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Travelogues of Our Roamings

These travelogues are from the 2 1/2 years that Anna and I took off to travel the United States. During this time, Anna went back to being a Travel Nurse. We had done this kind of traveling before, back in the '90. We spent about 2 years doing it back then too. That's how we found ourselves in Houston in the first place. It was a 3 month temp travel contract for Anna, and we ended up stay for 12 years.

For those of you not familiar with Travel Nursing. The nurse works short 3 to 4 month contracts. The staffing company gives the nurse a list of job positions that are available in various cities. The nurse can then pick the job assignment she wants. Which means she gets to choose where she wants to travel and live for the length of the contract. The nurse staffing company finds a furnished apartment (usually very nice) and pays all the basic housing cost for the nurse and her family. It's a little more complicated than that, but not much.

This seemed like a good time for us to start traveling again. We both wanted leave the Houston area, but we did not know where we wanted to move to. So, doing the Travel Nurse thing would let us see a lot of the country while trying to decide where we wanted to settle down again. Preferably somewhere closer to our families. While Anna worked as the travel nurse, I would find whatever short term contract IT jobs I could in the area.

The first travel assignment that we looked at was in Phoenix. But it fell through at the last minute. The assignment that did come through didn't even take us out of Texas. It was to Brownsville. This sounded like fun to us too. We had traveled to far south Texas a couple of times and enjoyed it. Besides, it let us spend the first winter of our traveling about as far south as you can get in the US. You can read the travelogue for our time in Brownsville for more details. We really had a great time!

Next was 3 months in Wichita, Kansas. I know what you're thinking; "Wichita?", "Kansas?" Anna wanted to spend this time near here parents, and Wichita was as close as we could get. Read our travel journal for details of our time in Kansas. It was okay, but I wouldn't recommend Wichita to anyone looking for a fun place to live.

After Wichita is was back to Texas. What can I say, we were home sick after only 3 months. At least for good Mexican food . And we do love the Texas hill country area. We had a great time in San Antonio, and even extended our stay there by six weeks (you can do this if you find someplace you like).

Next we wanted to head to North and/or South Carolina for the fall, so that we could see trees of the Appellation Mountains in the Autumn. Anna also has some family there, that happen to have been friends of mine from college. We ended up in a small town, Rock Hill, just outside of Charlotte, North Carolina. The colorful fall trees were beautiful and the weather wasn't too bad. We do really love the Carolinas, and may retire there when we're old and gray(er). We left in early January.

Next was something completely different. The southern Arizona desert! Neither Anna nor I had ever lived in a real desert before. So when offered the chance to spend the rest of the winter in Tucson, we started packing. We loved it (in the winter)! The whole state of Arizona is amazing, and we can't wait to get back there again. It wouldn't surprise me if we did not return is live in Arizona sometime in the future.

The next assignment wasn't really traveling. Anna wanted to spend time with her family again because there were a lot family events coming up. She was offered a job in Tulsa. So close to family that Anna could actually stay at her parents house. I spend much of this time working on our newly purchased home on Lake Texoma.

Our last roaming actually took us back to Houston. This was a work thing for me. The company I had left to start our traveling wanted me to come back. They were also opening up an office north of Dallas. We spend 6 months living and working back in Houston, until I could get transferred to the new Dallas office. So, home is now in a small town north of Dallas. Visiting either side of the family is acceptable drive distance from here.

This ends our roaming. But never our traveling and adventures. We will continue to see as much of this country and the world as we can. And who knows, we may do this kind a full-time roaming again.

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