel and the other was on the phone. I missed. Got clocked doing 81 in a 65 mph zone. It had been 70 mph, but after dark in Texas, all traffic is 65. Stopped for the night on the other side of San Antonio and about 20 miles down the road the next day, the speed limit was now 80 mph! Oh well.

I arrived in El Paso on Thursday afternoon. Moved into my new apartment on Friday morning. It is very nice, and my furniture came late that afternoon, and it is also quite nice and comfy. I spent the weekend exploring the area a bit, drove to the hospital to get my bearings, and saw the new James Bond movie.
I had orientation on Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. I met with my department manager yesterday to get my schedule. I start work tomorrow night.

The bad news is that my husband of almost 29 years called me Tuesday evening and suggested we get a divorce. He feels we have grown too far apart. Needless to say, I am totally floored right now. I have to stay here to fulfill my contract or pay a whopping huge amount of money that I cannot afford to pay. I am struggling right now and will be putting my blog on hold until I can get myself together. I need to keep all my wits about me to concentrate on my new job while trying to hold myself together emotionally. I appreciate all the love and support I am getting from my friends and family. I will get past this, it will just take time. Thank you.

On the road again....just can't wait .....

Finally, after all the paperwork, faxing, last minute run around, I am on the road to Texas! Getting out of Florida was the LONGEST part of the trip!! It felt like Highway 19 would never run out of traffic lights or even end. Actually, it didn't end, I just ended up on I-10 west and 19 just keeps going northward somewhere! The photo below is a shot taken at 75 mph on Highway 19 somewhere around Perry, Florida. Ashley's sweetie is in Perry on his annual deer camp/hunting trip. I texted him from the road and he said he would wave!! I did stop at the local McDonalds for a potty stop and to toss my trash from my previous McDonalds stop for coffee and a Happy Meal!! Figured they owed me a pit stop since the reason I stopped was because of that huge cup of iced hazelnut coffee they sold me!!! I was quite happy to finally see the light at the end of the tunnel, meaning the signs for Interstate 10 which I will follow ALL the way to El Paso, Texas. I am sure by Thursday or Friday I will be heartily sick of the I-10 signs!!

Interstate travel was certainly a mindless drive, despite there only being TWO lanes!! I think you shouldn't be allowed to call a highway an interstate unless there are at LEAST three lanes. Half of the time, the truckers pull over in front of you to pass another truck that is too slow for them. Meanwhile, as you slam on your brakes to avoid driving underneath them in your economical Corolla, they suddenly decide to pull back over in the slow lane. You speed up in time to catch up with the person in the car ahead of you who has obviously never heard of the purpose of a passing or fast lane! ARRRRRGH! Despite the occassional irritating drivers who slow me down, I did enjoy the rest of the trip with another highlight being the Welcome to Alabama sign. After driving just shy of 500 miles, I opted to stop 10 miles east of Mobile, Alabama. Since I have never been in the state of Alabama before, I thought spending the night in the state was more credible towards my claim of being here than just driving through! I will get gas in Mississippi tomorrow morning, since I have never set foot in that state, either. As it is only 87 miles wide at the point I am traveling through it, I won't be spending the night there, so to officially step foot in the state, filling up the gas tank will have to suffice. Speaking of gas, I have seen prices as low as $1.99 at one of the truck stops to as high as $2.49 in the boonies of Florida. Driving through Pensacola Florida was unique. They really adore their Navy Blue Angel squadron as evidenced by all the model planes stuck in formation on every concrete post where I-110 crossed over I-10!

Alabama was flatter terrain than the surprising rolling hills of upper Florida and the Panhandle. The leaves on the trees are changing colors now, so it feels like fall here. Most are an orange-brown color, but here and there are bright reds and yellows. I saw one patch where a bulldozer was working and I was surprised at how orange the dirt was! At first I thought it was fake! There isn't a whole lot to see from the interstate, but I did catch the tail end of an interesting conversation at the front desk of my Holiday Inn Express hotel here in Spanish Fork, Alabama! The manager told me he was working on his southern accent. I asked him what there was to work on if he lived in Alabama!! The other two people were chuckling. He explained that he had a southern accent for sure, but the people in Mobile, Alabama, now, that was a whole different kind of southern accent! Had to laugh, as living 12 years in North Carolina was living proof of that! It amazes me how accents and lingos can change over the space of a few miles! I remember people from Currituck and Coinjock, NC almost spoke their own language!!

Well, that is all the news for now. I get an extra hour of sleep since I am now on Central time, and therefore an hour behind Florida time!!! Zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz!

Tired already and haven't even left the state yet!

WOW!! There is an immense amount of paperwork involved with this travel nursing business! Every time I think I am done, something else crops up. Good thing I bought a Corolla because even with gas down to $2.22/gallon here today, I am burning up the fuel with all the errands! Today I got an email stating that I still needed verification of mumps! I have had numerous measles and rubella vaccines between nursing and the military, but none of them included mumps. I HAD the mumps, the red measles, and chickenpox as a child. That was what we did when we were kids. In all of my years in both pediatrics and newborn nursing, I have never had to verify chickenpox or mumps. Ended up making another trip to my doctor's office in downtown St. Pete today to get more blood drawn, (ended up in the exact same parking space, and with the same woman drawing my blood as the other day!!) and pick up the results of my chicken pox titer, which showed that I was indeed immune to chickenpox. I emailed the Texas Board of Nursing to find out if they got my electronic fingerprints, but apparently, they do not get them from Florida even though it is the same company. I guess my fingerprints are in cyberspace someplace along with the $15 I paid to have them done. Went on line to find out where I could get them done locally; got lots of phone numbers to various police stations that were all disconnected, and finally got a non-post office box number address that I mapped out on line and it included a working phone number! I will go there tomorrow to get fingerprinted. Then the travel nurse company said I was missing my on line nursing skills test and gave me the site. When I went to the site, I needed a password and log in name. I called the office and was told they need to email me one; I have yet to receive it! I emailed them again this afternoon asking them what to do since they have yet to send me the information needed to take the test. I sure hope this isn't a sign of things to come. It is so hard to know what nursing company to go with and I have heard horror stories about some of them. I guess it will be a live and learn experience.
Getting everything packed up and ready to go. The computer, phone, TV and DVD stuff is the main thing that confuses me, but I do have my own personal geek squad (Brian!!) to get me through all of the wires and what goes with what! I am hoping to leave here by Monday so I can take a few days to get my bearings once I get there. Not sure how long it will take me to drive there, either. Texas is a very wide state and I am going across the widest point of it! Getting excited about leaving and exploring new areas, but sad about leaving family behind once again.
Well, that is the news for now.

Getting ready to travel!

Hi to all friends and family! I have decided to start a blog to keep everyone up to date on my adventures that will be starting as my first assignment as a travel nurse begins shortly. I have decided that Florida nursing is just not enjoyable or profitable and due to a fascination with travel nursing, I did some research into this field. After signing up on line, I was promptly BOMBARDED with more phone calls in a week than I think I have gotten in the past year! Becoming quickly overwhelmed with all of the different travel nurse companies out there that wanted to sign me up, I did some on line investigation with around 8 companies. I filled out endless applications with several of them, and as I talked with several recruiters on the phone, I began to separate the "wheat from the chaff." I finally narrowed it down to 2 companies, and was made to feel very comfortable with a recruiter named Michelle from Clinical One. They didn't promise me the moon, and she was very forthcoming with information and pitfalls to be aware of. She called when she said she would, she didn't do anything without my consent, and I decided to work with this company. She put my application in to Providence Memorial Hospital in El Paso, Texas, I had a phone interview the next day with 2 of the nurses in the pediatric unit there, and after the weekend, was offered the position for a 13 week assignment. I start work there on November 17th. It is a 500+ bed hospital with a 74 bed Pediatric unit, a Pediatric Intensive Care Unit, NICU, and Pediatric Oncology unit. I will be working 3 nights a week, and my housing/utilities are paid for on top of my salary. I get double pay for overtime, travel pay, plus numerous other benefits.

Today, I spent the entire day filling out paperwork, getting things notorized, faxing forms to Clinical One (the paperwork is tedious, but Michelle reassured me that the initial assignment is the only one that I have to do all of this for!), got blood drawn, had a flu shot, get to pee in a cup for the standard drug screen, took a required RN competency test, rescheduled appointments, filled up my car for $2.24/gallon (yeah, I know; it has NOTHING to do with this, but I was so tickled at the price I had to put it in!!), packing groceries, linens, kitchenware, etc. Never did get a chance to vote in the election, though. I turned in my resignations at both places of employment here in Florida. For those who don't know, the Pediatric Health Choice job was not for me!! I was ready to quit the first day. It might be nursing daycare for pediatric patients with a variety of medical needs, but to me, it was glorified babysitting by underpaid RN's. I LOVE the kids; don't get me wrong, but listening to 30 kids from infant to average age of 5 years screaming and yelling, spending most of my day separating them from killing each other as they slap, punch, and bite their way to stealing toys from each other was not something that I felt was worth waking up at the crack of dawn 4 days a week for. The amount of abuse some of these kids deal with on a daily basis is the explanation for why they behave the way they do, plus the neurological damage some of them suffer is also a reason why they can't behave. It is heartwrenching, but also very hard to work with every day. I turned in my notice at the beginning of my second week.

I have not been able to get any hours at St. Pete General Hospital as they are so overstaffed, and they continue to overwhelm the nurses with as many patients as possible so they can cut staff and save money. I did tell my recruiter that I would not ever take an assignment with any hospital owned by HCA; she told me that is the one company she does not like to place nurses with!!

So, to make a long story shorter, I am going back to bedside nursing, but in different states. The experiences of working with different hospitals nationwide is something I am looking forward to as it will increase my skills tremendously. I am also excited about getting to see different areas of the country as well. I have only been to the Houston airport once, so I can't wait to see more of Texas than just an airport terminal. El Paso is located over in the south western corner of the state; sandwiched between New Mexico and Cuidad Juarez, Mexico. The Rio Grande is on the other side of the mountain range that borders the area.

I will be updating my blog with photos of my travels and stories of my adventures both in the hospital and recreational activities. I hope you will check in occassionally to keep up with me!

This is a photo of me feeding my surrogate granddaughter!! She was born just a few hours before my birthday this summer in Michigan. She is also the baby in my arms on my profile photo! I have known her mom since she was a baby, and her grandmother is my best friend for over 28 years!