First Time Traveler

Ruby Vee, BSN · Mar 3, 2017

Car charger is a must. A smartphone is more flexible than a standalone GPS. Stun gun? Ever used one in your normal life? No? If it makes you feel better, no harm. But you've seen too many movies.
Life as a traveler has pretty much the same risks as real life with your normal activities. Sometimes tourists are targeted but as far as I know non tourists have the same risks. Hotels are perhaps the most dangerous part of this endeavor. Personally, I feel safer sleeping in my car. Mind you, most will say the opposite.

I'm thinking perhaps you're a guy. Guys aren't usually the targets that young women are. Don't sleep in your car. Pick a reputable chain motel and use the security chain. Keep your wits about you, and if it looks sketchy to you -- even if it's just a gut feeling -- don't stay.

NedRN · Mar 3, 2017

Really? Molesters just stroll along looking in cars parked overnight for young women? I'd bet you will find many more rapes in hotels. I don't think that people bust into hotel doors to molest the sleepers, more likely a hall issue (which won't happen in a car you park and don't get out of).

But that barely matters as the vast majority of rapes are not between strangers. Of course, when it happens, it gets a lot of news, just like baby snatchers.

In any case, these issues happen so seldom to strangers, that it is just fear mongering to even discuss them.

Point in case, have you ever heard about this happening to a traveler?

nursekeh · Mar 3, 2017

Sweet! I miss my cross-country travel assignments! I would say give yourself a couple extra days to enjoy the drive. Stop and be a tourist, take pictures, eat the local food! I would sometimes listen to a good book on tape (if you're into that). Also don't over pack. I know 13 weeks seems like you will need everything but just take the essentials and buy the rest there. For example comforters, towels & plates etc, find a local TJ Maxx or another discount store. Good luck!

Ruby Vee, BSN · Mar 3, 2017

Really? Molesters just stroll along looking in cars parked overnight for young women? I'd bet you will find many more rapes in hotels. I don't think that people bust into hotel doors to molest the sleepers, more likely a hall issue (which won't happen in a car you park and don't get out of).
But that barely matters as the vast majority of rapes are not between strangers. Of course, when it happens, it gets a lot of news, just like baby snatchers.
In any case, these issues happen so seldom to strangers, that it is just fear mongering to even discuss them.
Point in case, have you ever heard about this happening to a traveler?

I've had this happen to me as a traveler. More than once. Attractive young women traveling alone get unwelcome attention from strange men in restaurants, at rest stops and stranded at the side of the road. Sometimes fat old women get unwelcome attention from strange men, even when their husbands are only a few steps away. As a male, you probably don't even have this on your radar. Women have to be alert to their surroundings, and when you're asleep in a vehicle parked in a public place, you are not alert to your surroundings.

Obviously, I've never been murdered by a stranger because I was sleeping in my car and fortunately never raped, either. I stopped once for a "15 minute nap" on an overnight drive and woke up to some guy tapping on my window asking if I wanted "to party," and another time parked to make a phone call and looked up to find some guy's member pressed against my window. (That one was in broad daylight, in my own home area at the head of a popular hiking trail.) I have stopped at an empty rest area to use the bathroom and heard a semi stop outside, then the driver come into the women's restroom and started looking into stalls. Fortunately, I was traveling with my dog and she backed him up on out of there! Now I stop at crowded rest stops or at "America's bathroom", MacDonald's.

We have cellphones now, and that makes us safer. If we're stranded on the road, we can call a tow truck, then wait in the car with the doors locked until either it or a police car arrives. Parking a car to sleep in overnight and not getting out of it may be realistic for a young man armed with a urinal; it's less so for a young woman. Not to mention, it's somewhat "icky." But whatever.

I enjoy driving cross country, either with my husband or by myself. But if you're female, you have to be aware that some men out there just may want to rape or kill you.

NedRN · Mar 3, 2017

If I may sum up here, you are saying that anecdotally, things are equally unsafe for women at home and while traveling? That I can agree with, except for the staying at hotels (which is still relatively low risk).

Ruby Vee, BSN · Mar 3, 2017

If I may sum up here, you are saying that anecdotally, things are equally unsafe for women at home and while traveling? That I can agree with, except for the staying at hotels (which is still relatively low risk).

I'm saying hotels are less risky than sleeping in cars.

NedRN · Mar 3, 2017

Hotel Rape Epidemic Back In The Spotlight Again | Litigation & Trial Lawyer Blog

Lots of stuff like this online. See if you can find one for stranger assaults or rapes in cars that suggests it is widespread.

SunnyPupRN · Mar 4, 2017

Just put it out there. If they figure you out so what.

There

was the thing where the nurses on this site were sued for naming certain companies in their posts and remarking about them, as it were. Better to PM.

dudaymed · Mar 4, 2017

I was a first time traveler and did not know any better. I found out during orientation that other nurses from different agencies are making more than $1000/week . Yup not a typo...per week! I understand contract packages varies but $13,000 difference per 13-week contract is way too much. Not to mention I get no benefits nor bonus. I feel stupid, worthless and advantaged of. They were also hard to reach especially when they know that I found out about the compensation. Also I am supposed to get paid every Friday but I have not gotten the full pay today which is a Friday. No one bothered to explain. I emailed and got a response that it would be delayed till Monday.

**canoehead, BSN, RN** · Mar 4, 2017

My 2 cents. Make sure your phone has location turned on and someone you know can use it to locate you. Call someone at a designated time every day to check in. A travel nurse I knew once said eight hours driving a day is more than enough, when you're doing it on consecutive days.

Ned, a woman sleeping in a car is visible to those that want to cause trouble, and not visible in a motel room. Every woman older than 15 has had unwanted attention, and had someone refuse to back off, just because she was alone or looked defenceless. I'd take a tent into the woods before I'd sleep in a car where I could be seen, even with the doors locked.

Wolf at the Door, BSN · Mar 4, 2017

I was a first time traveler and did not know any better. I found out during orientation that other nurses from different agencies are making more than $1000/week . Yup not a typo...per week! I understand contract packages varies but $13,000 difference per 13-week contract is way too much. Not to mention I get no benefits nor bonus. I feel stupid, worthless and advantaged of. They were also hard to reach especially when they know that I found out about the compensation. Also I am supposed to get paid every Friday but I have not gotten the full pay today which is a Friday. No one bothered to explain. I emailed and got a response that it would be delayed till Monday.

What agency is this? Help others not make the same mistake. .

Wolf at the Door, BSN · Mar 4, 2017

There
was the thing where the nurses on this site were sued for naming certain companies in their posts and remarking about them, as it were. Better to PM.

Not sure how you can sue if it is the truth. I would think most who have problems with agency have some paper trail.