Howdy Partners!!!! It has been a while since I last updated the bog. My apologizes to my faithful followers. The last couple of weeks have been busy with settling in and learning how to get around. I promise to update y’all on the last couple of weeks, to include Brad’s Birthday, in the next few days.

Today I want to tell you about Texas. Texas, by far, is one of the cleanest states I have seen. Very little, if any, trash litters the highways, roadways, medians, sidewalks, and public right of ways. Not every male wears a cowboy hat. As a matter of fact I have only observed three men wearing said head wear. There are plenty of places to buy them, just not worn as much as one might believe. And no steer horns on vehicles. I have yet to see the first big white Cadillac with steer horns mounted on the hood. Texans do like their trucks. The bigger, the better. Pickups can be found in abundance. And every manufacture offers a special edition pertaining to this state. Also, I have not seen a car yet with 27″ rims. In Augusta, I saw them daily and in quantity. Here zero, nada, none. I have not heard the first booming stereo either. I have been in lots of traffic here and have not heard the first vehicle trying to rattle the plastic trim off.

Texans do everything big. Road systems are big. Atlanta’s “spaghetti junction” is nothing compared to the multiple flyovers I have seen here in San Antonio, Houston, and Austin. They put their flyovers way up in the sky! Some are nerve wracking high. Speed limits are big, 70 MPH in most place. Traffic is in abundance all day. Rush hour happens, but you really do not notice it as much. Their roadway system is designed to keep traffic flowing at all times. I have yet to be at a stand still in traffic. Texans are not afraid to “drive” or should I say race on the roadways. They will be courteous, but will move into any spot on the road their vehicle will fit in…..or THEY feel will fit in…..

Like most Southern states I have been to or lived in, the people here are very friendly and helpful. And the people here are PROUD to call themselves Texans and Americans! I had always heard about Texas Pride, but they are off the chain proud of this state. Cannot say I blame them. From what I have seen thus far, they have a great state to be proud of.

1500+ miles of fun and excitement!!

We left Chattanooga on Friday, October 10, at around 11:00 AM. We were headed to Baton Rogue for the night. The first day of travel was awesome. Clear skies and warm temperatures. We knew we were near the low lands in Mississippi by the swampy smell that was present. Every stop brought exciting new smells to the dogs as well. I switched up co-pilots in the Jeep at one stop. Duke hated being in the back seat of the truck. Merlin was quite comfy in the Jeep (see Co-Pilot Two picture). Needless to say Duke rode with me the rest of the trip. The Motel 6 in Baton Rogue left the light on for us. It also was next to two adult entertainment establishments. Needless to say the motel was not the best. But the room was clean and we were ready for a break.

We left for at 8:30 AM, er wait, we wanted to leave at 8:30 AM. We neglected to tell Bank of America that we would be traveling. They placed a hold on our cards which left us stuck at the Pilot for an hour and a half. They finally got the issue resolved and we left for Texas at 11:00 AM. Travel Tip: let your bank know you will be traveling. Parts of day twos journey were wet. But the views made up for it. The really long bridge through the Bayous was interesting. Also, we had ever seen a negative number for elevation before. Both our GPS units displayed negative numbers at certain points through Louisiana and Texas. It is true what they say about Texas – everything is bigger here! The speed limit is 75 and the massive ranches we saw between Houston and San Antonio were the biggest I had ever seen. One thing that was lacking when we got to San Antonio was forest, clusters, or groups of big trees. The trees for the most part are sparse and much smaller then the massive pines in Georgia. You get to any elevation in San Antonio you can see for miles in all directions. Texas has a very unique road system and San Antonio is full of fly overs and roads. The traffic seems to move much smoother than Atlanta’s traffic. It will definitely take us a little bit of time to get used to the driving here. Texans like to fly….in their cars…..either move over or get run over. My kind of driving!!!!!

Co-Pilot One

Co-Pilot Two

Longest Bridge Ever!!! I-10 through the Louisiana Bayous.

Longest Bridge Ever!!! I-10 through the Louisiana Bayous.

We made it to Texas!!!

Coming into Houston!!

Beautiful Georgia State Park nestled in the mountains of the Northwest corner of Georgia

Yesterday we journeyed to Lookout Mountain, Tennessee. Dianne wanted to see her “dream home” she found a few years ago while we were there. When we left, I turned away from Chattanooga proper and headed toward the countryside. Having no idea where we would end up we just drove. We crossed over the Georgia state line and within minutes we saw a sign for Cloudland Canyon State Park. The Jeep had a full tank and we had nothing but time, so to Cloudland Canyon State Park we headed.

The pictures below do not give this park justice. The only sounds outside of nature were the other humans in the park, and they were rather quiet. The peace and tranquility were refreshing. The views were breathtaking. Had we came prepared to hike we would have hiked to the two waterfalls. This park is very well maintained. If you want to take the family somewhere for vacation, I recommend here. You can use the Camper/RV area, rent one of the many cabins, camp in a tent or camp in a Yurt. They have tennis courts, a disc golf course, and plenty of hiking trails. You are only 15 minutes from Chattanooga, Tennessee and all it’s attractions. It cost us just 5 dollars to drive in and use the facility for the day. Dianne, Brad, and myself were definitely pleasantly surprised.

The choice to come to Chattanooga was perfect. The weather is just awesome and getting to spend some quality time with Greg and his family has been a blessing. As we were enjoying the great weather in Chattanooga, Dianne was told about a position in San Antonio, Texas. When she started reading the details of this position, she read that it required PALS. She decided to do some research. We did not know why we felt the Lord wanted us to come to Chattanooga. But he always has a purpose. Dianne found a place that was offering the PALS hands on skills assessment on Thursday, October 2. This meant that she would have one day to do all the online portion and take the written final exam. Dianne is truly amazing. After spending several hours at the computer on Wednesday and passing her skills assessment on Thursday, she is now PALS certified. There is no doubt in our minds that this was the work of our Heavenly Father. We came to Chattanooga with no “plan” on where we were headed, just a feeling that we needed to come here. We will leave here with Dianne PALS certified. Having this certification opens MANY job opportunities in the traveling nursing arena.

We have really enjoyed spending time with Samantha (Sam) and Matt Benner. Sam is Greg’s “step daughter”, she acts just like him some times!! Matt is Sams significant other who makes a mean chicken salad!!! They have two little ones Jake and Riley Jo. Greg, or Poppy as they call him, truly adores his grand babies and they love him. Of course him and Darlene love to spoil them. We took them for a ride in the Jeep with the top open. They both loved that.

Brad crashed at the Benner’s house a few nights. Their couch was mush more comfortable than the chair and footstool he sleeps in here. Of course him and Matt played video games which Brad truly enjoyed. On Saturday he went with Matt and Jake to a Cub Scout fishing event on Saturday. Jake caught a fish, Brad had a blast, and they both got a patch.

Sunday was very relaxing and nice. We watched the Semi-Annual General Conference for the church via the internet. Great spiritual uplift. Awesome messages from all the speakers. Then we spent the evening grilling over at Greg’s. Hamburgers and hot dogs with all the fixings, Greg’s “World Famous” bake beans, Darlene’s off the chain Potato Salad, and chips and dip filled our bellies. Afterwards we headed over to Baskin Robbins for ice cream. We got pretty loud on the patio, of course Greg is ALWAYS loud!!! What a great blessing it was to relax with family.

The LDS Gypsy Caravan leaves for San Antonio, Texas Friday, October 10. We will layover Friday night in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Brad is already researching a place for dinner that night. He wants to eat some true Cajun cuisine! He is not the only one wanting that, just saying……… Here we come “Nyoo Ahhlyins”

The contract for Austin, Texas being pulled really deflated us. The walls were closing in on the tiny Motel 6 room. Although we were grateful for Beth and Kathy Piazzi and their wonderful Sunday dinners and having Dianne’s sister, Vickie Norman, doing our laundry for us, we needed to go. We had all we could take of Motel 6.

We had our final Sunday family gathering at Dianne’s other sister’s house. Steve and Sonja Kiester put on a spread! (They had a little help from the rest of the family bringing some sides and Vickie bringing her world-famous Red Velvet Cake!!!) We enjoyed the family for one final evening before making the move.

Dianne had began investigating different positions and Nashville had some openings. So with the prospect of Nashville being our new first stop and with Dianne’s brother Greg Johnson living in Chattanooga, we decided to make the move to the Extended Stay America in Chattanooga, Tennessee. The rooms are more spacious and have little kitchens in them. This would allow us to save some money by eating in more. Plus They are pet friendly, this is good considering we have the fur babies.

Now, before we go any further, it is important to note that SEVERAL PACU (Post Anesthesia Care Unit) positions were made unavailable to Dianne because she did not have PALS (Pediatric Advanced Life Support). With her last job of 10 years being at Georgia Regents Medical Center, which has a separate Children’s Medical Center, she did not have to deal with kids and PALS was not required for her to have. Unfortunately, most hospitals do not have a separate facility for children and the PACU (recovery room for all you non-medical folk) handles all patients. Having PALS would be a huge help to Dianne at this point.

We arrived in Chattanooga on Friday, September 26 in the early evening. The room was bigger and allowed us to move around without having to run into each other. Now we needed to work on Dianne finding a position, somewhere. With only one more check coming from GRU we needed to secure a source of income. Where was the new contract going to come from, we had no idea……

So with no offers and the end of our lease approaching we decided to go ahead and move into the Motel 6 in Augusta. To say this was a big change was an understatement. We were literally culture shocked for a few days. No room to move with 3 humans and 3 fur babies in a Motel 6 room. But we still felt it was the right thing to do, so we embraced the suck!

Then she interviewed with a hospital in Austin, Texas. The interview went very well. Within a few days she had an offer. We were very excited to have a destination. She began doing the preparatory work for both the hospital and the company she would be working for. Brad and I began preparing for the big move. We were excited to say the least.

Than just days before departure the contract was pulled. Very unusual for this to happen. We had our hearts set on getting out of Augusta and the Motel 6. What were we to do now……

So we are a few days from leaving Augusta, Georgia and heading to Austin, Texas and many of you are asking us how did we get here? Well, it started a few months ago. Our son Chris decided that he was moving to Utah. He went out and found some hard labor employment, made a few hundred dollars, loaded up in a friends car and headed west. He knew that if he did not do it now, take a crazy chance, he never would.

This in turn inspired Dianne. Dianne has always wanted to travel. She talked about doing it for vacations, but for one reason or another it never seemed to happened. One evening she started talking about travel nursing. I ‘entertained’ her and told her to research it. I really did not see how we could do it. Us? Give it all up? Start over? Crazy!!!

But the more she researched the more excited she got. Even Bradley was excited in the very beginning. To her it became less of an ‘if we could do it’ and more or a ‘when we could do it’. For me it became the realization that she was really serious. It also meant that to do it I would have to give up my career. I would have to hang up the badge and gun. Could I really do this? We began to pray for the insight to know if this was what we should do. The feeling we both received was that we should. So, I began to crunch the numbers. I began to see that we could do it. In fact, it would be a benefit to us financially to do it.

We began the planning. Realizing our lease was up August 31 we needed to get something lined up quickly. The goal was to stay in a local motel, at most, a few days before moving to her first assignment. Yard sales had to be planned. Inventorying what we wanted to take, what we wanted to put in storage, what we wanted to sell and what we wanted to just get rid of became our daily life. Although looking back now, it was quite liberating to just get rid of all the junk we had accumulated.

Bradley became less enthused. He began to mope knowing that he would be leaving his friends, family and everything he knew. He was almost 17. To him giving up everything he knew was a big deal. Adding insult to injury was the idea that he could only take some of his things. And then him becoming home schooled, with me as his teacher, even made him less excited.

Then the issue of getting an assignment began to become a headache. Applying for different states nursing licenses, fingerprint card after fingerprint card being submitted, waiting for documents to be reviewed, background checks needed conducted, and the endless interviews for different positions from Wala Wala, Washington to Boston, Massachutes. But no offers…..

Thanks for stopping by and welcome to my new blog! This is just an introductory post so I’ll keep it short and sweet.

Dianne and I decided to start a blog because we thought this would be a great way to share our travels with our family and friends. As many of you know Dianne has decided to become a travelling nurse. We are very excited to begin this journey.

Over the next few months we plan to be writing and sharing posts about our adventure and misadventures. We will share the humorous, sad, aggravating, and uplifting sides of our travels. We plan to take in different sites at the various places we go. We will also be eating at various “local favorites” that our future chef Bradley will be picking out. Never thought that we would be able to dine at some of the spots he found watching the food shows on the Travel and Food Network.

That’s it for now! If you’d like to be kept updated with my posts “Like” this post or subscribe to my blog.