WEBVTT
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Hey, welcome to Learn to R V The Podcast.
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I'm Tasha, and today for our community spotlight, I have Candace Cameron here with us.
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Not from Full House.
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Don't get excited, but it is a a much cooler Candace Cameron.
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I think so anyway.
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Thank you.
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Thank you.
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Candace, welcome to the show.
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Thank you.
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Tell us a little bit about yourself.
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I'm personally 35 and um I have been traveling in my RV for I'm coming up on seven years now.
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Um my profession allows me to travel nationwide.
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And I got this idea from other travelers that do the RV life and fell in love with the idea and dove headfirst into everything and haven't looked back since.
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That is so cool.
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So you're 35 and you've been doing it seven years.
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So you were let me do mental math, and I am not a math person.
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So you were 27, 28, 20, 28.
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29, because I I bought the RV at the end of 2019, and so I was 29.
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So have you been in the same RV the whole time?
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Yes.
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Can I ask what kind of RV you're driving?
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Yeah.
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Um, I have a 2008 Winnebago chalet.
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Um, he is 31 feet long and uh we're class C.
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And I lucked out, uh it was actually my mother who found the listing.
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It was through Camping World up in New Hampshire.
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Um, I was on an assignment in uh where was I?
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I was in Connecticut, um, drove up for the weekend.
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Um, he had a great floor plan, two owners, uh low miles.
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Um, I only bought them with 26,000 miles.
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Um and it wasn't a smoker.
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I didn't smell dogs, and I pretty much was like, I I test drove it.
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Um, test drive didn't go quite as well as the dealership hoped for.
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We went down a hill and was around the circle, and I smelt burning rubber, burning metal.
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And uh he had me pull over and the front brakes were had seized up because the he had been sitting on the lot for so long.
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Yes, yep.
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So we quickly pulled over, saw that they were flaming red.
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Um, and he was like, crap, I'm so sorry.
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Uh, I gotta call my manager.
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I was like, oh my god, please don't catch fire because I really like this RV.
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But I we'd gotten through that, and he's like, I will be getting you brand new breaks.
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I'm like, Yes, you will.
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I we went went home after that.
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I had sat on, you know, took pictures, took videos, sat on it for a week, and I was like, I think this is the one.
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And I put a deposit down, and it was the next weekend.
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I went down, did a full walkthrough, signed papers, and it was the brakes, and then the backup camera needed to be fixed, and so it was a week after that.
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I drove them off the lot.
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Candace.
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That's so steep and cool.
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Okay, so I have so many questions.
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Are you ready?
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I'm not gonna rapid fire the menu, but I have so many questions.
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Okay, so first off, I feel like I need to start with what maybe the biggest question is what do you do that allows you to the freedom to kind of go work where you want to work?
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Yes.
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So I am a certified surgical technologist and first assist.
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So that is I pretty much sum up my job of if you've seen any medical show, I'm the person who hands the surgeon the scalpel.
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Um I yes, so there's more to it.
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I help get the room situated, make sure we have all the sterile supplies and instruments, and I help with the patient.
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And then during surgery, I will help the surgeon in kind of any way that they need.
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And then as a first assist, I can go a step further.
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I can help close the incisions, and so it's a very in-depth behind the scenes job, but I love it.
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I do get to help people.
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I'm not as like memorable and notable as a nurse, but the nurses and surgeon could not do surgery without me.
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And so that's a really important job.
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Yeah.
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Um, and so my certificate is nationwide.
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Um, and so I get to go to all 50 states.
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And I how I do the traveling is very similar to a traveling nurse.
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I am hired through a company and they contract me out.
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I go to a hospital that say somebody went on maternity leave or had surgery and they're just out for three, six months.
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They the hospital doesn't want to hire somebody, so they get a traveler, and their standard is three months.
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And if you want to stay and the hospital still needs the need, then you can stay a little bit longer.
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Personally, I I like the travel aspect.
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I like to go to the place, experience it, spend the three months, and then move on to the next.
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And so I have been to 21 states.
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I have a lot of people.
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That was my next question.
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Yeah, I've worked at 30 different hospitals.
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Wow.
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I I don't count the states that I've traveled through, it's only the states that I've worked.
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Um, but it's it's been fun.
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I've been able to see the country, see places that I would have never even thought of.
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Um like most notable was Utah.
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Um, there is an assignment there, and I was like, well, okay, let's go see what's in Utah.
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And I, you know, for me, I don't know anybody.
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I don't I kind of research the town and I'm pretty independent.
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I can like to go out and explore, do camping trips, and so it's that has allowed my job has allowed me to do what I do both in the medical field and as traveling.
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The I I kind of joke of I love the RV life with traveling for my profession because it's my bed, it's my sheets, um, it's my environment.
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I don't, I'm not at the mercy of trying to find an apartment and put laugh in the first and last month.
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And before I'd gotten the RV, I did a couple travel assignments and I kind of had some sketchy housing.
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So to to make my life and my pets' lives a little bit easier, of having my own space has has been great.
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So you travel with pets?
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I do.
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Who what I have two cats okay, and then I have an exotic.
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I travel with a snake as well.
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So it's a weird mix of that is.
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That's like I don't know.
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I have a cat, but my cat is 17 years old.
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And I think if I added a cat snake to the mix, the cat would like make sure the snake knew who was boss by the time I got home.
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Yeah.
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So I have to know who rules the camper of the three, and then how long you've had each of them.
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Did you have them like before you hit the road, or did you get them after you set out?
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Yes.
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So uh my girl, my oldest cat, she definitely rules the roost.
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I got her, she's 12 now.
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So I got her before traveling.
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But she with her, I was actually able to kind of train her.
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She's leash trained, so she goes on walks.
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She got comfortable with the car.
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You're one of those great people.
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The people that I see out walking around, I am one of those people.
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Yes.
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Oh my gosh.
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Yep.
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You're gonna have to teach me all your tricks.
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If I tried to put Edward on a leash, I swear he would not go.
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He would just sit and stare at me and be like, what are you?
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Just flop over going.
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Like, this is not happening today.
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Yes.
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I'm so impressed.
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Yes.
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I I I lucked out with her.
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She pretty much was like, once we got the leash and the harness all trained, and and I opened up that front door, the apartment outside, and she knew what it meant.
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She's like, Okay, I I've got this.
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That's awesome.
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My boy, on the other hand, he was a little, I got him as a kitten, so he's no issues with the harness, but he is a homebody.
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He doesn't really like to walk around.
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I made a system of where I've got a run that I've got coated cables that are anchored to each side of my awning arm.
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And I flip their retractable leash on the cable with a carabiner, and they can just roam with me sitting outside um in that area.
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And he just he'll go out, he'll find a patch of grass, and that's it.
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He's shown no interest in walking.
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Yeah, he he likes the backpack.
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Um I feel like he feels okay with the backpack, but walking didn't really like.
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And then the snake was the last.
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I got him while on assignment in South Carolina.
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My my girl, I don't even think she knows it's in here.
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Um, he's just oblivious, doesn't care.
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My boy, he he was curious at first, but then now he's like, eh, okay.
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You're part of the family.
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You don't move that much.
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You're not that into training.
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It's a ball python.
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Holy moly, you did not go small.
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So well, okay, so the ball pythons, he is about four and a half feet long.
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So he's not gonna get that's not gonna get any biggers.
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Uh the fattest part, what is that?
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Maybe tennis ball.
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That's less than a foot shorter than my 21-year-old child.
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Yeah, yeah.
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Yeah, footing, footing like a few inches shorter than me.
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Yeah.
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But they're bully pythons are are so chill, they just kind of sit there.
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He's definitely more nocturnal.
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I've been able to take him out outside um in the southern states while it's warm.
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But he's kind of he's just like along for the ride.
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Do you have to have special equipment or anything inside your RV to keep him warm, like any lights or anything like that?
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Yes.
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Yep.
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He's in a he's in a uh tank, a vararium that there's a light source, a heat, and two types of heat source, and then a light that mimics the sun.
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And he, since they're tropical, he likes high humidity.
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Um, so I kind of they've got a mister, and it's the size of the tank is um four feet by two feet by eighteen inches.
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I wanted to go a little bit bigger because they say four feet by two feet by two feet is the standard, but you're kind of limited on space in an RV.
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So I had to only go 18 inches, but it's it's been fun.
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He he's been really cool.
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I have always loved snakes.
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As a kid in high school, I volunteered at a wildlife refuge center and out of school.
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Um, I fell in love with the California king, and of course, his name was Elvis, and he was just the chillest dude.
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He, I mean, you would just take him out of his enclosure and he would just sit on your shoulders while you're doing paperwork or just chilling.
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That is so I learned I learned a lot from there, kind of fell in love, and I had always wanted a snake, and it just so happens I was on assignment, and in town there was an exotic show, and you know, the old saying of, oh, I'm just going to look, I'm just going to look.
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Just want some meal, get some research, get a basis, and then you come home with one.
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Uh-huh.
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You've you've been traveling, you are in this class C with your three pets.
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You've gone to 21 states.
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Was Utah your favorite stop?
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Is that like the best place that you think you've been?
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Or was that the best like workplace that you've been?
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Utah, unfortunately, wasn't the best workplace, but Utah definitely was in my top three.
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I really loved Denver, Colorado.
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That was super fun.
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Denver.
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I sat in the summer, so that was even better.
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Yep.
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And then the other was Washington.
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Um I fell in love with Washington State.
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Uh, I kind of was a little biased because that's where I was born, but I left my family and I left Washington when I was six.
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So I hadn't been back maybe when I was a teenager to visit family, but that was it.
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And I spent a little over a year in the Pacific Northwest.
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So I did Washington and Oregon.
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Yeah, I fell in love.
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I uh I went up to the Pacific Northwest for work before we hit the road, and it was just a trip.
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I mean, I had been up there when I was a kid on a vacation, but I keep telling my family, like, yeah, we're gonna get up there, and we have still oh yeah, not made it there.
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And so my son is 18, and he's like, Yeah, I don't, I don't think you're ever gonna take us to like we're never gonna get to the Pacific Northwest.
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I'm like, No, I promise.
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The furthest that we got, we'll do it.
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We're gonna do it.
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Yeah, we got up to we were in California, we got up into like wine country north of San Francisco, and then we ran out of time and we had to start heading up east because we had rallies that we had to get to.
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But I keep telling him we're gonna we're gonna wrap back around.
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That's what we were supposed to do this last year, and then we hugged a tree with RV, and it was a whole thing, and we had to have repairs, and our our entire trip got derailed.
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But so I'm very jealous that you got to spend like a good a good chunk of time up there.
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That whole area is just gorgeous.
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It is.
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So this next year, no, I mean, we're at the beginning of the year.
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How far out do you plan with your work?
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Because I know that you know, you were saying that the hospitals like to have about a three-month contract.
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Do they book those out far in advance?
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Are you like booked for the year or how far do you know?
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No, I so I will um I'll start looking for a next assignment about a month out.
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Um I have a I do kind of a general idea of my route that I want to do for the year.
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I definitely I chase the sun.
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So I try and go north for summer, south for winter.
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Even though I've gone south, I have always seemed to have freezing weather and or snow.
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So that really hasn't quite worked out.
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But I kind of will get an idea in between each assignment.
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I take a week off.
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It just kind of allows me to get there.
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Um, I will try and just do like maybe a state or two away.
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And when I first started out, you know, I was trying to go like eight hours driving in a day, and I was just like, ugh, forget this.
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I'll drive four or five hours, go to a harvest host for the night, chill, relax, get up bright and early, um, enjoy the drive.
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And so I kind of have a rough idea of in what region I want to be at what time.
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So, and then I just I'm not picky in where I go.
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I'll just say a month till I end the contract.
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I'm like, okay, we're looking.
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I'm gonna go east.
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And let's say, you know, I'm currently in Florida, I'll look maybe Carolina's Virginia, see what's out there.
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My recruiter will send out, send an email to me with all their job postings.
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I'll do the research of the town, make sure that there's actually a campground.
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Um very important.
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And I have to, yes, very important.
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And then I have to make sure that I am the campgrounds within 30 minutes of the hospital because we do take call.
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And so there is a time restriction of about 30 minutes from there.
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Yeah.
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Yeah, you get called in, then you gotta get clocked in.
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I've only had to shy away from bigger cities just because they don't have a campground, downtown Boston, downtown Denver.
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So it kind of limits there.
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And but other than that, I've done big cities, I've done tiny little towns, and it's it's always been it's always been fun.
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Do you have like we have a thousand trail membership and we kind of use those to get campsite to campsite?
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Do you have memberships like that?
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I know you said you use Harvest Host to kind of get across places.