Wow! 13 weeks goes by quickly!
Tomorrow marks the start of our last week here on the Central Coast…at least for now. Our contracts come to a close and we must prep for 6 weeks adventuring various parts of the country.
It’s a complete paradigm shift from the rat race ortho world we once worked in.
Yes, we did “extend” our contracts here with Central Coast Home Health, for many reasons, but we also have some exploring to do before we re-up. The beauty of a travel contract is that YOU are in charge. Simply list your start and end dates, plus any dates in between and they are yours! It’s a complete paradigm shift from the rat race ortho world we once worked in. Now, it is unpaid time off. But with the increase in pay that comes during a contract it allows us to have increased flexibility during down times.
Why are we taking 6 weeks off?
First off, we get to celebrate a late honeymoon! Three years ago when we tied the knot on top of Molas Pass in Colorado we were both working at outpatient orthopedic clinics. We loved our work, but given the current situation in health care payment, vacation time is hard to come by. Simply put, we burned through all available time off leading up to the wedding while spending time with our family who were in town for the wedding and could no longer afford to miss any more work. We were married on a Friday and returned to work on Tuesday.
No work, no dogs, no responsibilities.
This year, we will be spending our Anniversary on Maui visiting some great friends and enjoying a much needed time together. No work, no dogs, no responsibilities.
Once returning from Maui we will quickly zip out to Durango, Colorado for a couple of days prior to making our way to Bryce Canyon to run our first 50 mile race!
Also, Ellen has the awesome opportunity to hike the John Muir Trail – 3 days after our race! She will spend 18 days navigating through some of the finest the high Sierras have to offer. The pups and I will miss her, but mostly we will be jealous.
The Scramble
For ease of reading (and writing) I will simply list all of the various tasks that will be taken care of in the next 5 days:
- Pack up and clean our apartment for move-out-day.
- Pack our clothes for Hawaii and make it to the Oakland Airport on time (3.5hrs away)
- Prep the dogs for some time with their AWESOME pet sitter – Niccola Nelson
- Plan meals and packing for Ellen’s John Muir excursion
- Daily patients and finalize all documentation for patient care
- Stash a car and bikes somewhere in SLO for safe keeping while we are away for 6 weeks
- Finish up our final big training week for the 50 mile race
Phew! Its going to be a hectic week but the end result will find us 30,000 ft over the Pacific!
Can’t wait to tell you all about it!
Call for comments: Any places we should scope out on Maui? We are partially flying blind on this one.
Written by: Stephen Stockhausen
