A sad goodbye

Beth and I have finally started our new travel nursing journey.  Unfortunately the journey couldn’t get started without saying goodbye to all of our close friends.  Yesterday our friends threw us a really nice going away party.  One last bash before we left town.  It seems like our friends group rarely has a chance to all get together, so it was nice seeing everyone.  But it was hard to say goodbye.

I’m not sure what the future holds for us.  Our plan right now is to travel for two years before Sophie starts school.  We could travel the whole time, find a place we really love, and settle down somewhere unexpectedly.  Or we could get to our first assignment and it might not be all that it’s cracked up to be.  In that case, we could call it quits early and move to Boston.

I’m guessing we do eventually end up living in Boston, but I’m not going to rule anything out.  Beth and I both have a part of us that always likes to travel. Needless to say, it was hard to leave the lives we had built in the Quad Cities.  Hopefully it won’t be too long before we are able to visit.

 

North Carolina Bound

Our first travel stop will be Durham, NC - home of Duke University.

We got two big things accomplished today.  First Beth accepted a job at Duke University Hospital in Durham, NC.  I never really worried too much about finding a job.  But at the same time, we are going to be on the road in less than four days, so the fact that we didn’t have a travel destination in place made me a little uneasy.

But Beth’s new travel nurse company, American Mobile, came through and found us our first travel stop.  Neither Beth or I have spent much time in North Carolina.  So that is what attracted us to that area.  Our goal is to experience different parts of the country, so going somewhere like N C made sense.  Unfortunately, Durham is not near the ocean.  But it looks like there are plenty of nature things to do that will keep us occupied for a few months.

We start on May 14th, so we will have a couple of weeks to burn.  Our plan is to go to Boston with all of our stuff and unload it into Beth’s parents basement.  Then we should have about a week to make it to North Carolina.  It’s only about a 16 hour drive, but I’m sure we will be able to find something for us to do along the way.

The other big accomplishment of the day was we (with the help of some good friends) were able to get our ABF moving trailer pretty much loaded.  We still have some odds and ends in the house, but the majority of the stuff is ready to go.  We aren’t planning on leaving the area for a few more days, but the house is pretty much empty.  Now comes the fun task of cleaning!

Packing has started, but no travel destination yet

The packing is underway!  Which is probably a good thing considering two weeks from today we are supposed to be out of the house.  Unfortunately we still don’t know where we are headed.  Our plan was to take a job in New Hampshire, but unfortunately we were a little late in getting in for that one and they hired somebody else.  So we are kind of back to square one in finding our first travel spot.

Boxes are fun! Sophie enjoys drawing on them and Sawyer enjoys crawling in them.

I’m not sure why, but for some reason there are not very many travel jobs on the East coast right now.  Lots in the South, Midwest, and West but very few in the North East.  So instead of heading toward Boston first, we have decided to put our name in for a job in Denver.  If we get that, we will probably go East with the second assignment.  But these things can change fairly quickly, so nothing is set in stone.  That is part of the fun!

Meanwhile, the packing continues.  To complicate matters even more, Beth and the kids flew to Boston for a week for her brother’s wedding.  So I’m taking this precious kid-free time to pack like crazy before I fly to Boston later this week.  Hopefully I will have the house fairly close to packed by the time I leave, because when we get back we will only have one week before it’s time to go.

Now we just need to figure out where we are going!

About to embark on a new journey

If you asked someone to give a list of the most stressful things they went through in their lives, odds are moving would be somewhere on that list.  People generally don’t like to move.  You have to pack up all of your stuff, find a new house, find a new job, etc. etc. etc.

So when I tell people that for the next two years, Beth and I will be taking three month travel assignments and moving all over the country, I usually get an answer something like, “You guys are crazy!”

Crazy or not, that’s exactly what we are planning on doing.  We sold our house in Davenport, Iowa and have exactly 18 days to get everything out.  Our plan is to move all of our stuff into the basement of Beth’s parents house in Whitman, MA.  Then we have the small matter of finding somewhere to live!

Since all of our stuff is going to be in storage at Beth’s parents house, our goal right now is to start our travel journey somewhere near Boston.  That way we can have access to our stuff as needed.  Right now the top candidate for a job is Derry, New Hampshire.  It’s only about an hour away from Whitman.  Hopefully we will find out soon if that will be our first stop.

On a different note, remember that stressful list I mentioned at the beginning?  Odds are the number one stressful job people would mention would be raising children.  Besides the whole traveling aspect, I will have a separate journey.  I am switching from working in an office full time to being a stay at home dad.

I’m sure both the traveling and the staying home with the kids will have their ups and downs.  I like to document things, so that’s why I started this blog.  It’s going to kind of be a combination traveling blog and funny/stressful/anything that comes to mind parenting blog too.  I hope you enjoy!