Another year on the road

2 years has gone by since we left our home in Illinois. I’ve experienced so much in that little amount of time, and I am completely changed because of it. I am so thankful that we were able to make this dream a reality, and I feel like it has opened up a whole world of possibilities for Dan and I.

In some ways we are even more confused about our future than ever before. We at one point had everything figured out, and for whatever reason we decided to throw a wrench in it. Now I feel like we are characters in a “choose your own adventure” book. Every 3 months we are faced with a new choice. Its continually a question of where do you want to live? Is there a job available? Can we find housing? Is something better going to come up? Should we buy something? Should we travel forever? There’s never a clear path and every twist and turn is met with anticipation, anxiety, and excitement. It’s stressful in a different way than owning a house or getting married was. The tough part is that only our travel nurse friends can truly understand it. So we have learned to be flexible, to understand we are not always in control, and to depend on each other like never before.

So many times in the last 2 years, I have looked around and thought “I would have never known about this if we didn’t travel”. We’ve discovered new forests, deserts, beaches, lakes, waterfalls, mountains. We’ve made new friends, tried new food. Each time we move we memorize new maps, new stores. We’ve learned to sail, Dan held a falcon, I met a sloth! My head is just bursting with all of these new experiences that we have been witness to. It’s too much to share, but I do hope that if you are considering becoming a travel nurse, that our story will help you take that jump.

People ask us all the time how long we plan on traveling. The truth is we have no idea. We are just enjoying it one assignment at a time.

This time last year we were about to leave San Diego for Portland, we ended up taking 2 contracts in Portland since there was so much to see, then headed back down to San Diego, detoured in Baja Mexico for a vacation and are now currently in Santa Maria, Ca