About

How It Started

In May 2011, I was on the phone with a representative from my car and renters insurance company trying to explain what my husband and I would be doing for the next 9-12 months. “You’re moving where?” she asked. “Alaska,” I said. “But only until December, and then we will be going somewhere else.” And then I launched into the story, one I was not always sure best how to tell, trying to explain what a traveling physical therapist does, like a traveling nurse I usually said. Then I said, yes we wanted to go Alaska, it was our top choice.

Perhaps my best explanation is this: we wanted to travel and see different parts of the country, to go beyond just being a tourist. We were looking for adventure and to grow and learn about places and people we didn’t know. My husband took a job with a company that would find him a position almost any place in the country. We planned to move every 3-4 months to a new place and a new job. Like Alaska, we got to give them places we would like to be, and they would look to see which clinics or hospitals needed to fill a temporary position. (But after 4 1/2 months, we decided to stay, so it became the year of Alaska!) It was our first year of marriage, we had no kids, no house, and it seemed if we were every going to take a journey like this, now was the time. So we jumped. Feet first or head first. We packed and stored all our belonging and brand new wedding presents. Filled a few bags and boxes to take to Alaska and got on a plane.

The next question, the representative, and nearly everyone else asked, was what will you do? This question  made me a little uncomfortable, because there wasn’t really a straight forward answer. I told her I just graduated from a university in Michigan with my Masters degree in creative writing. I went on to explain that I spent the last three years teaching writing, in various forms, at the university. But that I did not currently have a teaching job. Instead, I was going to spend time writing, cooking, and traveling. And she said to me, “You should write a blog about all this. I would read it.” It seemed strange hearing this from someone I didn’t know and would never know. It surprised me that she would be interested in my life. I told her, “Maybe I should.” And so I did.

Now

After a 5,000 mile road trip from Alaska to Pennsylvania, we settled in Carlisle. We spent a year exploring central PA, particularly enjoying our proximate to DC, local festivals/events, and some great backpacking and hiking trips. And now, of course, we have packed up and moved once again. This time we are settling in another corner of the Keystone state, western PA!

Initially, after leaving Alaska, I felt like the title of my blog might not quite fit since we were out of the travel physical therapy game, although we continue to move like we are! But then I am reminded that we are in a new part of the country, with new places to explore, and I have decided I can perhaps still consider myself “nomadic” in a less conventional way. We will still travel. I am still in the mood to wander, to search, even if it is in a less dramatic way than literally picking up my stuff and moving every 3-4 months. So I am sticking with the name.

Let the new adventures begin!

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