Tag: Hawaii

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4 Island Travel PT Assignments

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As winter comes to a close, you might be wishing you were on an island somewhere…. if you’re a travel PT, you may have that option on your next assignment. Here’s (more than) 4 opportunities that could have you living on an island soon. Lots of links included to articles from when I worked on and visited several of these islands.

Kate hiking down from the 10,000 ft summit of Haleakala on Maui to camp in the base of the volcanic crater many hours and miles later that night in 2014.

Hawaii

Let’s not bury the lead. Hawaii is a tropical paradise within the borders of United States. All the advantages of really getting off-the-grid without any of the hassles or insecurities of international travel. Within Hawaii, there is a wide spectrum of opportunities – from uber-urban living to the very rural – a little different flavor for whatever your taste is.

Oahu is the main island and generally a good place for anyone unfamiliar with Hawaii to start. Oahu is home to about 1 million people, many of whom live and work in Honolulu, a major city and international hub. Honolulu offers all the perks and culture of a big city with the world famous surf beaches of the North Shore a short 30 minute drive away. Traffic can be brutal on Oahu, so plan commute between home and a potential job appropriately

Maui and Kauai each have occasional assignments available and tend to be a happy-medium for the traveler seeking a mix of social life and rural island-living. Both islands have thriving communities and also places you can quickly get off the beaten path. Each island has grown a bit in recent years, but also have huge swaths of land preserved for their beauty and recreation. On Maui, much of that land is within Haleakala National Park. Haleakala is a 10,000 ft volcano with astronomy observatories on top and it’s flanks running straight into the ocean. On Kauai, few views on Earth rival those of the Napali Coastline – a stretch of steep cliffs and secluded beaches spanning the coastline between where the two ends of the road circling the island end. I really believe you can’t go wrong with any opportunities that arise on Maui or Kauai.

Mother nature hard at work creating more land on the Big Island through the eruption of Kilauea volcano and lava running into the ocean in 2016.

The Big Island, which is actually named “Hawaii”, has it all. The Big Island is about 70 miles across and boasts 13,000 foot peaks, an active volcano, some of the best scuba diving in the world, and a thriving biking/running/swimming community that hosts the Ironman World Championships each year in October. Kona on the dry West coast of the island, and Hilo on the Eastern wet side of the island are the two major towns – each have a pretty steady stream of revolving travel assignments available.

When finding a travel PT assignment in Hawaii, luck and timing play big roles. Sometimes, very few jobs are posted, while at other times, you’ll find many jobs. Waiting just a few weeks typically resolves any drought of jobs, but be cautioned that Hawaii assignments draw a lot of applicants, so bring your A-game to the interview. Also worth noting that pay in Hawaii can be low… but you’re working in Hawaii, so….

Martha’s Vineyard

On the beach below the Gay Head cliffs on Martha’s Vineyard in 2015.

Martha’s Vineyard, off the coast of Cape Cod in Massachusetts offers the true island-living experience. In the summertime, people are intent on fishing, beaching, and… outdoor showers? I believe that nowhere in the world is as passionate about outdoor showers than the people of Martha’s Vineyard. When assessing function and patient goals on my home health assignment on Martha’s Vineyard, it was not rare to have a primary goal for a patient to return to their outdoor shower. When Kate and I lived in a camper there, we caught the fever – although we had a shower in our camper, the campground opened a row of 6 outdoor showers, and we indulged daily, rarely, if ever, using the indoor shower.

Martha’s Vineyard Hospital and the Martha’s Vineyard office of VNA of Cape Cod often have openings because affordable housing is near-impossible on the Vineyard. Many of their permanent employees travel 45 minutes by boat everyday from The Cape for work. If you can figure out housing on The Vineyahd, you’ll have a great time. Also worth mentioning, the Cottage Hospital on Nantucket, a couple hours by boat from Martha’s Vineyard, also regularly seeks travelers.

St. Thomas

The US Virgin Islands are part of FSBPT. Like any state, you can apply for a license in the Virgin Islands. St. Thomas is the main island and has historically had good availability for jobs. The Virgin Islands are definitely for the more adventurous traveler, or, perhaps, for the traveler who wants a tropical experience, but doesn’t care for the long distance to Hawaii. Most people on St. Thomas speak English, but Creole or Spanish may be primary language of some patients. I have read about concerns of safety, but travelers who have worked there tell me that if you are smart about your surroundings and company, then it is safe…. and highly enjoyable – basically like any major US city.

Hurricanes Irma and Maria may have changed the travel experience on St. Thomas. Largely overshadowed by the destruction in Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands got hit hard as well – in fact, the roof ripped right off the hospital in St. Thomas during Irma. As best I can tell sitting at my computer in Colorado, it appears there is still an ongoing need for travel PTs in St. Thomas – it also appears there are many volunteer opportunities to continue helping with hurricane recovery. It’s worth mentioning that Puerto Rico is also under the umbrella of FSBPT, so you might consider volunteer work in Puerto Rico as well.

Alaskan Islands

With more coastline than the entire rest of the US, there are many way-off-the-grid island opportunities in Alaska, but here are a few standouts.

Looking across the town of Sitka at Mt Edgecumbe, a dormant volcano. Also, I remember Sitka having a great brewery!

Kodiak Island currently has travel PT needs. Kodiak is 100 miles long and has a population under 14,000 making it a true outdoorsman’s paradise. Kodiak is best known for the Kodiak Brown Bears, which alongside polar bears are the largest bears in the world. Kodiak has ample fishing, hiking, hunting, and anything else you can imagine outdoors. Though, it is not for the faint of heart – no one is around to bail you out if you get yourself in trouble out in the wilderness. But for the therapist looking for a truly rugged off-the-grid experience, Kodiak could be a dream assignment.

Sitka, on Baranof Island, was the capital of Alaska back when the state was a part of Russia. On our way back from working in Anchorage, Kate and I stopped off to visit a PT friend there and quickly fell in love with the community. Sitka is a vibrant town with architecture reminiscent of it’s Russian past. Our friend took us down to a park to watch for whales, and sure enough, we quickly saw a pod of Orcas swimming by in the bay. Sitka has excellent access to the outdoors both in the mountains and on the ocean. Compared to most of the rest of Alaska, Sitka is relatively Southern and therefor more temperate.

If you are willing to make a longer-term commitment (starting at 2 years) in Alaska, there are opportunities to make substantially more money in the form of student-loan repayment. These opportunities are available both in private and government facilities through a government program called SHARP. When working for large health systems in Alaska, there can also be opportunities to take small planes out to remote bush towns reachable only by sea and air. PTs fly in to provide rehab to the residents for a couple days at a time. While I don’t think a typical 13  traveler in Alaska is likely to be sent out to the bush, it might become more possible to make these trips after extending a contract for a longer period.

Mendenhall Glacier in Juneau Alaska, 2012…. not technically on an island, but you can only get there by boat or plane.

There are many more islands all over the country where you can find work as a traveling therapist. Jobs exist off of Texas, in the Northwest corner of Washington state, off the far Northeast coast of Maine, and down in the Florida Keys. If you look, you will find the island that suits you fancy. Happy travels, and good luck turning those island dreams into your real life.

 

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Last Day of a Travel Assignment

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I just came in from fishing on my kayak on the eve of my last day of this travel PT assignment. As usual, I caught nothing, but got a killer view of the sunset. Tomorrow, my wife Kate and I will work the last day of our contract on the island of Molokai in Hawaii before heading back to our winter home in Aspen, Colorado. This transition seems a little more subdued than usual – maybe it’s that we have some time between assignments and aren’t in a rush to get on the road. I used to lose all motivation to do paperwork during the last 2 to 3 weeks of any assignment – of course the paperwork eventually had to get done, but it wasn’t pleasant. As time goes on, the switch has become a bit more mundane for me – one job ends, another begins… just like they always do. But I’m better at keeping my nose to the grindstone until the very last days.

Here I am fishing out front of our apartment on a similar evening where similarly, I caught nothing.

Here I am paddling out to fish in front of our apartment on a similar evening where similarly, I caught nothing.

With ending a job, there’s all the finals steps that need tending to: cleaning out/off your desk, finishing all notes, tying up the loose ends on the cases of any patients who may have gone missing, and preparing for the other therapists to take your patients. Bottomline is: you don’t want the last memory of you to be all of your unfinished work left behind for the other therapists to handle. There’s typically some pageantry as a traveler gets ready to leave an assignment. I try to avoid too much fanfare, it feels awkward to me – I’m very used to coming and going. If it were up to me, I’d leave the office on Friday with the typical wave of my hand and a “have a good weekend!” …and never come back. In the PT Department earlier this week, we had a nice, simple ice cream bar with just the 5 of us in our department. It was nice, simple, perfect – it was a wonderful, delicious gesture, but not over the top. This location has trouble finding a permanent PT because of its isolation, so they are used to a revolving door of travelers. Perhaps that explains why my style of a “goodbye” matches with theirs. Someone, Vikki, will come in on Monday and take my place. She seems nice, and I hope she is – I’ve been telling all the patients she seems good, and I bet she’ll take all the placebo effect she can get. The patients definitely don’t like it when a traveler leaves, but I still laugh when an unassuming grandma threatens to come to Colorado for PT this winter.

The greatest challenge that comes with moving along to the next job is the process of getting the next job arranged. After traveling for 10 years, and returning to the same seasonal job every winter, finding the next job isn’t usually too much of a process anymore, but it used to be! Figuring out where to go is the first major hurdle, and it needs to happen well before the last days of the job. If you’re on a 13 week contract, you should have a pretty good idea of where you’d like to go very early on in the contract – especially if you need to get a new license to go there. When it’s time to find the next job, it’s not uncommon to find me in little corners of a hospital, between appointments, making calls to recruiters for quick updates on potential jobs. There’s a lot that goes into getting the next assignment, and it can, and usually does, happen at a pretty fast pace in the middle of a busy work week.

I just read a couple articles in a ski magazine and it got me pumped to be headed back to Colorado for the winter. I cannot wait to get my skis out of storage and onto the mountain (it’s snowing there right now as I write). Kate and I have ordered a fair amount of ski gear on sale over this summer while we’ve been here in Hawaii, so we’ll have to box all that junk up and ship it ahead. We have almost two weeks of hanging out in Hawaii before we have to leave – I really think this is the ultimate traveler’s hack. I haven’t had to pack a thing while I’ve been working. It is so refreshing to not have a car full of stuff before my last day of work tomorrow.

Here's the Shasta camper we bought. I can't wait to get to work sprucing her up!

Here’s the Shasta camper we bought. I can’t wait to get to work making her shine again!

When we do leave for Colorado in 2 weeks, we’re going to swing through Oregon and visit some friends in Bend before flying into Denver where we’ll be buying two cars. The original plan was to have one car when we returned to Colorado and have some time to find a second car, but while we’ve been away, the Colorado car’s engine stopped working. I’m not very mechanically-inclined, but my understanding is that the engine is a fairly essential part. So, we’ll buy at least one, maybe two cars in Denver – one has to be able to pull the 1970 Shasta Camper we bought from a friend sight-unseen (more on this in the future). After we’re done visiting Oregon and vehicle shopping in Denver, I have a dry needling course in Colorado Springs to attend for 3 days. So excited to finally be a needler (but not excited to be needled for 3 days straight)! The course ends Sunday, and work will start Monday – guess I won’t be starting this assignment well rested regardless of my 3 weeks off.

Despite all the excitement that lies between today and work starting 3 weeks from now in Colorado, I’m bummed to be done here. It’s a community I have grown to know and love and the bitter is mixed a little more heavily with the sweet this time. I guess I’ve got a pretty good thing going here, I could keep working here for another couple months, but it’s that time of year to move on. This is our second time doing a contract on Molokai. When Kate and I came over from the Big Island 2 years ago for an interview, we thought it might be a once-in-a-lifetime visit to Molokai. Three contracts later, Molokai is a part of our life. We’ll be back. I don’t know in what capacity we’ll return, but we will return.

Hawaii, it’s been a blast and I shall return. Oregon, let’s see what you’ve got (I hear you’ve got mountains, ocean, and beer – I like those things). Colorado, I can’t wait to hit the slopes and reconnect with all the friends back there. Nose to the grindstone, one more day of work.

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It Takes a Village

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Even the restroom lego characters are dressing formal.

Even the restroom lego characters are thinking #NoPolo.

I just finished packing my bag to head off to Nashville for the American Physical Therapy Association’s House of Delegates meeting. To quickly sum up what that is for those of you who might not know: about 500 PTs and PTAs representing different areas of the country, clinical specialties, and/or other interests get together for 4 days to make big decisions about big ideas that will drive the future of the APTA and ultimately the practice of physical therapy. When people talk about APTA doing or deciding this or that, that’s us, this week, and the PTs, PTAs, and Students that attend are all volunteering their time away from their daily jobs. As I pack my two suits and shiny black shoes into my suitcase for the upcoming meetings, I notice how much they stand out in contrast to the rest of the wardrobe I have here in rural Hawaii. I have scrounged together enough  black mid-ankle cotton sports socks to get through the week of meetings – I hope they’ll come high enough to gel with the suits. The most dressed up I’ve gotten in the last month is the polo shirt I put on daily to go to work (Is the #NoPolo crowd throwing a fit right now? More on this later.) Each Friday, I throw on an Aloha shirt for an even more formal Friday – here, in this local culture, an Aloha shirt is considered dressing up. The main Hospitalist wears an Aloha shirt every day. The Vice President of the Hospital wears an Aloha shirt every day. As an average Caucasian male, I’m already in the minority here. If I were to show up in anything more dressy than an Aloha shirt or polo, I would be a serious outsider. Dressing in a shirt and tie would, without doubt, affect my ability to connect with my coworkers and my patients. The culture I was raised in has no bearing on the social norms here and formal wear is inappropriate.

On my very first PT job in 2006, a job I took in a private practice that I had done a clinical with, we looked good. Just 3 guys from Boston practicing PT in the farm fields of Vermont wearing button down shirts and nice ties. Aside from our dress, we were goof-balls. Our staff had some really good chemistry there. We were always rambling on about anything and everything to keep our patients entertained and enjoying their time at the clinic. The schtick was constant and super-funny – “the PT will cost ya, the show’s for free.” In that clinic, not too far from Boston and not too far from New York City, we felt great in our shirts and ties, and it was the right thing for the right place – it did, indeed, take our appearance up a notch and add some professionalism to our otherwise juvenile behavior. But, when I left that practice 6 months later for the vast world of traveling PT which would lead to 10 years on the road, I realized that one size does not fit all, there’s more than one way to skin a cat, and, most importantly, rehab can be done best a lot of different ways.

I've got a couple patients here from outrigger-canoe-related-injuries. I finally took this canoe out with 5 other paddlers the other day. It gave me a whole new appreciation for the biomechanics of the sport. Most kids here grow up with paddling as one of the primary sports. "Doing is knowing" in both biomechanics and culture. Whoa, deep.

I’ve got a couple patients here from outrigger-canoe-related-injuries. I finally took this canoe (the Kula’ela’e) out with 5 other paddlers the other day. It gave me a whole new appreciation for the biomechanics of the sport. Most kids here grow up with paddling as a part of their upbringing. “Doing is knowledge” in both biomechanics and culture. Whoa, deep.

Later on, Colorado would become my home base, but I still continue traveling out of state on contracts most summers. Several years ago, we had word coming down from the top of the hospital that each department would need to decide on a uniform – I believe this stemmed from a JCO initiative for patients being able to more easily identify who is coming and going from their rooms. I advocated that the rehab department dress more formally – button downs, nice slacks, perhaps ties for the gentlemen. But, this is a mountain town we’re talking about. A place where the wild west is still alive and well. I have seen surgeons make inpatient visits in bike shorts, there’s an anesthesiologist that occasionally roams the halls wearing a cowboy hat, people do not care what you are wearing, they just want the best care from someone who understands their activities and lifestyle. Colorado mountain towns are full of aggro weekend warriors – nay, not weekend warriors, they have come to the mountains to make a lifestyle of outdoor sport and activity – for this reason, the mountains of Colorado respect  and understand the role of PTs more than anywhere else I have ever worked. A PT referral is always the first line of defense for all the patients that want the most direct line to getting back out in the mountains and doing what they love. Ultimately the dress code decision was made, there would be no formal dress, the final decision had been made made – black scrub bottoms, white tops, grey (sporty) vest.

I don’t know how I ended up in this place in this blog post. Polos, ties, and sporty vests have nothing to do with the point I’m tying to make.  What I’m trying to get at is that things we may accept as simple, given standards in our world may be very different from those held by someone else. I’ve written about local culture before and the great differences geographically in what the norm is, but I’ve been thinking of culture differently lately as I find myself living in more and more rural places. We so often are all encompassing in what we say – when someone says “the world works like this……”, they typically only know about their own experiences. People are so focused on their own world, that they can’t open up their minds and think about how someone lives their life in a community that has less resources, or that is isolated from all major cities, or that doesn’t want their community to be developed into something bigger and shinier. We are all so different from town to town, city to city, state to state, and especially internationally. We often think our own way is the best way, but the truth is that people are so different across our country because of their individual environments, experiences, and upbringings that we are all destined to value different things than our neighbors. We have a lot in common as well, but it’s the differences that can be divisive. I don’t mean to single out the crowd that thinks we should all dress up for work to make ourselves stand out as the autonomous practitioners that we are (I used to be firmly in that camp), but it is just one example that I can grasp tangibly to say dress standards can vary greatly place-to-place, culture-to-culture.

A few of my Aloha Shirts. Flowers and tikis are culturally appropriate. The Red Sox Aloha Shirt is not culturally appropriate unless you are dressing up as two-time World Series Winner Shane Victorino, "The Flyin' Hawaiian".

A few of my Aloha Shirts. Flowers and tikis are culturally appropriate. The Red Sox Aloha Shirt is not culturally appropriate unless you are dressing up as two-time World Series Winner Shane Victorino, “The Flyin’ Hawaiian”.

Another area that I have been thinking about culture in recently is research. You hardly ever read an article that breaks down the differences in effect of an intervention on subjects by cultural differences. In research, you frequently read something like, “this study was performed on subjects without confounding past medical histories and the results cannot be generalized to all patient groups.” Why don’t we see cautions like, “this study was performed primarily on New England Suburbanites and cannot be generalized to people of varied backgrounds.” I’m having a  little fun here, but I’m serious about the message – people are different and interpret the treatment we administer unto them differently. We cannot hold everyone to our own personal standards and should not expect everyone to have the same values that we do.

I hope that as therapists, we consider the widely varied backgrounds of our patients and that we respect our patients when our best practice patterns don’t align with their priorities. I hope as hundreds of us gather this week to discuss the PT profession that we can open our minds to see how different ways of practicing PT can all be successful for the people who are receiving the treatment and to embrace that difference. Finally, I hope in the greater scope of life that we don’t see people with different political and world views as lesser than ourselves and acknowledge that they merely come from a different set of life experiences.

Travel safe if you are headed to Nashville for the big meeting, I look forward to disagreeing with you all when we get there from our very different places. (just kidding, gosh don’t be so serious)

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Working 40 hours is Overrated

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I’ve come to believe that 40 hours per work week is just too many to be working. There’s so much going on in the world, so much more I could be doing than hanging out indoors for 40 hours each week. Who came up with 40 hours being the magical working amount anyways? On one tougher-than-average day at work, I once asked this question out-loud, more to myself than to anyone else, but someone within earshot replied, “Henry Ford”. I’ve never fact-checked this answer, but I was told with such confidence that Henry Ford had set the standard of the 40 hour work week for his workers, that I have accepted this as cold, hard fact. Despite my distaste for a full 40 hours at work each week, I have been finding myself accruing overtime more and more frequently.

Here I am complaining about how hard I worked this winter. This is one of the views from the PT gym at work, it could be much, much worse.

I used to insist on having a 40 hour guarantee on my travel contracts, meaning that even if there weren’t enough patients, I was contractually allowed to spend 40 hours at work each week and get paid for it. Of course, if you find yourself in the cooshy position of having more guaranteed hours than actual work, it behooves you to keep busy however you can – cleaning the hydroculator, scrubbing a whirlpool, updating facility rehab protocols, etc. Sitting around at work reading a book or surfing Facebook is not a good look on anybody, no matter what your contract says. When I reflect on the last few years, I don’t ever remember sitting, twiddling my thumbs. I remember working for hospital departments that would unload their fulltime employees schedules and pack mine – it’s part of the gig as a traveler, you are a grunt-worker hired for the purpose of easing the load on the facility. None-the-less, having that 40 hour guarantee is a concrete way to make sure you’ll be gainfully employed during your contract. It’d be a shame to show up to your job in a far-off town expecting and needing 40 hours worth of pay and coming up short, so I still recommend securing a 40 hour guarantee in your contract whenever you can.

The job that I work every winter in Colorado (7 years running), has never offered 40 hours guaranteed. They used to guarantee nothing, but somewhere along the line adopted a 24 hour/week guarantee – the truth of it is, if therapists are consistently getting anywhere in the neighborhood of 24 hours, someone’s contract is getting canceled, because the department is overstaffed. It’s a unique situation there. The hospital has a view of 3 of the 4 ski mountains in town. If a lot of people are getting injured on the mountains, we’re busy; if tourism is down, or the ski conditions are forgiving to injuries, we can have our slow months. In past years I’ve frequently come in around 36 hours per week with a few weeks significantly higher and a few weeks lower. This year I worked my tail off. I worked a lot of 42-45 hour weeks this winter. That probably doesn’t sound like a lot to many people, especially anyone working in a field where there’s a machismo about hard work at the office – long hours, late nights, early mornings, and postural dysfunction are signs of dedication to the company! For me, 45 hours is my hell-on-earth. A standard week consists of 168 hours – 40 to work, 8 hours of sleep per night gives you another 56 hours gone – we’re already down to well less than half of our living, breathing hours after only work and sleep (I do appreciate my 8-hours-square per night). These calculations don’t even take into consideration the hours spent getting ready for work, the time commuting, and the time when you’re too pooped to do anything else because you’ve been working so damn hard. We’re in a work-centric society and I don’t care for our society’s priorities one bit. Take a hike, Henry Ford.

Traded in my winter view for a summery one. This is from the parking at lot at my current assignment - working a few too many hours... #HawaiiProbs

Traded in my winter view for a summery one in Hawaii. This is from the parking at lot at my current assignment where I’m not in the ocean nearly as much as I’d like… #HawaiiProbs

I have been looking forward to  coming back to my island oasis here on Molokai in Hawaii to have some good time to relax and get away from the fast pace of a >40 hour work week. My wife, Kate, had been guaranteed the 40 hour position out here, and I took the second-position at only 20 hours guaranteed per week. There were some other PT opportunities that I looked into, but nothing panned out. I was kind of looking forward to filling some of my spare hours working at the bike shop, or on a boat somehow, or as a pool cabana boy, or just having time to do more with this website. This week was my second week of work and I worked 6 days for about 45 hours. So much for relaxing. The island around me is most definitely running on serious Aloha-time while I’m busting my rump during the vast majority of the sun-filled hours. Last time I worked on the Big Island, 2 years ago, we ran into a similar situation – Kate had a 40 hour contract and I had set up an independent contract with no guaranteed hours. On that job, I had a full schedule with a couple weeks. …a developing pattern? As the summer moves along, I hope my work hours come back to earth and that Kate and I can each work 36 or 38 hours, not over the dreaded 40.

I’m going to continue asking for 40 hours guaranteed in my future contracts, but have grown more open to accepting contracts with less certain work hours. I’m beginning to wonder whether this pattern of always being busy at work is just something I’m experiencing, or is it a symptom in a larger, growing healthcare trend as the baby boomers age and as healthcare professions fail to keep up with the growing demand. I guess time will tell as we all slowly, but surely, burn out from long hours of high productivity.That’s kind of a bummer of a thought, and I hope it’s not the direction we’re headed. But the numbers don’t lie, everyone in rehab is going to be pretty busy for longer than the next 15 to 20 years. This means one thing for sure – travel therapy and temp employment will be an option for therapists for quite a while. So, if you’re looking at traveling, but not quite there yet, take your time, it’ll be here when you’re ready and you’ll have a blast when the time is right.

Well after all of that, I don’t want to sign off on any sort of sour note. I’m in Hawaii, making a fruitful living and very happy for it. A couple extra hours of work each week isn’t really what I want, but doing physical therapy in Hawaii is a fine way to spend 40-something hours each week – there are far less meaningful and satisfying things to be doing with my day, so I’m thankful for that.

More blogs to come soon. I plan to write lots. See you on the open road!

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Two Weeks of Shampoo

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The last few weeks around this blog have been a little too serious for my taste. Time to stop taking on all the problems of the world and get back to the nonsense and fun about being a traveler.

Things are winding down on this assignment. 11 weeks are gone and only 2 remain. In a non-traveling life, I think months and years would start to blend together for me, but the constant change in job and location helps to keep my memories of events organized. If I lose track of when something happened, all I have to do is think about where I was living, and instantly I know when it was. When did the Red Sox play the Rockies in the World Series? I was living in Colorado Springs, so it must have been 2007 – Go Sox! This constant change also creates constant deadlines – projects must be completed before any big move, i.e. Christmas cards must be sent before this assignment is over, otherwise it will be mid-December before I’m situated and organized again.

The sun set a couple weekends ago. This has been a great assignment and moving on will bring more adventure but is bitter sweet.

The sun set a couple weekends ago. This has been a great assignment and moving on will bring more adventure but is bitter sweet.

As the time has gone on with being a traveling PT, I’ve become very good at estimating time in unusual situations. For instance, it takes about two weeks for me to memorize the light switch arrangement in a new apartment. Until two weeks has passed in a new place, I am likely to be found late at night, in the dark, feeling my way around the walls trying to find the right switches. I realized recently that I’m constantly thinking of all kinds of bizarre things in terms of time.  A Costco trip at the beginning of each assignment will be filled with estimations about whether each package is big enough or too big for the whole assignment – I’ve gotten good. Two large jugs of maple syrup (32 oz each) will last 3 months. We somehow ended up with too much maple syrup on this assignment, now we’re really having to eat/drink a lot of the stuff – woe is me. 🙂

Now that I think about it, this assignment has been a tricky one for managing the amount of products we have. We’re really isolated here on the island of Molokai, and there’s no major chain stores (except for Ace Hardware). The barge comes in only twice a week with supplies and most of the stores are locally owned and small. Most of the things we’ve been buying are limited in selection and you have to buy what’s available whenever you need it. I thought I was going to run out of body wash and spotted some on sale a couple weeks ago. I jumped at the opportunity to get a decent price. As the days tick down, the original bottle is still managing to hang on and I’m realizing that with a little conservation I probably could have made it through without the new bottle. Now, with all this extra body wash, the inclination is to try and burn through the bottle fast, make every shower a super-soapy-sudsy event. But, that’s not sane, I’ve really had to step back, use the normal amount of body wash, and realize that it’s alright if I leave a couple bucks worth of soap at the apartment when the assignment is over. Man, I thought my powers of soapy-estimation were better than that. Luckily, we’ve just learned that the travel PT starting the week after us will be moving into our apartment, it makes me feel better about leaving some extra supplies behind.

Time for me to run, we’re having hamburgers tonight, gotta start to eat down the beef supply in the freezer. I’ll write again next week before this assignment is done – the deadline is approaching fast.

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Friends in Places

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Recently, I’ve done really well at getting a blog out to you almost every other week (::sound of me patting myself on back::). The winters in Colorado are just too much damn fun to be sitting around writing on my silly website. That leaves the 7 months when ski lifts are closed to be productive and get some marginally decent writing done. The past several weeks, this blog has been quiet…. A clear sign I’ve been having too much fun outside of ski season.

Our first glimpses of Waikiki on our puddle jumper over from Molokai. In the group of tall building by the shore (Waikiki), the building we living in during 2010 is the furthest to the left.

Our first glimpses of Waikiki on our puddle jumper over from Molokai. The building we lived in during 2010 is center of the picture, but the furthest to the left and small in the group of tall buildings near the shore.

It all started when we moved to Molokai 4 weeks ago. After one weekend on Molokai, Kate and I could see the lights of Waikiki calling from across 26 miles of open ocean. 4 years ago, we had a 6 month home care assignment over there and lived in an apartment 3 blocks from Waikiki Beach. The job on that assignment was one of the worst travel assignments I have ever had. A quick review of my blogs over recent months and years will reveal several passing mentions of that job and my rehab-oblivious boss. But, the combination of my Craigslist-surfboard and the 5 minute walk to the waves of Waikiki made the assignment easily bearable. Early on in the assignment we made friends with a few other travel PTs. We spent all of our non-work hours kayaking to small offshore islands, hiking, singing karaoke, and eating at a delicious underground sushi bar. It was pretty awesome. Over a few months, we added one friend’s significant other and some new travelers joined the group. We reached peak form in month 5 and had – as the kids say, “a frickin’ blast.” Somewhere along the line, we discovered Honolulu’s best deal ever: a catamaran called the Na Hoku II – they would let you on for a local’s price of $25 and sail for 2 hours around the shores off Waikiki, with a free open bar. Our Saturday habit quickly became beach/surf, then booze cruise on the Na Hoku II, then sushi, then if still upright we would sing karaoke (and eat more sushi). Every week was a countdown to Saturday. We got to know the characters on our weekly routine – to start the afternoon, Captain Crash would drive the boat out of harbor while playing The Booty Song, to end the night at karaoke, an old local man named Uncle Ron would sing Smoke Gets in Your Eyes. During the hours between The Booty Song and Smoke Gets in Your Eyes, we would have a blast. That was the summer of 2010, We. Had. So. Much. Fun!

Diamond Head keeps a watchful eye over Waikiki. As seen from the blurry eye of the Na Hoku II.

Diamond Head keeps a watchful eye over Waikiki. As seen from the blurry eye of the Na Hoku II.

3 weeks ago, we somehow got the whole group back together in Waikiki. I can’t think of another group of friends that could all get back together in one place without somebody missing. Traveling PTs from the summer of 2010 came from the Pacific Northwest, Texas, Molokai, and Waikiki to be together for 48 hours of AWESOME. We hit all the old haunts: we had our afternoon on the Na Hoku II (minus Captain Crash) and made it to late night sushi/karaoke – complete with Uncle Ron still singing Smoke Gets In Your Eyes. We started mornings with killer brunches and finished our nights sharing memories of our old times together. Kate and I eventually made it back to our 9-seat puddle jumper headed back to Molokai for work on Monday morning.

We only had a short time back on Molokai, because just ten days later we had a trip planned to Colorado for a really great friend’s wedding. I grew up with the groom as my best bud. Eventually, when he and another close friend said they were moving to Aspen, Kate and I said, “We’re coming too!” The wedding in Breckinridge was beautiful. The weather was perfect. The foliage was at its peak for the 10,000 ft ceremony. But, that is NOT what I found myself talking about during my return to work earlier this week. Because of my friendship with the groom during our move cross country together, we shared many friends throughout different phases of life. At the wedding, I saw friends from growing up in the suburbs of Boston and also from my new, seasonal life in Colorado. Kate and I got to swing by our winter-time job to catch up with some fantastic friends, and had a bonus night out on town. We bumped into people we didn’t expect, but were happy to see them and had… a frickin’ blast. Having fun with a bunch of friends is what I remembered and was sharing with patients at work this week. What a great time with old and new friends! I apologize in advance for the abundance of ski videos the HoboHealth Facebook page will be posting this fall as a result of my one weekend in Colorado.

We got the band back together. Here's the whole 2010 group together enjoying a brunch in 2014. A great time.

We got the band back together. Here’s the whole 2010 group together enjoying a brunch in 2014. A great time.

So, what’s the point? This post is not long excuse for why I haven’t written in a few weeks. Sure, I’ve had fun this month and haven’t been able to write as often, but this post is meant as an example of the life I’ve chosen to live as a traveler. I sometimes think of the sacrifices I make to enjoy the places I get to live. It turns out that some of those sacrifices are made up in my own head and I’m getting the best of both worlds.

I sometimes get an uneasy feeling when I go back to hangout with friends from the “good-old-days.” I inevitably come to meet the NEW friend who is a neighbor of my friends, or a coworker, or a CrossFit gym-mate, or whatever. I guess the feeling I get is jealousy, but there’s also a feeling that I’m missing something by being away traveling; that me and this new guy could be really good pals if I were around more often. But, it’s really fun times like the last few weeks that I realize I’m not missing out. I’m off building relationships that are just as strong. These relationships are built on the traveling experience and only exist because of the Na Hoku II, knowing who Uncle Ron is, powder days in Colorado, and dozens of fun things between. Someday, I’ll get my chance to make a lifelong friend across the picket fence (or at least in the next RV parking spot over). For now I feel really good traveling and I’m having a really good time making great friends in unconventional places. I hope on this assignment that I’ll meet some good people who I can stay in touch with.

I’ll try to write more often. After all, it’s not going to get any easier to write with all the fun with friends coming this winter.

Travel safe!   …but not too safe… what’s the fun in that? 🙂

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Enter Island

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A hike in the Haleakala National Park on Maui. Insanely beautiful bamboo forests.

A hike in the Haleakala National Park on Maui. Insanely beautiful bamboo forests.

As I write this, the sun has recently set and I’m sitting in the house Kate and I rented today. Our landlord will soon return to Seattle, but for now, he’s our quazi-roommate staying in the separate studio attached to the house. He’ll be finishing up a few house work tasks before eventually returning to Seattle. Nice guy, interesting guy. Apparently he’s a lawyer by trade, but has spent some time working in Denali National Park. At some point, he bought this house out here on the most remote of the publicly accessible Hawaiian Islands and clearly enjoys all the great nature activities here. He has two large lockers of camping and snorkeling gear in the garage collecting dust that he has encouraged us to use, so that’s a real bonus with this short-term rental. There’s also a mountain bike thrown into the deal that he spent part of yesterday afternoon fixing-up, JACKPOT! I’m sure we’ll get some more stories out of him before this is all over. Before getting on island here yesterday morning, we spent 5 days hiking, camping, and relaxing on Maui. My visits to Maui in the past have always been short, usually over a long-weekend from Honolulu, and usually packed with as much activity on as much of the island as possible. This time around, we concentrated the trip on two main areas of the island with a few days at each place, and we were really able to soak it in and relax. In coming from the Big Island, Maui was actually an increase in pace. More cars, more traffic, more busy, more tourists – my disdain for tourists is really quite impressive considering my living the vast majority of each year as a tourist in various tourist towns. I fear for my reintroduction to the mainland in 3 months – if Maui’s pace is too fast for me, I can only imagine the shock a city or metropolitan airport would bring.

Man, I hate tourists. We camped wright by the beach, it was really peaceful in the morning and evening hours.

Man, I hate tourists. We camped right by the beach, it was really peaceful in the morning and evening hours.

I’ve grown used to the small 9-seater planes we have been taking between islands. This trip to Maui was the 4th time flying by small plane in the last several months. To sweeten the deal on Mokulele Airlines, legs between islands are $50 flat rate and free from TSA searches and waiting in a line of any kind. It’s definitely flying with all the airport hassle removed. Yesterday, however, we did not fly, we took a ferry boat over to Molokai from Maui early in the morning. We rushed off to look at the house and then were able to quickly and truly settle back into relaxation-mode. Maui is slower paced than Oahu, the Big Island is slower than Maui, and Molokai is the slowest by far. The past 36 hours here have already been an experience. Afternoons have been filled with empty beaches and sleepy, small-town diners and bars. The land here is dramatic and beautiful. This afternoon, we took a walk up a small dirt path from the beach we were on. We knew the dusty red path would lead us to some secluded beaches down the shoreline that are inaccessible by car. During a short walk down the path, we saw wild turkeys and a bunch of deer. The deer here are cool to see, but are not-native and highly damaging to the vegetation. The damage to vegetation ultimately leads to a whole other chain of erosion events and has big negative affect on water quality and sea-life. Luckily, these deer are tasty, so local hunters are able to put a significant dent in their population. Our beach-stroll turned nature-walk got really interesting when it opened up to an abandoned beach formerly occupied by a resort company that used to run this part of the island. As Kate and I strolled down the beach looking at the decaying buildings set a ways back from the water, incredible views in every direction, and crystal clear water breaking over shallow jet-black lava rocks, we somehow both failed to see the 500 lbs monk seal sleeping in the sun that we were literally about to trip over (when I say “literally,” I mean it). Kate was about 3 feet from the huge monk seal and his partner when in an instant we and the seals all realized the others were there. The huge seals rolled over and Kate and I did a super-speed reflexive sprint about 10 yards up the beach. I’m not sure about the true ferociousness of a monk seal, but I know they can move faster than you’d think and can pack a wallop with their teeth or tusks or whatever it is they have. As we cautiously circled to the other side of the seals at a distance, we watched the seals, they watched us, and it seemed like everyone understood that all four parties involved were equally surprised. There’s only about 1,100 of this species left, and here we are just running into two of them on a day at the beach… crazy. We continued a short distance down the beach and saw some fish and an eel swimming in a tide pool – nearby, there was a “lahge lobstah” shell dried out on the beach. This beach, departed only a short distance from humans was just totally saturated with life. Kate and I had been in the sun long enough, and headed back to the car. As we passed the seals, the huge one let out a bark at us, I think just to see how fast we could move again.

Taken as we approached Molokai on the Molokai Princess Ferry. A dramatic island.

Taken as we approached Molokai on the Molokai Princess Ferry. A dramatic island.

I can’t believe we haven’t been here two days yet. We’ve experienced a lot in our short time here. It will be a wild 13 weeks for sure. Work starts tomorrow morning! But for now the night is pretty quiet except for the roosters I can hear clucking around the neighborhood. More updates and pictures to come soon – I can’t believe I didn’t bring a camera on that walk today. Oh well, next time.

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Relax to the Max

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Kate and I finished our jobs on the Big Island today. A standard 13 week contract for each of us that flew by in no time. This is typically the time that we start packing bags for a sunrise flight to visit family on the east coast or throw all the bags in the car for a couple-thousand-mile road trip. This is typically hustle-time. But it’s different this time. As I relax and enjoy my pau hana (after work) drink, the bags are already packed and traveling the brief 120 miles to our next assignment. When we get to Moloka’i in 10 days, our car will already be there with a few weeks worth of Costco supplies packed in the rear. What to do in the meantime? Vacation!

We are spoiled rotten. We get to drive all over the country every year. Usually we travel by car and see some awesome sights along the way. Last spring we drove from Colorado to Maine by way of Key West (Get a Haircut and Get a Real Job! 10/6/13), the year before, we drove from Colorado to Alaska and returned on 10 day ferry trip down the North Pacific Coast (Alaskan Ferry Trip 12/17/12). These trips are always cool and create awesome memories, but they aren’t relaxing. The road trips are many great things, but they are not a break. Logistics, highway food, cheapo hotel beds, and an occasional call to AAA are the common obstacles. In the next 10 days, we will deal with none of that. We will just RELAX. (don’t do it)

A song about relaxing by a band with a travel-themed name. Really the perfect vacation song.

I haven’t written on here much at all about our next assignment, which, by the way, is going to be fantastic. I’ve been keeping a journal on the side. I’m not sure if it will become some sort of blog entry on here in the future, but for now, I’ll offer this brief summary of what we’ve gotten ourselves into: Kate and I will be the two Physical Therapists for the island of Moloka’i when the current PT goes on maternity leave. The only hospital on the island of 8,000 people typically needs one traveler following the recent retirement of one of their two PTs, but with the pending maternity, they will need two travelers. Kate and I will run the show for three months while hopefully grabbing a chance to explore one of the lesser known of the Hawaiian Islands. Moloka’i is less than 10 miles from Maui, but much, much, MUCH more rural and quiet. Moloka’i is one of the last unspoiled areas of Hawai’i and will be quite the isolationist’s travel assignment. A huge majority of people who live in Hawai’i have never been to Moloka’i, but many of the ones who have visited have shared their stories with me over the last few weeks. From tales of hunting wild African antelopes left over from a now closed safari park, to being trapped on a remote deserted beach for days, to the incredible kindness of (most of) the locals – everyone who has been to Moloka’i has a tall tale to tell. Perhaps in the future I’ll share some of the other stuff I’ve written about preparing for our trip to Moloka’i. To be honest, I started out quite skeptical and thought Moloka’i might be TOO rural, but I’ve come around and am crazy-excited for the next 3 months.

People do love their canoes on Moloka'i. Unspoiled beauty.

People do love their canoes on Moloka’i. Unspoiled beauty.

But, work in Moloka’i is 10 days away. The work of planning, and scheduling, and packing is done. We’ll wrap up our time on the Big Island over the next two days with some serious beaching. Then, we take a TSA-free puddle hopper over to Maui for 5 days of camping, hiking, and relaxation. Saturday morning, we’ll take the <10 mile ferry ride over to Moloka’i to let the real adventure begin. My biggest worry over the week will be preparing for a fantasy football draft on Skype with a bunch of buddies from school back in Boston (oh those goons). I promise many pictures over the next week and some unique tales from the upcoming assignment.

I have to run, the sun has set on the last day of Big Island work and I have to get to cooking this steak. 🙂 Aloha!

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Just Go With It

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I’ve returned to my natural state. Everything I own is in a bag. The rear-end of the car is dragging on the tires from the weight of stuff that will ultimately end up in a storage container. Kate just got home from her last day of work with a bottle of wine. The corkscrew is packed away at the bottom of a box, but at least my camping gear is coming on the trip, so my Swiss Army knife is available. We’re each wearing different white Red Sox shirts as I twist the corkscrew portion of the Swiss Army knife into the cork and pull like hell while hoping not to splash red wine on either of us. Success! It’s going to be a good week off.

Map of lava flow hazard zones for Island of Hawai`i

The USGS’ Lava-flow Hazard Zone Map. I guess we’re supposed consider this when looking for housing? It’s going to be an adventure.

It’s been a wild ride to get this next assignment’s contracts in place. Actually, they aren’t really in place, I’m just going in on blind faith with fingers crossed. Kate got an assignment set in Kona, HI through a recruiter. We thought long and hard about whether Kona was where we wanted to go and what our other options were. When it became apparent that there were some more jobs around Kona and a couple opportunities for independent contracts presented themselves, we committed to Hawaii.

People ask me about independent contracts a lot. Let’s be clear, I am no expert on independent contracts, but I do have a little experience. Whatever I’ve done this time around is not the way independent contracts should be done. I’ve verbally accepted two PRN jobs with no idea what the pay is.

It all started well. I have had two different interviews at places that would like me to work for them. Seems simple enough from there, right? Let’s sign the contracts and get started with work. Unfortunately, neither of the jobs has 40 hours for me, but they both say they have 20-30 hours for me. We have talked pay, but I have no commitment from either job on exactly what the pay will be. I supposedly have a job offer in the mail from the private practice, and the hospital I have spoken with has cautioned me that they are run by the state, so “it can be quite a process to set-up a contract.” I’m antsy to have a contract in hand, but Kate keeps reminding me about “Aloha time.” Aloha time is the Hawaiian equivalent of “Don’t worry, be happy.”

The start of the Ironman Kona swim is right around the corner from my job. The locals call it “The Pier,” and I cannot wait to go get some open water swimming in.

Kate’s right, things are going to go fine, we always land on our feet. I have two places in Kona that want me to work for them and want me to start in under 10 days – that’s a pretty good situation. It’s Hawaii, they’re relaxed, and I should be too. No one else is worried, they expect me to show up on the 19th and start work. Nothing left to do but knock on wood, hop on the plane, and hope someone has scheduled me some patients when I get out there.

Remember, don’t do this. Be more business savvy than I have been. When talking finances of a contract, be clear, be confident. Because I have not been clear or confident when talking about the business parts of my independent contracts, there’s nothing left for me to do but wait and start working on my transition into Aloha time. Patience is a virtue, don’t worry brah.

To Be Continued...