Orlando and Jacksonville

       Back in March 2014...after my contract was cut early I headed to Orlando. I thought this would be a good idea to live in the city but my hospital was actually in the middle of nowhere, a small little town called Tavares. It was such a great hospital to work at and the staff was treated with respect and gratitude. During nursing week, I must have been invited to three free lunches provided by the hospital and different groups of doctors. They even gave their travel nurses the nurses week token of appreciation which was a water bottle and lunch bag. This hospital was pretty amazing. There would be days where the manager would come up to the nurses and tell us to head downstairs next to the cafeteria to get an ice cream just because of how great we had worked the week before. This happened all the time. I felt appreciated and it made me want to work harder and pick up extra shifts. The problem was that it was out in the middle of nowhere and took me 45 minutes to get to work. When the contract was over, I knew it was time to move on.

         
          However, I took every opportunity I could to go to downtown Disney and Universal Studios. My cousin, Nicole had two free passes to Disney World for someone else since she worked there for the summer. Getting into Disney World for the first time that I had ever been there was awesome enough but Nicole had these passes that let us cut the lines and wait for a max of 30 minutes. We got to see three parks in one day. It was pretty awesome.  I had never been to Disney World before so I acted as excited as a nine year old. It was really cool to see the parades, princesses and meeting with Mickey. I can see why my parents didnt take all four of their children though. It would have cost a fortune and taken all day to do a few things. Im lucky Nicole had those passes to skip lines.

      My next assignment was in Jacksonville, Florida. I found a woman from Ohio to live with who was very friendly, her name was Mary. Her and I had alot in common and we got along great. It was amazing spending time with her on my time off. The unit I worked on was a post surgical unit for woman only. It was along the water as well which makes a great place to stare out the window as a patient or a nurse on a break. St. Augustine was a cute little town that was only an hour away. It had a winery and a distillery both with free samples. There was a fort and fountain of youth and a haunted trail as well. It was the perfect place to take visitors which I had.
     I was having a ton of fun in life but saving up for my big trip as well. The next assignment would be my last before the trip. I was considering night shift so I could save up more money in less time. When Phoenix, Arizona became available, I knew it was the best opportunity. I headed to Dayton, Ohio for a few weeks off and then headed through Colorado to Arizona. I was able to stop at Arches national park before heading to Phoenix for another 5 months to prepare for Europe.