Passing the Time Away

You might wonder what I'm doing all day while John is at work.  Well, there's the typical housekeeping and laundry, grocery shopping and research for John's off-hours.  But I also knit and crochet.  I haven't done it in years though.  I made afghans for all the grandkids using their favorite colors, but new grandkids have come along that I haven't made afghans for.  Christmas is coming.  Maybe I should catch up on those grandkids.  You know how us mommas are about making things even...

I begin looking around for yarn.  Figures, Kauai doesn't have much call for knitted product.  My ever true Wal-Mart has some Red Heart yarn and some Simply Soft.  Those are always good, basic yarns.  The color palette isn't to die for, but it'll do.  So I begin.  Those other afghans were a knitted ripple pattern.  Now if I can just remember how... Circular needles size 8, Red Heart yarn, verify favorite colors with parents, (make a note of those in the handy-dandy iPhone), 180 stitches, and I'm off!

Now I remember!  I'm gettin' the hang of it!  This one's for Alexis.

And, just like that, I'm done!

Now, how does it look compared to the ones I knitted several years ago for the oldest grandkids?

Not too bad.  Red Heart seems a more durable yarn than Simply Soft, and I want these kids to USE these afghans.  They love puppies and kittens and really anything that breathes so the afghans have to not only be kids safe, they have to be pet safe, too.  I think this will work.

Now for Eliana.  Her momma helps me chose the yarn colors. (That's another advantage of shopping Wal-Marts.  She went to Wal-Mart in Texas, called on my cell phone, I'm standing in Wal-Mart in Lihue, and we work out which colors to use.  What a deal!)

Now, for Nina, her favorite color is yellow.  I had bought some home-sheared,hand made , hand dyed yarn in Connecticut that was a varigated yellow.  It's not Red Heart, but I think it's sturdy enough and basically the same weight...  Yup, I think I'll work that into Nina's.

Eliana's and Nina's finished product side by side:

See the Connecticut varigated yarn at the top (well, actually, middle - but over the back of the chair it's the top).  Colors worked out pretty good, huh?

Now for Calin's.  All of the other grandsons (three of them) chose camoflouge as their favorite color.  Calin is too young to say his favorite, so I decided to make his camo, too.

It's taken a bit over two weeks for each afghan.  It's mid-November.  I have some time left before I have to package these up and send them to Texas.  I think I'll throw in some ponchos and snowhats!

Hello-o-o-o. Is anybody out there?

Hello-o-o-o.  Is anybody out there?  Is anyone reading this blog?  Am I doing something wrong?  Or am I doing okay?

You can join as a member, you know. 

Or you can click on the comment button and let me have some feedback here.  My stats show almost 200 people have logged onto our blog in the last ten days, including one from GERMANY, but there has only been one who commented.  Am I the only one so full of words that they keep tumbling off my fingertips onto the keyboard?  I'm trying to share with you God's ever-present blessings.  (Another 10-hour flight is a blessing how??)  (Just joking.)

Come on, guys and gals.  Are you interested in becoming a medical traveler?  are you in the medical field at all?  Do you just like turtles?  Are you just Hawaii dreamers?  I know those 200 people aren't ALL family, and I'm not sure we have 200 friends that are computer literate enough to find a blog.  So, who are all you people?

Uh-oh.  What if you're not commenting because you don't like what you see and read?  And you're following your momma's rule about, if you haven't got anything nice to say, don't say anything at all?

Maybe I should be careful what I ask for?  Well, I can always remove this post...

Now what?

So, we're back home in east Texas.  The whole family gathered to welcome us home.  It was like Christmas in August with and hugs and kisses and yummy food .  My dog, Junior, was angry with me and refused to come to me.  I can understand.  But there are grandkids and horses and donkeys and cats and other dogs and chickens to show some attention to and pretty quickly Junior gets jealous and decides he forgives me.

We wonder, and consider worrying, about another assignment, but I don't believe in borrowing trouble.  There's enough that will come around today without my worrying over tomorrow.  Besides, this is all in God's very capable, loving hands.  I unpack, stow away the luggage, and revel in our home.

We get home on Saturday, and Tuesday John gets a call from the recruiter that got us to Kauai.  Uh, you are NOT gonna believe this!  John's last day was Friday, and on Monday morning one of the techs at the hospital in Kauai quit - they want John back!!!  Are you kidding!?!  Say it ain't so!  I flew once for my husband - 10 hours there and now, just days ago, 10 hours back.  Say it ain't so!  My God, my God, you DO have SUCH a sense of humor!

Out come the suitcases, and we make calls to the family to say surprising good-byes.

We tell the recruiter that we'd really like a different place to stay so he gets on Craig's List and thinks he's found a perfect location.  I call our rent car guy at Island Cars to have a car waiting at the airport - he is SO nice! By Friday morning we are on our way to DFW.  I think John laughed at me all the way to Kauai.

Our new landlords were waiting in their driveway for us.  They had tiki torches lit and smiles on their faces bright as sunshine.  We are talking the absolute nicest young couple.  When John unfolded from the car to his full 6' 4" height, A.C.'s jaw dropped.  It's a good thing John didn't have on his cowboy boots and hat;  A.C. might have fainted.  Donna is full of laughter and a wonderful sense of humor.

They show us into the apartment by walking through the laundry room.  (Yea! no more going to the local open-air laundramat!)  There are orchids on the table, chocolates on the king-size bed, and an air conditioner built into the wall.  We have our own lanai (patio) and yard with a clothesline.  Fully furnished with bed sheets, towels, pots and pans...  Yup, the recruiter did really good this time!

I'm really bushed from the past seven days of flying, reunions, unpacking, packing, and flying again.  All I want is to crawl into bed.  I discover it is as perfect as everything else about the apartment - it even has a memory foam topper that just swallows my weary ol' bod.

John is supposed to be back at the hospital Monday morning, so that gives us time to stock the pantry and surprise everyone at our church home-away-from home.

GTT (Gone to Texas)

Well, the four week contract is up, and it's time to head home to Texas.  I had pinned up a few photos of our travels and family so as to make things feel like home.  Those need to come down.

Souveniers carefully selected for the kids and grandkids needed to be carefully packed away.  We probably spent more money than we should have, but we would probably never get a chance to come back, so it was now or never.  We needed a whole new suitcase just to get them all home!

You can tell by the snow-white knees that we simply weren't here long enough! (And why I likened us to Alaska's Beluga whales!)

We knew that whatever we bought on the island might have to be left behind.  About the only thing I couldn't fit into the suitcases were the straw mats we'd bought for laying on the beach.  These are amazing things.  Sand sticks to a towel like glue; it shakes off these mats as though they were made of teflon.  They cost less than $2 each, so it's not like we're losing a lot of anything but memories.

Remember, the air conditioner stays, and our traveler company will work something out with the apartment owners.

John was given a good-bye party at the hospital with a catered meal, presents and everything.  (You just thought I was bragging on him 'cause he's my husband!  No, really, co-workers like his get-to-it attitude when he comes in in the mornings, and supervisors like his don't-make-waves attitude.  He knows he's there just to help them through a rough patch of choosing a permanent worker.)

Momma always said, "Leave a place cleaner than when you got there and you'll always be invited back."  I scrubbed and mopped long and hard, just to be sure we would maybe possibly be invited back someday. 

Aloha, Kauai!  You are an amazing place!

Monk Seals and Seahorses

Monk seals are found only in the Hawaiian islands.  We saw them resting on the sand at Poipu and at a beach at the end of the road on the north side of the island called Ke'e.

Endanger Monk Seal

At the far end of a beach area called Anini, I went snorkeling and saw very little.  After a really short while I headed for shore but still diligently looking for any stray critter I might come across.  Ah-ha!  Is that REALLY what I think it is?  My daddy bought be some when I was about ten years old, but I NEVER thought I'd get a chance to see on on it's own terms!  I don't know... it sure is covered in a lot of mossy lookin' stuff.  I took a couple of pictures (with my vun-derful underwater camera my dear, dear husband let me buy.) 

See the seahorse's head?

The waves again push me around so the seahorse appears to be laying on its side, but its not, I was just being swept away and snapped what I could.

A wave swept me over just as I snapped the photo of this seahorse!

Maybe it's dead?  Well, even so, I'm gonna take it back to Texas to show the grandkids.  So I reach out, grab it with one hand, and start to unwrapped its tail from around the rock it had anchored itself to.  That's when I realized it WASN'T dead.  I quickly let go, and it began to glide away.  I followed, turning on the video feature of my handy dandy underwater camera.  I filmed for a minute or two before deciding, as I did with the turtle, that I had harrassed it enough.  But during that time, the seahorse would look over its shoulder at me like, "Is that crazy lady still following me?!"  "Amazing" is not sufficient to express what I felt.

When I told locals what I had seen and showed them the photos, even THEY were astonished.  I never talked with a single one that had seen a seahorse themselves.  In fact, they didn't believe any lived on their shores.  God has been good to me - but I think He pretty much outdid Himself on that one!

Sunset Surfing

Pirate Parrots and Preying Mantis

Of all the animals on the island, chickens might have the highest profile.

Snails are fun - even if the snails are GIANT, and geckos hanging onto the ceiling...

The neighbor's big dog, Busta, and the landlord's little dog and her even littler puppies got all our leftovers.

Preying mantis, flocks of birds, and pirate parrots...



 Ne-ne geese:

and bats are the only land animals indigenous to Kauai.  They have imported deer from Oregon, but we never saw any.  They have a big problem with the ferrel hog population; we did see some on the roadside at dusk, but it was too dark for pictures.  There are horses and cows, and they even have a rodeo!  It's our understanding that cats swarm all over the island - even when Mark Twain was here in the 1800's - but they are nocturnal so we rarely saw any.

Good News for Travelers

Cool!  One of our traveler companies has just sent an email reminding us they offer health insurance for the employee and family, but also saying that they now offer accident, disability and cancer insuance, too.  Not all of our companies offer insurance of any kind much less something so comprehensive.

Do any of you have other questions about how traveler companies differ from traditional employment?

Time to Confess

Ok, I feel compelled to confess now.  All that I have been telling you is the truth.  However, I've been trying to write it as if it were happening now.  It's not.  This all began over a year ago, and I've just now decided to follow my encouragers advice and begin blogging about it.  In the beginning we didn't know if one could actually make a steady living as a medical traveler, or how we were going to fit all the pieces of our life together to make sense out of what was happening.  John and I have trusted in the Lord since the first day of our meeting (well, longer than that, but definitely for the success of our relationship and marriage!), so we trusted Him in this medical traveler concept, too.  Guess what?  IT WORKS!  I started blogging because it works so welll that I want others to consider it, but if you've been considering it, I want you to actually pursue it.

So why am I fessing up now?  I wanted to tell you about yesterday's earthquake here in Virginia!  It's the first since 1897, and we were here for it!  Woohoo!  Now, you KNOW I wouldn't be woohoo-ing over this if anyone had gotten hurt or any super-significant damage was done.  It's just another awesome experience we've had as Travelers.  While in Hawaii we experienced (again, no significant damage) two tsunami's: one caused by the Japanese earthquake and one by an Australian earthquake.  Then we come here and there's this earthquake..  Now Hurricane Irene is headed to the North Carolina/Virginia coast.  My son said, "Mom, trouble just seems to follow you wherever you go!"  Of course, he's been back in Texas all this time taking care of our hearth and home, and it's been 100+ degrees for how many days in a row?  Seems he has a disaster of his own to care for!

Well, here I am sitting in the ol' easy chair reading a Christian novel set during the Civil War (as we are in Danville, the last seat of the Confederate government), and the farmhouse we're leasing starts to rumble and the windows start to rattle.  It was kinda of like a tsunami is different from a wave - it went on for awhile - and then another little rattle and rumble.  I thought to myself, hmmm, that's an awful lot like that little earthquake I went through in San Francisco in the 60's.  I wonder if they have earthquakes in Virginia, too?  I look up at the TV, and I could tell something out of the norm was going on.  I turn up the sound, and they're kind of excited about the earthquake shaking their studio!  Then the very first (of many) messages I get on my cell phone is from our Sunday School teacher in Hawaii! asking if we are okay.  How funny is that !?! 

I'm sure you all know the rest of the story from all of the news reports that have been on news channels, so I guess I can go back to my time machine and pick up where I left off in Hawaii.  But now you know that you will be getting the highlights of our time traveling and not have to put up with boring blog details of how many cups of tea I had with breakfast, etc.  You'll just be getting the good stuff.  And boy, is there some good stuff left to share with you.  I'm tell ya', being a medical traveler is a really good deal!  I'll see you back on Kauai!

Rainbows and Waterfalls

There is no washer or dryer at our place, so I load everything up in the car, remembering that it has been DECADES since I had to do laundry away from home.  (This is a blessing I shouldn't forget to thank God for - or my husband!)  The laundromat is open-air like a lot of things in Kauai including post offices and airport check-ins and hotel lobbies.  Passing morning showers aren't unusual, and as I come away from the washing machines to wait, I see the biggest, most beautiful rainbow just hangin' over the parking lot. 

Aren't iPhones fun?
Kauai is known as the Garden Island because everything is always in bloom.  They have Rainbow Shower trees with blooms hanging in bunches like wisteria, every tree a different color of flower, and grow poinsettias in their flower beds six feet tall along with every blooming bush you can imagine - and some you can't.  The Bird of Paradise that we pay so much for in Texas to include in a florist's arrangement grow like iris in yards along with papaya trees and avacado trees and, well, I could be here all day listing them!  (They can't seem to grow tomatoes successfully because of the abudance of fruit flies, so we at least have that one up on Kauaiians!)  Lots of yards have coconut trees and banana trees.  There is a truly amazing type of eucalyptus tree that grows in the rainy mountainside areas called a rainbow eucalyptus tree; the BARK is smooth and rainbow colored.  It is really stunning!  (Pictures don't do them justice.)

We decide to tour some of the waterfalls, too.  If you remember the show "Fantasy Island," you've seen one of the biggest and easiest waterfalls to get to. 

You know winter has come to the islands when it rains a whole lot of the time - temperature doesn't change, but the frequency of rain does.  Obviously waterfalls are prettiest then.  Some of them are not accessible in any way.  Climbing the mountains of the islands is a very dangerous prospect because the cliffs are so crumbly.  Some waterfalls you can get to by helicopter - but, "I don't fly and I don't float..."  Telephoto lenses are good as are video cams with good zoom capability. 

One waterfall is up this road - and up - and up.  Oops, it's getting really narrow, and there's flood debris in the road - but no place to turn around so we keep going, and going.  FINALLY, it dead-ends at this overlook that is "crowded" with a dozen or so people.  Now that's a neat waterfall, closer to the overlook than the Fantasy Island one and, because we are so far up the mountain, it's got more volume.

As with the trees, I could go on and on about rainbows and waterfalls, but you get the idea.  The island is a magical place.  Remember that song, "Puff, the Magic Dragon?"  I'll tell you about it later.

Swimming With The Turtles

John has settled in at the hospital.  He is very familiar with all the protocols all of the doctors want, and he says it was pretty easy to get the images in the order each doctor preferred.  He gets along with the other staff (as always!) nicely.  The number of patients isn't so pressing as to exhaust him, so he is a pretty happy guy!

We've discovered that there is no such thing as insulation in ANY of the Kauaian homes (at least, any we've heard about).  Everyone counts on the tradewinds to cool the seaside, and as you go inland the elevation increases so they count on the cooler air up there to keep things comfortable.  Also, the higher up the extinct volcanos you go the rainier it gets. The cloud cover and rain keeps things cool.  (The highest mountain on Kauai is also the rainiest spot on earth getting as much as 460 inches of rain a year.  Let's see, 365 day in a year - that's more than an inch every day!  Believable since the summit is perpetually wrapped in clouds.) Most homes have ceiling fans and some homes have air conditioners at least in the bedrooms. 

Our upstairs one-room apartment should be cool, but with John working in an air-conditioned building all day it just won't cool down enough.  That and the longest wall in the whole place faces due west, so it gets 100% of the hottest sun there is.  We buy a pedestal fan that helps, but he's still not getting much rest at night.  I talk with our recruiter, explain the problem, tell him we've found an air conditioner that sits on the floor and vents heat out thru a 4" conduit that mounts in the window - and it's on sale for half price!  Please, please, please help us out here.  They agree to buy the a/c and to work something out with the apartment owner over ownership since it'd be pretty hard to get that thing into a suitcase to fly home with!  Makes all the difference in the world.  It also does a lot to make us even more comfortable with this travel company. 

We head to a new beach called Poipu.  Now THIS is a resort beach.  Golf courses everywhere, resort hotels and condominiums, life guards, beach-side restaurants.  It has an area partially enclosed by huge boulders, then a spit of sand that juts out into the ocean with a tiny island of sand bordered with breakwater rocks, and then a beach completely open to the ocean.  We opt for the first spot, don our aqua shoes as we notice the cooled lava shelf we have to walk on before getting deep enough to swim, and go snorkeling again.  It was the same wave-action Weeble-wobble thing as before trying to get to swim depth.  We must look like a couple of drunken ol' coots hanging onto each other, giggling like school children, but, again, we're ANONYMOUS so who cares. 

We see a few of the same fish as before and a whole lot more.  They are bigger fish, too, and not in the least afraid of us.  Then, suddenly I sense something and my mind shifts gears.  Holy cow!  It's a turtle; NO, two turtles! 

They swim right up to the lava shelf and start nibbling on the mossy stuff growing there. 

They are only in about 18" of water, their backs are actually a bit out of the water.  I swim right over to them and they couldn't care less.  I'd read in the guide books not to touch them because they have bacteria all over them that I really don't want eating away at me, so I try to keep my distance.  Remember the Weeble wave action?  The waves seem determined to toss me into those crazy critters no matter how hard I try to move away.  I start laughing into my snorkel (yes, you can talk to each other underwater, too, but it's not too intelligible...) A couple of times I was almost touching noses with them - and they still didn't care. 

Then I decided, you know, if I was trying to get a snack I wouldn't want a bunch of goofy tourists staring at me, so I completely back off.  God was good enough to give me an upclose look at these guys in their natural habitat, and that's good enough for me.  Thank you, Lord, for your blessings big and small.

We snorkel over toward the spit of land and out toward the island. 

I know you've been dying to see my Man of the Year, so here he is!  Look, no beard!

The bottom has been a mixture of sand and rocks, but as we get closer to the island it turns almost completely to rocks.  There are sea anenomes of several different types and colors slowly boring holes into the igneous (volcanic) rocks.  The bigger the hole gets the bigger the anenome gets.  Tiny baby fish, especially clown fish, hide in the spines of the anenome so that larger fish don't eat them.  Under the rock something catches my eye.  Ick!  It must be a sea snake 'cause it's definitely "snaky," and I don't like snakes.  I find out later it was an eel!  We decide it may be time to abandon snorkeling for the day.  Again, it's been about an hour and seemed like only a few minutes.

John likes this picture of two turtles: one on his back and one at his feet!

John's favorite picture to take is sunsets, so we shower off (yes, every beach has fresh water showers so you can rinse the salt water off), rinse our snorkel gear, pack it away and stroll down the beach waiting for sunset.  At this particular beach on any given day you get a spectacular sunset - and John has dozens and dozens and DOZENS of sunset pictures to prove it.

Snorkeling at Lydgate

My mercy.  Where to start.

We always get good tips from hospital staff and patients.  John really loves talking with patients; he's very good at making them feel comfortable.  Over the years he has been asked to shake the hand of someone, then was told he had just "shaken the hand of someone who had shaken the hand of Abraham Lincoln."  (Is it possible? Is it true?  Oh, why not just believe it!)  John has been told about good restaurants, good shops, good places to have fun, places only locals know about... And so that was our starting place in Kauai.

John was told that the best place in Kauai for a first swim in the ocean is Lydgate Park.  It is in the ocean, but it is totally surrounded by giant boulders that act as breakwater and a barrier from scary sea creatures like shark and octopus and manta rays.  (By the time we left, Kauai, however, we went LOOKING for octopus!)  I figured we were anonymous people on the island, so it wouldn't hurt to get our old, wrinkley, fat, white bodies into swimsuits and jump in.  (Maybe they would mistake us for a couple of lost Beluga whale.) I also know that I said earlier, "I don't fly and I don't float."  Well, apparently that's not entirely true.  I found out that fat floats, and so I do, too! 

I had never used a snorkel before, and I know John hadn't used one at least in the last 25 years, so we were probably pretty stupid looking - anonymously.  You have to get the goggles on just right, without a single strand of hair between the goggles and your face or water will leak in.  The snorkel has to be attached to the goggle strap or it will lay down in the water, and you'll be breathing salt water instead of air.  Did we get the anti-fog stuff squirted into the goggles? or should we just spit into them like the guy on "Sea Hunt" used to do?  All of this as the ocean waves sling us around like Weebles.  (Remember the old "Weebles wobble but they don't fall down" slogan.  That may be true, but we could certainly drown before getting the goggles and snorkel situated!)

Lydgate is a sandy-bottom enclosure.  If it had been coral or rocky we would have had to have aqua shoes.  I never encountered a hard surface anywhere on the island that wouldn't slice you open in a heart-beat - and be full of infection-causing bacteria to boot.  The sand was different on every beach: some was as fine as baby powder, some was as coarse as gravel, some was almost white and some was black.  We discovered that sand is the result of fish eating the coral or lava rock and pooping it out as, well, sand.  We even got video of that (ick!)  Finally able to put our faces in the water without drowning, we made a lap around the edge of the barrier rocks.  Wowser!  All kinds of small fish and crabs and schools of fish.  Later we would learn the names of all of them, but for now it was just worth it seeing them. 

Suddenly John is grabbing at me and pointing at the bottom.  I see nothing.  Oooo.  The sandy bottom is waving one direction and the waves are waving me in another direction and John is tugging me in a third direction... This is not good.  This is what is known as motion sickness deluxe.  Just before I puke, though, something moves on the bottom.  Did I actually see that? or was it an illusion?  Nope, there it goes again.  It's a fish about the size of a dessert plate laying flat on the bottom.  It's EXACTLY the colors of the sand.

It kind of "waves" along like a manta ray might, but it's definitely not a manta.  Turns out, it's a flounder.  They start out swimming like all normal fishes, but as it matures it's eyes both move to one side of the body and it begins to swim parallel to the bottom.  Amazing. 

It taught me the lesson of going slow and looking at the bottom as well as all around us.  It, however, wasn't very successful at stopping the motion sickness.  I HAD to get out of the water!  Lydgate was the only place I ever felt that way, and I'm certain it had to do with the sandy bottom.  Surprisingly, we had been in the water about an hour - and it only felt like ten minutes.

The Island of Kauai

Ho, boy!  We are really, really here!

It's like 10 o'clock at night, and we let this traveler company chose our lodging again.  They want us to see it before a contract is signed, so they put us up in a hotel for the first night.  Good thing - we are POOPED! 

The sun comes up and we hit the ground running.  John has to have the respirator mask test, and they require him to shave his beard.  Wait a minute.  He's had that beard since the first vacation we ever went on after we got married.  I haven't seen his naked face in 25 years!  I don't know if I'm ready for this... 

And what do you mean, no rent car?  How can we manage without a rent car, especially for the first few days?  We have to buy bedding and groceries and run the errands the company requires of John... 

Ok, we'll take a taxi, but I'm not picking up the tab.  (Later I find out the Hawaiian hospitals won't cover the cost of the rent car because they want everyone to use public transportation.  John and I don't even know HOW to use public transportation because we's farmers you see.  The only public transportation around us is the school bus - and we've been outta school for a long, long time.)

The lodging looks good, brand new in fact.  It's what we call in Texas an upstairs garage apartment.  FULL kitchen this time, thank you very much.  Cable TV, king size bed, no sheets, no bath linens, no kitchen towels or hot pads ... I could go on, but suffice it to say, hauling all of that stuff home on the bus would be a joke.  No laundry.  Mmmm.  I ain't gonna haul MY dirty laundry around town on a bus! I do a lil' pillow-talking, and John agrees to our covering the cost of a rent car for the four weeks we'll be in Hawaiii.  The traveler company finds a place they call rent-a-wreck, and we make a deal with a really nice guy.  The company also agrees to inch up our per diem to help cover the car.  Acceptable.

So, we're set.  It's July and the sun doesn't go down until late, John gets off at 4:00, by 4:30 we are headed to a beach - every day and all day on Saturdays!  There's one main road on Kauai, and the town, Lihue, is half-way between "east" and "west/north."  About an hour-and-a-half west takes us to what looks like west Texas where we take a right turn and head up into the mountains.  About an hour-and-a-half east takes us to the most spectacular beaches on the island. 

In 1993, Hurricane Iniki hit the island and blew away a whole bunch of stuff - including chicken ranches.  The chickens (those that survived) were literally scattered all over the island.  Kauaians decided to just leave them alone to remind everyone daily of the hurricane, and to let them roam, and so they do.  The Wal-Mart parking lot has them as does Costco and K-Mart and the mall and every ocean overlook and scenic view.  Even the hospital has them moseying around the entrances and parking lots.

Virtually everywhere you go there is a momma hen with 3 or 8 baby chicks trailing around behind her.  It dawns on me that every other species of bird in the world has birds that all look like each other - except for chickens.  They come in every size and shape and coloring. Interesting.

And so we are anchored in paradise.  So much to share with you, and so little time and space to do it! 

Leaving Hartford

The hospital staff there in Hartford absolutely loved John.  He's a gentle giant, willing, flexible, and, with 20 years experience, very well versed in his job.  Every hospital is different, every cardiologist has different protocols they want him to follow.  For John it's like shuffling a deck of cards and picking out the ones they want him to play with.  He's not permanent staff, so he doesn't make waves by trying to get them to do things the way other hospitals have even if it could maybe be a better way.  He's just there to love the patients and do the tests.  And that he does.

When it came time for him to leave they gave him gifts and, better yet, a letter of recommendation.  How cool is that!

As our end date became firm, I let all the travel recruiters know John was available again.  Lo and behold, we get a call asking if we'd be interested in four weeks in Hawaii! 

Uh-oh.  I don't fly, and I don't float. 

I've always told John he'd have to get a new wife if he wanted to go to Hawaii.  Now what?  Okay.  In for a penny, in for a pound.  I'll fly - just this one time.  But we would have to drive back to Texas, drop the car off, re-pack essential clothing only, make airport arrangements...  New company, new round of tests for John.  His travel is covered by the contract but not mine, so I have to make my flight reservations.  I don't fly, so, how does one book a flight???  John signs the contract.

Two plus days of drive time back to Texas and a 10-hour flight later, we land in Hawaii on the island of Kauai.  Is this life for real?!

Hartford, Connecticut

Hartford - home of insurance companies, Mark Twain's home (verrry unique), Harriet Beecher Stowe's home right next door, Gillette Castle (oh so very, very cool!) and close enough for us to visit Boston and Braintree. 

I am a Revolutionary War buff, and John is a Civil War buff. Braintree was the home of John and Abigail Adams and, therefore, the home of John Quincy Adams.  Amazing people!  The Adamses library is breathtaking.  I don't mean the building - I mean the BOOKS!  John Q. spoke I think seven different languages fluently as a result of living and working with his Ambassador-to-France-father in Europe during the Revolution, and there are original edition books from the 1700's in ALL those languages - and John Q read them all!  Books were very expensive back them, and I believe John Adams kept his family in near poverty buying them cases at a time.  But thank the Lord he was so well versed because I know it helped him in founding our country.

SO much went on in Boston during the time of the Revolutionary War that it should be a blog in itself, but suffice it to say we reveled in every bit of Boston history.  Samuel Adams, Paul Revere, the Boston Tea Party, the Liberty Tree, the churches (where most of the rebel rousing went on from the pulpits!), Boston Harbor.  OH! and then there was the 4th of July in the seat of our country's foundation.  That was better than celebrating in Washington, D.C. that didn't even exist in 1776!

Mm-mmm-mm.  Thank God for medical traveling.  Instead of a quicky vacation, we had FOUR WEEKS to immerse ourselves in a place I had always hoped to go but never thought I would - all the while getting paychecks and per diem.  What a deal!

But alas, all good things must come to an end.  Or do they?  Wait'll you hear what comes next!

In the beginning...

Home, Sweet Home!

It all began when John lost his job at home.  He had talked about becoming a medical traveler for a couple of years, but it was supposed to happen in what we called "pre-retirement."  We have learned, however, that things tend to happen in God's time, not ours, and we'd be wise to just go with it. 

John contacted all the medical traveler recruiters he had heard about, filled out all of their forms, sent in his resume and letters of recommendation from cardiologists he had worked with, and waited.  And waited.  And waited.  (Hello, out there!  We're trying to save the farm here!) And we waited some more. 

Finally a recruiter called and asked if we'd be interested in a placement for four weeks in Connecticut.  It was gettin' mighty hungry out, so we said absolutely.  While John ran around getting blood tests, respirator mask tests, TB skin tests, pee'd in a bottle, etc., I ran around trying to pack for the unknown.  John's scrubs, church clothes, casual clothes, radios, cameras, computer, printer, kitchen sink (uh, maybe not.  Even for me that's a lil' overboard.  Put the sink back.)  Nearly all placements are subject to being extended, so though they said it would be four weeks it could be longer.  Very difficult to pack for.

In just a couple of days terms were agreed upon and contracts were signed.  Tomorrow we would drive off into the sunrise of a new day, a wonderful new adventure in change.

Connecticut

It was a 2+ day drive to Connecticut from Texas.  Because it was our first placement we let the recruiter arrange our lodgings.  We bought a dashboard GPS before leaving and so, with the address from the recruiter, we drove right to the doorstep of the extended-stay hotel.  It was your typical hotel except that there was no swimming pool or exercise room and there was a coin operated laundry on site.  We had a stove-top but no oven or dishwasher.  Linens were provided just as in any hotel and maid service once a week.

We unloaded the car and programmed the GPS to take us to the hospital facility John would be working at.  Little did I know that John would have me driving him to work every morning and picking him up every afternoon.  He said it was so I could have the car during the day, but I think he liked the feeling of being chauffered around town!

My role was already evolving from tag-along wife to major business partner.  Ultimately all logistics became my job description.  John would go to work, do his cardiac echo thing, and come home.  We felt it wasn't fair to either John or the hospital facility for him to be on his cell phone working out details that they weren't paying him for.  Besides, I'm good at logistics!

So, John would work at the hospital all day, and I would work at finding "discovery" things for us to do.  It was late June, and I felt certain there would be fun 4th of July things.  The East is jam-packed with history, and we're both history buffs.  I would see to it that John's dream of travel/vacationing would come true even if it was only weekend trips.