Hello Karen,
Most travel nursing companies require 1-2 years of acute care hospital experience within the past three years. the reason is that when you take a travel assignment, you're expected to "hit the ground running" and be able to function with minimal orientation or supervision.
You'll probably need to go back to work for a bit before you can think about traveling.
ICU, CCU, ER and other specialty nurses are in higher demand than med/surg. If you have to make a choice, I'd go into critical care vs a generalist type of nursing.
You can find some interesting articles on traveling here, http://www.nursefriendly.com/traveler
Wish you well:
Andrew Lopez, RN
http://www.nursinga2z.com