A long drive ahead

My next contract is taking us to Tamarac, Florida. We decided to make the trip over 4 days/3 nights. We try to stop every 3 hrs or so to let everyone stretch their legs and use the potty. We had already reserved hotel rooms for stops in LA, AL and FL.



Just some of the scenery on our drive through Texas and Louisiana.

Mobile Alabama



Getting ready to go under the Mobile Bay via the tunnel.

We had some pretty sunsets on the way.

Orange grove

Finally in Tamarac after 4 very long days! Now to get into the apartment and unload.
 

I leave the apartment hunting and confirming with David. I tell him how much we have to work with per the stipend and leave it up to him. So far he has done well. Every time we drive to a new place we have a knot in our stomach wondering if the apartment complex is going to be a dump or not. You know that you can not always go by the pictures on your Google search.



We both breathed a sigh of relief when we pulled into the complex with this enterance!
 

I think he did a pretty good job.

The apartment is just a few miles from the hospital I will be working at. If I had a bike I could ride it to work it is so close.

University Hospital

We made a trip out on Sunday night to find the hospital and make sure I knew where I was going on Monday. The hospital is small, 23 beds (+ hall beds); nice to be at a smaller place. Ratios are 3,4 or 5 to 1 depending on the staff and how busy it is. It is nice not being a trauma center or have OB/Gyn on staff. They have great techs who jump in before you even ask them to do something. So far everyone has been very nice and the staff have been begging me to stay longer. I actually just signed my extension contract so we will be here until April.

So far we have enjoyed being in south Florida for the start of winter. Laying on the beach in November is kinda nice :)
                                                                        Don't hate!



Goodbye Dallas!

My time in Dallas was coming to an end. What was originally going to be 13 weeks turned into 9 months; we made it through all 4 seasons. I made some great friends while there and worked with some great nurses. I will miss them very much! Thanks for treating me like one of your own. And those of you who said "Oh stay through the summer, it's not bad", lied to me. It was hot as hell!

Thanks Texas for a great adventure!

Good bye Dallas....until next time.

Good bye Medical City Dallas Hospital. It was a great
nine months. Rough at times but the staff made it tolerable. Your team work is outstanding. I will miss you all very
much. Thanks for the good bye cupcakes. We all know how the staff there like cupcakes! I will miss cupcake Friday and all the staff running to see what cupcakes we got this week; everyone checking their watches to see if it was 5 o'clock yet.

Maybe you will see me there again......


                    ...but for now it is off the FLORIDA!!!

Texas Sate Fair.....Oh My!

Our last hooray was going to the Texas State Fair. I'm not much for riding the rides but sure love to go people watching. And what better place to stare than the fair? We had heard that parking was a nightmare so we decided to take the train into town. We only had to make one switch over and were let out right in front of the fair grounds. It was the easiest to and from a fair that I have ever done.

Big Tex

Footlong Corn dog

Check out those ears!
We had a fun time going through the animal exhibits.

What a beauty.

"Don't look now but I have something growing on my back!"
Brahman cow

"I'm pretty and I know it!"

One of the weird things we ate...fried tweenky. Tasted kind of like a donut.
 

David ate this huge 3/4 lb hamburger. He aslo tried the
fried brisket.

Cotton Bowl

Kool & the Gang

They had some weird food. It was almost like who could come up with the weirdest food. They had fried iced tea, fried oreos (which must be good because people stood in long lines to get them), fried cheese cake bites, fried pecan pie thing...it was clog artery heaven. Just the smell of all that fried food made me not want any. We had a great time with good friends. Thanks for going with us Anna, Cheryl and Chris (even though ya'll ditched us!).

Houston and the Space Center

Is there a better day to do some bogging than Black Friday?!? I am not a Black Friday shopper, so my coffee and I will catch up a bit on the blog. Hope everyone had a great Thanksgiving yesterday! I had to work :(

Ok, lets get down to business. Our last month in Texas was a busy one. We still had some things we wanted to see and I was working....a lot! You just gotta grab OT when you get the chance. We planned a trip to Houston to visit the Johnson Space Center. David was like a little boy again! It was amazing to see some of the things in person.

You can see the little boy's excitement!

Gene Kranz and one of his famous vest.

Gave me chills just looking at this.

The inside of a one person capsule thingy. David realized he
could never have been an astronaut...he is too tall. Most of
the things we saw were so small on the inside.

We got to go on a tour of this work area for the International Space Station.
It was separated out with work areas for the different countries, each
working on a different project. It was very interesting.

The space suits are so cool!
This was in the International Space Center area. These
are the suits that they use when testing different situations.

Check out the unusual "moon exploration" vehicles. Sure a
big difference from the one many years ago.

This is a Saturn V rocket. It was amazing to see the 3 stages and just how huge this thing is. Amazed that it
could get off the ground much less fly through space.

The best part of the trip was we got to see the real refurbished "Galileo" from the Star Trek series. And as
you can see that is one happy boy right there standing beside it! We had to take a lot of pictures from
different angles. It was all I could do to keep him from trying to climb inside!!

We had a great day at the Space Center and I have so many more pictures but I will not bore you with any more. If ever in the area it is a must see.

The next day we took a little drive over to Kemah Texas in the Galveston Bay. We ended up at the Kemah Boardwalk. It is a nice little area for shopping, amusement rides and eating.

Kemah Boardwalk

I have never seen so many catfish!!

Beautiful boardwalk. It was a pretty day and not crowded at all. I'm sure in the summer it is a crazy
mad house.

As David said "this is a happy travel nurse!"

Trouble makers!

"Life is like a box of chocolates..."
We had some good food at Bubba Gump.

We had a fun little getaway but it was time to head back to Dallas. We did drive to Galveston before we left the area. We were not impressed by the beach there. Lots of seaweed/sea grass on the beach and the sand was dark gray/blackish. Guess we are just spoiled or snobby beachers?? And the mosquitoes were insane. But we try to see as many places as we can and can now say we have been to Galveston Texas!

Time for a coffee refill and gather my thoughts on my next post.

Yes I do work!

I'm sure most of you wonder when or if I work! The answer is YES! My 3rd contract started the week we returned from our 3 day trip to the Hill Country. Actually most of July and August I worked at least 4 days a week. Not many places will let travel nurses work OT, but at Medical City they didn't care. So I took full advantage of their generosity (smile). We were planning a trip to Houston to the Space Center so the extra shifts gave us our play money. We knew that we would not be staying in Dallas after this 3rd contract ended and we still had things we wanted to do. So I racked up on the OT until I left in October. Don't feel bad for us, we did do some free things in between working all the OT. Going to White Rock Lake was always one of our "go to" free things to do. We always took the girls to make it a family event.

Daisy and Piper enjoying a picnic at White Rock Lake

White Rock Lake

We also celebrated Anna's birthday in August at Pluckers. Anna was my wings buddy and they had some good ones! Sorry no pictures from the birthday celebration. We also went to the Aboretum again (surprise!). Enjoy the beauty until next time....

San Antonio and the Hill Country in July

I had been wanting to go do some more country side seeing so I planned out a trip to San Antonio and the area known as The Hill Country. The Hill Country area is scattered with farms, mountains and wineries and lays north of San Antonio and west/southwest of Austin. We spent 3 days riding through the area soaking up the beauty.



Field of Sunflowers

We headed south on I35 then took highway 29 over to Enchanted Rock State Park. The "rock" is a dome of pink granite. We drove through Fredricksburg and then headed toward San Antonio. We got to our hotel mid afternoon and headed to the Alamo. It was a short 15 min walk through downtown from our hotel.

Buchanan Dam

Enchanted Rock State Park



The Alamo

 After spending some time walking through and around the Alamo we headed to the river walk to explore. We walked along the river and stopped for dinner at a Mexican place. It was not too hot so we sat outside on the patio overlooking the river. After dinner we wandered some more along the river. We had to have some dessert before returning to our hotel! We found an ice cream shop and stopped in to indulge. We hope to get back to San Antonio in the future. We have plenty more exploring to do!!

River Walk in San Antonio

Turkey crossing!

Some of the roads reminded me of being
back home in the NC mountains

Winery



The girls going hiking at the Lost Maples State Park

 On day # 2 we stopped at Lost Maples State Park for a picnic lunch. Even though some of the creek was dry, we walked on the creek bed with the girls. They enjoyed all the smells and Daisy got to play in some water. They have plenty of hiking trails and a large camping area. If ever in the area it is a great place to stop and visit.

Lost Maple State Park

This was so cool. All kinds of boots on each post of the fence.

Keidel Memorial Hospital
Was a hospital in Fredricksburg until 1971. Now it is a store and
restaurant. It was built by the Dr. Albert Keidel, the son of the areas first doctor, Dr. Wilham Keidel, in 1909.

There is a Franklin, Tx too!!

This fellow just stared at us as we sat on the side of the
road watching him.

                                                                                          
        This area of the Hill Country is also known for blue bonnets in the Spring. I can imagine that it is absolutely gorgeous with the blue bonnets in bloom. Even though we went in July, it was still a beautiful drive. Until next time, enjoy the view!



I loved all the farms.