Hanging up the headphones

Hey folks,

Remember my post a while back, the itinerary post.  Yeah that one.  Disregard it since we’ve changed plans a bit.  Actually more than a bit.  We’re still departing.  We’re still going to travel the country.  We’re still going to live the dream that we’ve been planning for 5 years.  The only difference is that I won’t be typing medical reports to earn a living any more.

I’ve made a living as a medical transcriptionist for over 15 years.  It’s good honest employment and in my case it allowed this whole travel the country idea to evolve but ya know, I’m tired of sitting in front of a computer for 8 hours a day, 5 days a week.  Tired of working nights.  I’m just burned out.

I’ve been passively keeping my eye out for a while for something else that I could do.  I knew there had to be a company or industry that would want a person who could travel freely.  My pet photo business meets that criteria and I do very well at weekend events.  However there are not enough venues to sustain it during the week.  It’s a great part time job for extra income but I can’t make a solid “living” with it.  Not only that, my days off from the transcription job are Friday and Saturday so I have to take time off (Sunday) to work the big dog shows.

So……  I was reading the RV internet forums a while back.  It’s where you go when you want to talk sewer hoses and weight distribution hitches.  Anyway, I came across a conversation from a guy who works for a company that surveys and inspects natural gas lines.  He gets sent to a job for a few months then moves on to the next.  The actual position is called “mobile survey technician”.  It peaked my interest so I started researching it.  Turns out that yes, it is a legitimate job with a legitimate company that has been in business since the 1940s.  They contract with local gas companies all over the country and perform leak surveys.  Most of these surveys are mandated by the federal government so job security isn’t such a worry.  It’s obviously an outside job but that is where I prefer to be, especially after so many years cooped up inside.  It REALLY started sounding good when I found that it offered full benefits, insurance, 401K, the salary was competitive with my transcription salary but in addition – oh listen to this - they pay mileage to each location, weekly per diem that pays the RV park or state park costs, and a vehicle allowance that covers my expenses to the job site each day.  In my transcription scenario those costs would have been covered by dog show income.  Now the photo biz can truly be what it should be – extra income.

Margo and I talked about it and came to the realization that it would be in our best interest to follow this path.  I contacted the company, filled out an application, interviewed, submitted to background checks both criminal and driving, and lastly filled the cup for a drug test.  Since I’m such a nice guy, good driver and “just say no” they hired me and we immediately got our marching orders to Atlanta for a couple weeks of training at company HQ.  We’ll be leaving this weekend and staying at a nice quiet RV park up near Lake Lenier, (our choice) out of the hustle bustle of the metro.  We may even check out Stone Mountain and some of the state parks in the area too.  After that I don’t know where we’ll be going.  Yes, we give up the ability to go where we want but that wasn’t really the point.  We just wanted to go to new places.  Well be sent to some armpits I’m sure but we’ll also be sent to some gems.  Now it’s a REAL adventure.  Buckle up and stay tuned.  Next stop Hot‘Lanta.

PS.  I caught some flack (Shelley) for not posting pictures in the last blog entry so here’s a couple pics of our new purple friends, Lucy and Desi.  I “acquired” them from Dawn and Ted’s house – the victims from the last flamingo caper.   Don’t tell ‘em.

The flock

Lucy