We're off!! Moving around the U.S.A.

[MicroBob]

Cliff-notes: GF is a traveling-nurse.
We're moving around the country on a series of 3-6 month assignments.
First stop is Panama City, FL and then we want to go to a bunch of other places for a few months including Miami, Las Vegas and Hawaii.

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GF is a nurse at a hospital.
Basically she has a lot of job flexibility across the country because hospitals are everywhere and they need nurses.

More specifically, they have these traveling-nurse agencies. They places nurses in hospitals that have a dire need for staff for 3-6 month assignment.
The benefit is that they pretty much pay you the same or a little more as if you just got hired yourself at that same hospital full-time...plus they cover your housing and sometimes your moving costs on top of that.

GF has always wanted to do this and my 'job' playing poker on the internet is obviously not location-dependant.
So we've officially started.

We're mostly isolated to the U.S. for this whereas I would prefer international travel but that's no biggie. Maybe Europe will be in the future for us some other way.

We have packed up and moved out of Memphis (thank god).
Our first stop is a 3 month assignement in Panama City, FL.
She wanted to stay within driving distance of Memphis to visit her brother. She also wanted to go to the beach.
And my parents live less than 1 hour away in Destin, FL so it works out decently. We've both been to Destin a zillion times to visit but never been out here to the more party-like/tourist atmosphere of Panama City.

GF had been working weekends exclusively (pays more if you commit to work every weekend) but will not be doing that anymore so that we can actually have a life.
In Memphis we would go out on a Monday and call in 'our weekend' and go have a good time. But it's still a Monday and everything is dead.
So we're looking forward to going out on actual weekends for once.
And Panama City has no shortage of bars on the beach where you can sit back with a Pina Colada or something.

We are hoping she likes the hospital enough and they like her enough to extend the 3-month assignment to 6-months. That way we will be here through XMas and New Year's and I'll be with my family and her family will come into town too.

Our furnished apartment here is actually pretty decent.
Not amazing. But definitely much better than what I was expecting for being a 'freebie' from the traveling-nurse agency.

From here some places we are likely to pursue for 3-6 month assignments include:

- Miami. GF is hispanic and her best friend lives down there. She would like to enjoy some latino culture such as the restaurants, salsa-clubs, stuff like that.

- Las Vegas. We had fun when we went to LV for 3 or 4 days last year. But she was at a conference which ate up her hours and energy and we could only go out so much. By doing a 3 month stretch there we can take our time and hit some of the night-clubs and restaurants at a more casual pace without trying to cram everything into a 4-day-no-sleep vacation.

- Hawaii. GF really wants to do this one.

- Pittsburgh. yeah, it seems weird. But this is where she lived when she first came to the U.S. and she loved the city and the area.
New Orleans got scratched off our list since the hurricane. Overcrowded hospitals = added stress to the workday and she just doesn't want to deal with it.

I'm thinking of trying to add San Francisco to our list because it sounds awesome. But it also sounds damn expensive so I'm not sure on that one.
Maybe somewhere in the rocky mountains, we're not sure.
NY or Boston perhaps? We're up for anything!!

We're both pretty excited for our adventures across the U.S. and hope everything goes smoothly.

I'm 36 and she's 30 so this is mostly our only chance to do something like this before we eventually decide on where we want to settle down and potentially start a family.