The Move and First Day of the New Assignment

With paperwork under control and the house-sitters in place, we began our journey southeast. The winding road of 950 miles requires a two-night stay in hotels. So, to save on our budget we decided to head out on Saturday afternoon and pull up camp in Dayton, OH.  We chose Dayton because it is home of the Air Force Museum, which was a place Ted always wanted to visit and the city is also the mid-point.  

I had reward points with Club Carlson and used them to book two free nights.  I planned it this way for two reasons:  1) Since Dayton was about 500 miles from home I wanted an extra day to burn resting and sightseeing and 2) I am a Club Carlson credit card holder and that means for every night I use points for I get a second night at the same hotel for free.  Total points used = 28,000.  This property also provided us with free breakfast and wi-fi so when I say it was totally free, it actually was!  Using points saved us about $180.00 that we budgeted for the cost of hotel stays. Cha-ching!

Sunday morning we hit the road again at 5:45am  arriving in our destination at 2:30pm.  We signed the lease to our new apartment!  Since we are still newlyweds, Ted carried me over the threshhold and into our new life. It was a great moment!

While the apartment was dark, bland, and small at first blush, yesterday I was able to buy a few things and miraculously transformed it from empty shell to "home" for the next three months.  The area is really in an excellent location and the complex is very clean.  A few things were missed in the apartment, but once brought to the office's attention they were addressed immediately.  We are going to like it here.

Ted's first day of work was yesterday. Though he was hired for the 7p to 7a shift, he orientated for one day on the 8a to 7:30p shift.  While he was away I took care of the groceries and getting the house in order.  Ted enjoyed his first day. There were a couple more tests that he had to pass, but they were not too bad.  He learned that this hospital has 50 travelers at any one time!  50!  That is a HUGE number! I expect that we will learn a lot more about traveling in coming weeks as he gets to know some of them better.

Meanwhile, he gets to pick his days to work, an unexpected perk.   

Our assignment ends on September 28th and we are trying to figure out where to go next and how to fit in the Travel Nurse expo in Las Vegas at the end of October.  If we take another assignment he may not have off on the days of the convention.  If, however, we move to Las Vegas, that will make it a piece of cake!  There is also a decent possibility that Ted gets invited to extend the current contract. If that is the case we will extend for three weeks and then head to the convention.  But, for now, we'll just enjoy the assignment that we are in and as the time ticks by we'll figure it out as the time draws near.