Amazing Positive Experiences While Travel Nursing!

So far I have written several posts about what to avoid and how to position yourself with Travel Nursing contracts and housing covering the trials and tribulations about the challenges faced with Travel Nursing.  Today I am focusing on the light-hearted and positive experiences we've had that we would have missed out on had we not decided to hit the road as a Travel Nurse.  We have already created life-long memories from the rich experiences we've had!  We have some fun stories to tell as well!

One of the reasons my husband wanted to become a travel nurse, as with many Travel Nurses, is to see the country while getting paid for it.  During our quest, from the beginning, we decided to create a "road" bucket list of experiences we want while exploring this great country.  While we are only in our 10th month on the road, we are happy to report that we have already checked off a bunch of bucket list items and discovered  more that we didn't know we wanted to do!
  

Let's start with a big one!  We took an assignment in Los Angeles for the winter.  Because we were in LA and because we had more daytime to enjoy the city, I ended up on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno!  Yes, you heard right!  One average day we went wandering around Universal Studios with our annual passes.  As we stood to watch a kids show being filmed on the lot we were approached by a guy who was holding spokesperson auditions and asked me to "try out."  Now, I knew from how vague he was that it couldn't have been "real," but we were having a really fun day and opted in.  It turns out that the spokesperson role was being filmed for the Fake Spokesperson segment on The Tonight Show and my audition made the cut.  A couple of weeks after the shoot, our friends back home started flooding our facebook page with comments how they saw us!  It was hilarious!!  In addition to being ON the show, we were given tickets to watch a live taping of it at the studio. Oh, how we miss Jay Leno now that Jimmy Fallon took over! The entire experience was so much fun! 

Chance encounters with other famous faces happened a few times while in Los Angeles as filming is everywhere there, every day.  On a Friday afternoon we had a brief moment to meet and talk to Garth Brooks.  Though I am not a country music fan, after seeing him in person and listening to his interview I'm a fan! He is such a humble guy!

My husband had the opportunity to meet his favorite actors from his teenage years. We went to a book signing on Sunset Boulevard featuring a new book written about an old show.  During the book signing the Producer, Director, and two of the main characters all showed up!  What a cool, cool day for my husband! After the signing was finished, the actors mingled with the crowd. My husband had the opportunity to discuss the show personally with them for quite some time, one-on-one!  Great experiences --- and all because we were brave enough to hit the road and try Travel Nursing!

In his younger years my husband loved to play tennis. He always dreamed of getting to a pro tournament.  While on assignment in Winston-Salem, North Carolina we made that dream come true.  The Winston-Salem Open came to town and we were able to get tickets to see some of the sports top players compete! The husband was in heaven! It had been so rainy all week but on this evening of competition the climate was just right and no rain!  Bucket list item --- checked off and look how happy he is!  

• Other great experiences we checked off the list include; eating dim sum in an authentic Chinese restaurant. We did that in downtown Los Angeles in Chinatown.

• Putting out feet in the sand on Christmas Day. We went to a beach in Malibu to spend part of our Christmas -- sure beats the snow back in Wisconsin!!

• Roadtrip to explore San Diego. What a great city! We'd certainly look for assignments here in the future. There is so much to see and do!

• Palm Springs - a great, small city place to take in nature and relax on days off. We'll look for work here when we need to slow down a little.  This is the perfect place for it.

• Neither of us had ever been to Wilmington, NC or Charleston, SC before but wanted to go.  We were able to do that while on assignment in North Carolina.  Both are waterfront, historic cities that have a well-developed waterfront area offering great seafood dining options.  We had a blast!

• Outer Banks - we took another roadtrip specifically to enjoy the southern end of The Outer Banks. A really nice, beachside vibe!

• Toured the Biltmore Castle.  Upon arrival we were given a pair of specialty Servants Quarters Tour tickets - a group had a few no-shows and granted the spare tickets to us for free!  Ah-mazing castle!  I kept picturing that this must be the type of place the Downton Abbey crew worked in!

• Experienced the Smoky Mountains.

• Saw the Andy Griffith Museum and the city which inspired Mayberry.

• Wineries!  We love wineries and breweries so we tour them from coast to coast.

• Visited our first Presidential Library - The Reagan.  A traveling exhibit about Spies was an excellent bonus. We boarded Reagan's Air Force Once - it's cool to now say we were on Air Force One!

• We attended our very first Jazz festival and seeing Dave Koz give a live performance as well as Al Jarreau.  Loved it!

• Finding the world's best barbecue (in my humble opinion) in Wichita, Kansas.

• Photographing abandoned buildings, cities, gas stations, and signs along Route 66.

• We stood on the corner in Winslow, Arizona. What a fine sight to see!

• Met some really great people by starting a meetup group in one of our assignment cities - one of whom has become a very good friend.

• There has been so much more to blather on about already, but I'll leave it here as a "to be continued."  

• In summary, while Travel Nursing is hard work, as any nurse will tell you, it is very rewarding and exciting, too!  

We are hoping for the next assignments to be on the Eastern Seaboard to finish out the summer months, then hopefully, off to Honolulu for six months of warm weather bliss again!  We are loving the option to skip our horrible winters back in our tax home!