carlainlucas

I am a Cardiovascular tech. Been traveling for about 3.5 years. I traveled for a couple of years living in my RV. I had a little companion named Riley. He passed in 2006. Now I travel with my travelin gal named Maggie. We have been from Seattle, WA to Rhode Island, and from Atlanta, Ga to Springfield, IL and places in between. Hope you enjoy my blog.

“We give dogs time we can spare, space we can spare and love we can spare. And in return, dogs give us their all. It’s the best deal man has ever made.”
-M. Acklam

Well, after spending a week in Indianapolis, I decided I better come up with a plan. Right now, travel assignments are scarce. I have over the last few years accumulated a lot of “stuff”. Stuff from my RV, trips to the craft stores, trips to Barnes and Noble. This has amassed in a rather large amount of stuff. I have a storage room in Springfield ( I had to head to Louisiana in a hurry), I have storage in Indianapolis, and a portion of my son’s garage harbors clothes, etc..  Not to mention my now crusty ol’ RV.  So I decided to consolidate. I sold my RV, thought that might be hard, but it was more of a good riddance. I went to Springfield to get it. It had a flat!. I had to use Fix a Flat, because I could find no one to fix it fast. I hobbled back to Indianapolis, with my lights flickering off and on, and when I dropped the jacks to that sucker, I walked away thinking, if someone doesn’t buy it, I’m pushing it off a cliff. I did get it sold.

So, I packed up my stuff in Indiana, in a uhaul, headed out to Springfield, and packed up that storage container, and I was on my way back to home sweet home, Seattle, with no job in site. I had a nice four day trip across country with my dog Maggie. It was a long trip, but it was safe and uneventful, and of course beautiful.

So I took this pic of Ronnie Mac, cause he was perched on this big carved out tree stump in Iowa . Then of course I decided I could not go on another trip across America without taking a 30 minute detour to see the Corn Palace. It is pretty impressive. Everything is made of corn or corn husks or some part of corn.

Going across Wyoming I could see the beautiful montains of Yellowstone National Park in the distance.  Montana seemed to take forever. Crossed the continental divide when it was dark, would rather have not, since it was steep coming down the other side. I knew I was getting close to home as I crossed the Columbia River. I was beat, but it was wonderful to be back in the Seattle area, spending time with my family.

Well, I have left good ol Opelousa, LA. I must say that I met the nicest people ever. I mean everywhere I went. They have a very unique culture and accent. It was a very interesting place to experience.  My assignment was for only 8 weeks and I had to stay in a motel the entire time. So..I had to live on fast food. Ugh. I thought if I ever looked at another hamburger I would die. Even the salads got bad.

I am back in Indianapolis visiting with my son and granddaughter. Gonna weed through all of my packed  boxes and decide if I am going to wait on a new assignment or head back to Seattle and look for permanent work. Pickens are slim now with the economy the way it is. Here are some pictures from Indy with my family.

I drove 860 miles south of Springfield Illinois to my new assignment in Opelousas, Louisiana! It is warm here!!! And of course I will have to try the  crawfish. I am only here for 8 weeks. I am in a small hospital that is being bought out and they are just trying to keep their lab open til the sale. The Staff is gone!! There are just us four travelers, holding down the fort.  We do one to four cases a day. Then we get to go home! So a pretty easy assignment, til the lab crashes because of a power surge and you get to troubleshoot. Yep that happened my second week here and we had a semi emergent patient waiting in our holding area, waiting on a cath. We worked with two really nice docs, doing caths, peripherals and interventions.

While I was in Opelousas, I visited Avery Island, this is where Tabasco sauce originated and is still made to this day. The history of this Island and the beginnings of Tabasco is quite colorful and interesting. I am also reading the book about the history. The 2nd picture is the building where the sauce is made, the next picture is inside the factory and the last picture is the old country store where you can buy anything to do with Tabasco. They even have samples of Tabasco ice cream! If I only ate the Tabasco flavor, I could probably keep my weight down. Let’s just say it is different”!

This is a great book by Jeffrey Rothfeder! Reads like fiction!

Oh yes let’s not forget, in Louisiana they have “Drive thru Daiquiri bars”. Yep, if it has a lid on it, it’s a closed container!! See Below:

Close up of sign.

Opelousas, has quite a history and has a small area when you enter the town, to show the history. Here are some of the pictures of the original township in the 1800’s.

Well, a year has flown by. I have spent a year in Springfield. I came to Springfield when there was major snow and I left with it snowing. I had a good year, it was as always hard to leave. You make pretty good friendships when you stay in a lab for a year. It felt like home and it was tempting to stay. I loved the EP lab I was in and I learned so much. One of the doctors that I worked with published and EP book while I was there. Wow.

Maggie went to a great Doggie day care. I am sure she made great friends too. And of course the staff got really attached to her after staying for a year.
Springfield is a medium size town with a lot of history. I did not get to see the sights that I should have seen, which I regret, but I was there when Obama came to town with Joe Biden and of course I was there when their notorious govenor was impeached.

I am currently in Springfield, IL population about 110,000. Small enough not to have to fight traffic, but large enough to have a Barnes and Noble and Starbucks. Yeah. I am working at a large facility and specifically working in the EP lab. I also work in the cath lab when we are not busy in EP. Get to keep my skills up! Great crew. Busy lab.
I have had a fair amount of experience with snow here. It has been fun except for navigating home in 10 inches. My second day here I needed to dig my truck out, the biggest shovel I had was a spoon! I finally got help from a couple of neighbors and got to work at 10:30 and I was one of the few people that made it to work. I was proud!! I’m learning. I like it. I hope to be here awhile with it so close to my son and granddaughter in Indy.
In April the tornado weather started. There could be some major scarry storms. I was living in my trailer by May and I had to take cover at a local parking garage. I was not gonna be  a sitting duck in a little ol RV. I stayed six months at Mr. Lincoln’s RV Park.

January 2008. Went home to Indiana for a month. Jobs right after the holidays are slim. So I stayed home for a month. Financially brutal. But I put my free time to work and worked up a new website for cath techs. It will take a fair amount of time to keep it up with relevant info. But I have great hopes for the website. My son is a programmer and has helped me get the template design up and my other son is helping with the artwork. I hope you will visit and give me your feedback. Well a job did come through and I am on my way to Illinois. I am excited, just 4 hrs away from my family.

Arrived in Springfield in late January. An easy four hour ride for Maggie as you can see.The second picture is the beautiful Springfield capitol. The whole top is gold, it is really beautiful. This is where Rod Blagojevich never spent any time and where Obama gave his speech announcing his vice presidental canidate. The last two pictures are view from the EP lab, yes we had windows and a beautiful view of the capital.

Wow guess what!! I get to go back to Atlanta, at St Joseph’s in the EP lab. This was a very favorite assignment. I am so happy to be going back. The crew is so much fun and working is great. I am staying here through January 2008. Wish it were longer. I feel like part of the crew.

Well, I had packed my RV away in storage when I went to Rhode Island, so I decided to head back down to LaGrange and pick up the ol RV and head back up to Jones RV park outside of Atlanta. Great way to save money.

Maggie at Jones RV park in her favorite deck chair.

From LaGrange Ga to Providence, RI for a couple of months. This was a short assignment, only 2 months. I was in the cath lab at Rhode Island hospital. A very large hospital. 720 beds. This was a teaching hospital with some pretty important docs.The residents did all the scrubbing, so all I got to do was record.  I didn’t get to explore all the places I wanted to go ’cause my assignment was cut short, but it was a beautiful area. Had a little seafood, not nearly enough. Yum! The crew was great.The hospital had the most incredible coffee shop I have ever seen. Pastries to die for, 15 different types of gourmet coffees, an oatmeal bar. It was too much. Made Starbucks look like a tiny coffee shop! At lunch they had an awesome soup bar, 10 different soups. Here are a few pics, so you get the idea. Oh yes they had three cafeterias to choose from.

Providence, is an old and interesting city, built on a circle concept, so there are no short cuts, to get home. They are the home of Dunkin Donuts, so they are not big on Starbucks, maybe there was one there, I never found it. They are not real big on lots of fast food franchises and in fact, cater to more of the mom and pop restaurants. They have many, many mom and pop ice cream shops.

Couple pics of the crew relaxing.

Onward to LaGrange, GA in August 2006. I went from Greenville on a Friday afternoon, after packing up my RV to working in LaGrange, GA on Monday. Whew!! I am in a sleepy little town of about 30,000 with a beautiful downtown square. However I have been in withdrawal. There is no Starbucks or Barnes and Noble!! No movie theaters or Joann Fabrics. Aurgghh!! This cath lab is part of a study and they are just starting Interventions. It has been fun helping everyone come up to speed with learning to do stents, etc. The cath lab crew is great. In October, I could not go on any longer without having a dog by my side. I combed the papers and the internet looking for a little dog that was like my Riley, but one day I saw a pic of a dog at a nearby Humane Society that was going to be euthanized the very next day. I went to the pound and fell in love with a 35 lb Terrier mix, that was not a little dog!! I bought her home and she was still in the puppy stage and chewed up a bunch of stuff. Like 2 pairs of Berkies, an electric blanket cord while plugged in. The remote to my heater, etc… So I found a great Doggie Day care in LaGrange and now I can keep my shoes! I named her Maggie Mae, cause her hair looks a little like Rod Stewart’s. I call her Maggie.
She is fun, loves to play tug a war and is a great traveler. She protects me and wont let anyone near our truck.

I stayed in LaGrange for 10 months, and it has felt like home,but travel I must!