From PA to Nashville - The first leg of our journey!

As some of you know, starting our travel nurse journey has been mentally exhausting for us. We were originally promised jobs in Boston, only to be told last minute that it wouldn't work out. Not only that, but our agency suggested that we go with a different agency because they couldn't find other jobs for us. Trevor and I were both confused and frantic because we didn't have a job whatsoever, and our mortgage and car payments were both due in a matter of a few weeks. Once we were offered the New Mexico job by a much nicer agency, we immediately accepted. We were really excited. But those days of excitement quickly turned into days of us just sitting around, waiting. We didn't have an official start date, so we had no idea when we were starting work. It was estimated that we would start August 8th-10^th, but it wasn't a certainty. Trevor and I literally spent two weeks sitting around at our house, doing nothing. All we could think about was leaving and all the stuff we still had to do, but we couldn't really do any of it yet because we didn't have a start date. Like, we didn't want to pack up our house if we weren't going to be leaving in another week or so, ya know? Those days were filled with tons of anxiety. Finally, as we were driving home from a wedding on a Saturday night, we decided right there in the car that we were going to leave that following Wednesday. It was actually a relief, making up our minds that we were leaving and then following through with it. It was funny because Trevor was actually pretty drunk from the wedding when he made the decision too haha.

The night before we left, we had some friends and family up to our house to say goodbye. My sister helped me pack up my stuff. John and Mickey brought some beer and wine. We had tons of pizza. It was a great way to say goodbye.

The next morning Trevor and I wanted to originally leave around 5am, but we went to bed really late and woke up late, like 6:30ish. We actually had a hard time leaving the house. I was leaving kitty there and had a really hard time saying goodbye. It was really hard for me knowing that we were leaving and I would be missing my favorite season – fall – completely. When we get back mid-November, all the leaves will be basically gone. Oh well, I guess I will have many other falls in the future.

The last view I had of kitty! Trevor's parents decided to look after him while we are gone. A little cheesy, but I love my cat! I know they will take care of him though. 

Around 7am, us and the U-Haul hit the highway!

Around 7am we were on the road! The trip was very uneventful and Trevor drove the entire 12 hours to get there. He was a champ (plus I think he was afraid of letting me drive his Jeep with the trailer attached). Once we got to Nashville, I took Timber on a short little walk and then we got ready to go out. My aunt Megan picked us up and we went into the city to eat. It felt great to be back in Nashville. I love that city more than anything.

We decided to eat at a burger place called Burger Up, and when we went in to put our name in for a table, we saw Martina McBride in there standing by the bar! It was weird because she looked just like a normal person. I didn't even see her at first, Megan had to point her out to me. She ended up leaving while we were sitting outside and walked right in front of us! It was so cool to be in town only for a few hours and have a celebrity sighting. She was so tiny.

The burgers were superb. I got a Woodstock burger which had cheese, BBQ sauce, and bacon on it, and Trevor got some kind of lamb burger which he said was good but I didn't try. After that, we went to Jenni's ice cream shop where uncle Doug met us after his show, and I watched him eat the biggest sundae that I didn't even know was humanly possible to eat.

Megan, me, and Uncle Doug

Trevor's first time in Nashville!

They drove us back to our hotel where they met Timber and he almost attacked everyone because he gets so dang excited to see new people. Plus he had been in the car and in his cage all day so he had so much energy. It is really difficult driving across the country with a full sized dog, but thankfully our vet from home gave us some puppy Xanax and Benadryl.

 And that concludes the end of our night in Nashville! I wish we could have stayed longer. We went to bed as soon as we got home and got ready to travel to ARKANSAS the next day! Come back tomorrow to read all about our Arkansas journey!