A Dream Takes Shape

On Mother's Day 2014 I decided I wanted to spend some quality away time with my family.  Years ago my step dad bought a mobile home in Steamboat Springs, CO on a whim while passing through on vacation.  One year later my husband and I relocated to the Denver metro area from Florida.  Since that time we have frequented the Steamboat Springs area, using it as a getaway just 3 hours from home.  In that time we have come to love the small ski resort town even though we rarely ski and have never skied in Steamboat.  We love the summers there.  The farmer's market, the bike trail across town, the beautiful hikes in the nearby mountains, the quaint restaurants (although touristy at times) and the vibe from the people all made us use it as our go to summer place in the mountains.  Kids came along and we loved it even more.  From my parents' house the Botanic Gardens are just a short walk away where the kids love to play follow the leader and we can enjoy the beautiful landscape.  My son can play baseball on the fields next to the gardens, and we can stick the kiddos in the bike trailer (my son is now riding far enough to ride his own bike) and ride to a multitude of playgrounds.

Back to the Mother's Day weekend.  We went up expecting some snow, but were completely unprepared for what happened.  On our way home on Mother's Day we got stuck in a blizzard on Rabbit Ears Pass, getting onto the pass just minutes before it was closed due to accidents galore.  I have to say it was my scariest drive in the snow since moving to Colorado.  In town, it was barely snowing, but the pass was white out conditions.  Cars and semis were slid off the road everywhere.  It took us three hours just to get to Kremmling, CO, a town that usually takes an hour or less to travel to.  Five hours later we were home.  Since our weekend was thwarted by bad weather, we decided that we would make a return trip the following week to enjoy all that Steamboat has to offer during nice weather.

The following weekend was beautiful.  There was no sign of the weather that had nearly trapped us the weekend before.  During the week we had discussed traveling west of Steamboat to see what the neighboring towns had to offer since our love of Steamboat and all things small town had grown in the recent years and we were curious if relocation was a possibility, knowing we couldn't afford to live in Steamboat, the third most expensive place in the state behind Aspen and Vail.  We took a day and drove to Hayden, CO, 20 miles west of Steamboat and Craig, CO, 17 miles past Hayden.  We quickly fell in love with Hayden with it's small size, (pop 1800) beautiful, albeit not Steamboat type beautiful, views.  We also drove to Craig, which I'd briefly considered moving to when I first was looking to relocate to Colorado, but I found it to be too conservative for my taste.  Craig was a slightly larger town than Steamboat with a large mining contingency and a K-Mart and Walmart (not my favorite corporation).  Immediately on returning to Steamboat we put the kids down for a nap and broke out the computer.  If there were jobs available for physical therapists in NW Colorado we were going to find them.  Hayden, CO was where we wanted to live! Being used to commuting 20-30 miles easily because of living in Roxborough, CO outside of the Denver metro area, the commute from Hayden to either Steamboat or Craig did not seem daunting.  

The paper had an opening at the NW Colorado Visiting Nurses' Association and Zack found a job opening possibly at a skilled nursing facility in Craig.  Ultimately he wanted to work for Yampa Valley Medical Center so he applied to a PRN position.  In Hayden there was an assisted living facility and when I googled it I found that the site said "therapy coming soon."  I sent them an email, explaining that I was a therapist interested in relocating to the area and wondering if they had in house therapy or contracted with someone.  I never realized that that email would set the ball rolling that would turn into the whirlwind move that would ensue.  

When we returned home, Zack had applied for a couple of jobs and I hadn't applied for anything.  That evening, while we were watching TV, Zack's phone rang.  Ironically it was a recruiter who wanted to know if we had any "needs."  Since on the way home we had a long discussion about whether this was just another thing we were going to talk or something we were actually going to make happen and we were both on board that this was something we REALLY wanted to do, we gave her our info and our needs.  She had no idea what she was getting into and our relationship with her quickly fell apart in the coming days.  The small town therapy community was all interconnected with no room for a recruiter.  I got a call from the NW VNA the next day wanting to interview me.  I was completely baffled how they got my information and the recruiter seemed upset, seeming to believe I was pursuing opportunities without discussing them with her.  When I finally spoke with the VNA, I found out that my email to the assisted living, which unbeknownst to me the VNA owns, had been forwarded to her and thus, the plan was set in motion.  We had a phone interview, everything went very well and we set up a time to meet in person, which meant another weekend trip to Steamboat, damn! 

The weekend following my birthday trip to the sand dunes and Pagosa Springs, I went on a ride along for a couple of visits with the other physical therapist. She would be covering Routt County and I would be covering Moffat County, a very rural county with Craig being the main town.  I immediately liked the vibe I got from the facility.  I would have the chance to become hospice certified, which I think I would like immensely, and everyone was very friendly and welcoming and very casual.  I could tell the pace would be a lot different from what I was used to in the Denver market of skilled nursing.  We drove 40+ miles to a rural house beyond Craig.  The drive was so relaxing a peaceful, but all I could think about was the drive in the winter.  I made sure to ask about it during our time together.  I'm still not convinced driving between towns will be a piece of cake, but that may be a moot point depending on where we end up living. More on that in a later post.  After the rural house we headed to the retirement apartment complexes in town, which happened to be just a block away from the SNF that I had also applied to.  After the two visits I was sold on changing genres in physical therapy and settling in to a much slower paced life and career.  I loved everything about it, the people, the job, the setting.  I was ready to move to NW Colorado if offered the job.  Now to just wait...