Welcome to the newly re-tooled travel blog. I may be jumping a bit ahead of myself considering that Leslie and I are currently living Pasadena, MD where I grew up. Being here isn't exactly what I had in mind when we began making plans to get out of Baltimore city. Although the past couple of weeks have been enlightening. I've found myself marveling at some of the sites around the neighborhood that I left, at the time I thought forever, over twelve years ago. Coming back has given me an opportunity to look around with an appreciation that I never could have as a teenager, and I find it serendipitous that we'll be pushing off from the old haunt as we begin a new year of traveling at the end of this summer.
For anyone that isn't familiar, here's an abbreviated version of the travel gig. Leslie works as an Occupational Therapist through a company, Med Travelers, that places her in temporary assignments throughout the country, although some companies are world-wide. An assignment typically lasts thirteen weeks, and if you are placed more than fifty miles outside of your "home-base" the company provides an apartment. The apartment is furnished and the cabinets are stocked with minimal amenities.
At the end of the thirteen weeks you can choose to either extend at the current position or opt to move on to another. If you choose to move on the company will begin looking for a new position in a new facility in a new region if that's what you want. Basically Leslie gives them a list of five regions, anywhere from a specific city to smaller metro areas, and Med Travelers attempts to find a need for staffing as close to her choices. Fast forward a couple of weeks and Leslie has a phone interview with a facility and if she is accepted we pack the cars up and head out.
This process repeats roughly every three months unless you decide to continue filling the position. In some cases the facility will offer the therapist a permanent position. Actually, when we traveled in 2008 almost every facility that Leslie worked at made that offer.
Some folks keep this schedule for their entire career. If you find an area that you like you can continue to work for the company, taking positions in that locale only. In our case we're hoping to find an area that we like and cross our fingers that Leslie will be offered a permanent position. Upon that we would work out the details of finding our own housing, moving our stuff from Maryland out to wherever, and all the other pleasantries that go along with that.
That's the brass tacks of what we're doing. It still overwhelms me that a program like this exists, allowing for a rich experience to so many willing professionals. As for myself, I try to find temp or part time work wherever we go. When we moved around before I worked at a Starbucks in Bakersfield, CA (eh...), the IT office at the ROSS department store headquarters in Pleasanton, CA and on the set of "My One and Only" in Albuquerque, NM.
I had trouble finding work when we were in Portland, OR so I ended up volunteering with an electronic recycling center in the Southeast neighborhood of Hawthorne. The place is called Free Geek and they're set up to educate their volunteers in the mining of valuable computer components that are then used to build a new computer with specific capabilities. If you get involved in the Build Program you are allowed to keep your sixth computer built free of charge, and then one a year after that.
At any rate, we plan to hit the road again after Leslie serves out her next assignment that starts in May. That should take us to mid-August and we have hopes of landing in New England soon after. Maine is on the radar as well as Boston, and then we're taking a cue from our feathered cousins and heading south to Florida at the first suggestion of winter.
