TravelingbeebryantRN & Flicks_withNick

We are about three weeks into our Nebraska assignment. We are starting to fall into a good routine with work, daily life, and working out. It usually takes us about a week and a half to get readjusted to a new place. 

The new contract is going well. Everyone seems super nice and the hospital seems good. I try not to talk much about the place I’m working until the contract is done. This past week I was put in an awkward and uncomfortable situation at work with the hospital. I don’t mind talking about this, as this was in my contract and I was very upfront about it when I signed this contract. In the past at different hospitals, I haven’t put a weekend requirement in my contract, and I have absolutely regretted it. Some hospitals are really fair and treat us like we are humans that have a life, and some hospitals treat us like we are robots to work and that’s it. When I signed the Nebraska contract, I told my recruiter that we wanted to go to the Midwest, but it wasn’t my top choice of location and it didn’t pay insanely great. We wanted to explore the area and it sounded like it was a good hospital. I told her that I wouldn’t sign without a weekend requirement. I asked them to place an every other weekend requirement in the contract. They came back with a settlement of two weekends in a four week period. I signed that with no problem. Some positives of travel nursing is being able to do these types of things. You can add these types of “requests” and “deals”. I’m not telling you that they will always get approved, but I’ve learned it’s always worth a shot. After two years of traveling, I’ve learned… Always ask, the worst thing they can say is no. 

All was well until the schedule came out and I was scheduled 8 Saturdays in a row and 7 Sundays in a row. I asked the traveler next to me and she said they do that to everyone. Of course, I thought to myself, thank god I placed this clause in my contract. I went to a charge nurse and asked who did scheduling and explained the situation. She explained the situation to the manager. I met with the manager a few hours later and she explained that they place travelers where they need us, and I explained that I have a contract. She started to tell me that it wasn’t going to work for them… I honestly couldn’t believe what I was hearing. I’m supposed to keep my end of the contract, but they are ok to break it. It ended with it all fixed… but, it’s definitely hard sometimes, as these hospitals try to push their limits even when we have a written contract. Lesson learned for future travelers, put weekend requirements in your contracts if it matters to you. 

Now let’s talk about some positive things… We’ve gotten into a great routine of going to the gym at 5am before work. We’ve been really enjoying orange theory classes. Has anyone done the new strength classes at orange theory? What are your thoughts? I’m not sure Nick actually loves getting up at four am before work at 8 am… but he’ll get used to it. 

We are slowly falling in love with the fall activities in Nebraska. This past week we went to two fall festivals in Nebraska. It was nice having the weekend off to explore these places. We learned from some locals that these festivals are “key fall activities” in Nebraska. I want to talk mainly about Vala’s Pumpkin Patch.

We started Saturday morning at the Omaha Farmers Market. All my NH and ME folks know that we aren’t use to a typical Saturday Farmers Market. They had fresh produce, local small business items, and flowers. Nick bought me some nice sunflowers. I have to say though… Once you live in Seattle and go to Pike Place Market, you have a hard time buying flowers elsewhere! We bought a local jam to have with our football snacks on Sunday night.  Yay sports games.

After the Farmers Market, we headed to a popular breakfast spot for breakfast. When you Google top breakfast spots, First Watch comes up. Honestly… I wasn’t fully impressed. Maybe we’ll have to try it again and give it another shot. 

After that we headed to Vala’s Pumpkin Patch, for a fun filled fall festivities night. We went in the afternoon because we booked the sunset orchard and cider tasting. Before I start raving about the sunset and cider tasting, let’s talk a little bit about Vala’s. 

We’ve never been to Vala’s Pumpkin Patch, but you can absolutely tell that locals look forward to coming to Vala’s every season. The workers seem so happy to be there and they really make the place special.  We talked to multiple people that raved about coming multiple times a season, and even a couple that came twice a week! 

Nick and I really enjoyed walking around Vala’s. We took the train ride, watched the dog show (the highlight of our day), walked through the sunflower garden, had some cider, and ate a lot of good food.

For $28.00 a person, you can ride the train at Vala’s, enjoy the shows, kids can play on the playgrounds, they have old carnival rides, hayrides, and other various things to do around the farm. The ticket gets access to 50 attractions and 3 live shows. Honestly, there was so much to do, that Nick and I didn’t get to it all. Word of advice… wear comfortable shoes, I didn’t at first and needed to change! Also, I definitely beat Nick at basketball. Don’t let him tell you differently. 

Now let’s talk about the food and cider at Vala’s. I’m going to talk a little bit more about the cider later on when I talk about the sunset orchard, and cider tasting. Nick and I had some really good food at Vala’s for dinner. I’m sorry mom… but, it was the best chicken pot pie I’ve ever had. Nick also had a delicious pie,  and he also raved about it. If you ask him what it was, he has no idea… He can’t remember the name. You definitely need to check out the pie barn at Vala’s. Who doesn’t love pie x2 for dinner for 12.99.

First off, let’s talk a little bit about Vala’s hard cider. On our way to the cider tasting, we got a little history of the making of cider from the agricultural manager of the farm. In 2020, Vala’s began making sweet and hard cider in the cider mill. The orchard crew at Vala’s works all year round keeping the orchards running. They have over 40,000 apple trees. In the winter time, they prune these apple trees, and harvest them in the fall.  In the fall, they press the apples into cider throughout the whole fall season. The cider is either packaged for sweet cider and/or goes into a fermentation tank, where they make hard cider. Vala’s sweet cider and hard cider is only exclusively sold at the farm. 

Vala’s was offering a sunset orchard and cider tasting. When I was looking up different festivals in Nebraska, I found this event and mentioned it to nick. We thought it was interesting and decided to book it. It seemed like too good of a deal and thought there was some kind of catch, but decided it would be a fun date night. 

Like I previously said, we started the ride to the tasting with a little history of the cider. We got to the orchards and they had tables set up with tasting glasses, apple pick bags, along with descriptions of the ciders. The orchards were surrounded with photo ops, bars with tasty ciders, and yard games. We drank and socialized and enjoyed the company of the people of Valas. Honestly this was really a great experience, and I highly recommend it to anyone. 

We’ve had a really busy week and a half. We went to Texas for a wedding. We visited Dripping Springs, Austin, and San Antonio. We absolutely loved Texas, and can’t wait to go back. Tune in for a future blog about all things Texas. We also got the opportunity to explore some more local fall spots over the weekend in Nebraska, and explore on Monday on our two year anniversary. Today I am off exploring Ashland, Nebraska. I heard it was a cute local town 30 minutes from Omaha.  Honestly, there’s too many good things/places to tell ya’ll! Subscribe or follow travelingbeebryantRN blog for future blogs or find us on instagram at @travelingbeebryantRN.