After A Long Trip...
Last weekend was pretty chill, we just relaxed and stayed in the area. Mostly we prepared for our trip. On Monday, we finally headed out from Connecticut. We had a rough start, we were supposed to be on the road by 11 in the morning, but the cards seemed stacked against us. We ran into obstacle after obstacle, the most annoying being my urine drug screen. I choked, I couldn't seem to perform, and couldn't produce enough urine to satisfy the requirements for the drug screen. Long story short, I ended up having to have new forms shipped to Wisconsin and only finished the test today. At any rate, we finally headed out of town mid-afternoon.
Our first objective was the Catskills, where we planned on camping a few nights. Again, the odds were against us, we arrived only to find rainstorms all throughout the area. After long consideration, we ended up at a campsite just outside of the Catskills, planning to head out the next morning if it was raining (the forecast was for a nearly constant rain the next day). We woke up to a brilliant morning, and despite occasional threatening clouds, the day was perfect. We toured around Woodstock, the town made famous for the '69 concert, and found that it has become a commercialized hippie town. We drove throughout the area, which is beautiful, looking at the lakes and the big hills, covered in forests. In the afternoon, we hiked a little in the park. It wasn't the most scenic place I've been, but it was quite relaxing.
We camped again Tuesday night, cooking our meal over our campfire, and roasting marshmellows. As nice as it was, we had to hit the road on Wednesday, heading down south through New York into Pennsylvania. We stayed that night in a little town called Somerset, after about a 420 mile drive. Thursday was our longest drive, more than 460 miles, over seven hours in all of driving. That day we crossed five states, three of which were new to me (lifers). We arrived tired but upbeat in Coldwater, MI, as the day had at least been as easy of driving as it had been long in length. We figured the worst was behind us. Today, though, that was proven wrong. We had a much shorter route, maybe 360 miles, but it swung us around Chicago. Even though we were in the outer suburbs, the traffic was atrocious, in particular the truck traffic. There were hundreds of trucks, as many trucks as other vehicles, it seemed. There was nearly constant construction, so the lanes were all very tight, and usually there were only two lanes. It was common to be completely boxed in by aggressive truckers, one on all sides except the side with the concrete barrier a foot to the left. This continued all the way to Madison, and it was almost too much after already having gone more than 1000 miles.
Incredibly, nearly all of the interstate roads that we took were tollroads. I am just not familiar nor comfortable with this concept. After all, a hefty portion of the $4 per gallon we spend on gas goes to our roadways; why do we need to pay additional tolls as we travel across the States? In Pennsylvania alone we each spent $10 on one road; altogether we probably paid $50 each in tolls. That's just too much. Besides, the condition of the toll roads was despicable for the most part, so what were we paying for? I have nothing good to say about it, it is simply highway robbery.
So, we were very happy to arrive here in Madison this afternoon. We found our storage spot, and dropped off the majority of our belongings. I went and finished my drug screen, drinking lots of Coke and water so that I was almost screaming for my little cup and a bathroom. We checked into a surprisingly ghetto Econo Lodge, I thought we'd left that all behind us in Connecticut.
We haven't seen much of Madison yet, we didn't even go downtown to check out the hospital. We just dropped into the hotel and haven't left yet, except to walk to a burrito place next door for dinner. Zuri, our dog, is simply mystified by all these changes. She is an adaptable dog, and was excellent in the car for the trip, but she is very nervous, she doesn't understand what is going on.
As I said, we are here a week early, as orientation doesn't happen until the 25th. That means we have a week to burn. Fortunately we were able to store most of our stuff and Jess's car, so the plan seems to be that we will be heading out of town again tomorrow, looking for fun places in Wisconsin (or Minnesota, or Canada) to camp out for a few days. We were too tired and frazzled today to really come up with a plan, I sort of doubt we'll have a plan by tomorrow when we have to check out at 11.
As for our trip, it was a long one for sure. From the time we left Connecticut, I put a little more than 1350 miles on the Rav4. That doesn't count the driving we did in the Catskills on Tuesday, which we did in Jess's Camry. Our Rav4, which we just purchased in the beginning of May, already has more than 7000 miles on it. Starting with Connecticut, we passed through nine states, four of which are lifers. That brings our state total since April to 25 states. There are only nine states that I have not been to yet.
We were talking over lunch the other day about it. We spend a lot more time fooling around as travel nurses than actually working. Compounded with the fact that our jobs, our assignments, are simply that and nothing more (no politics, no gossiping, no committees, no clinical ladders), it makes the time we spend fooling around even more significant. To quote Kurt Vonnegut, "I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don't let anybody tell you different."
Now, I think that's pretty sweet.
Until next time, be safe.
