We are Hugh and Rachel, who go by HugAndRackle together due to a shared email account we started years ago by the same name.

We grew up on opposite sides of the country in the United States, met in Texas, and went on a group trip together to Taiwan for two months (early love for travel started). We have now been married for more than half of our lives. Early in our marriage, we said we would have kids young so we could go on adventures before we are too old.

We have lived together both on the west coast and east coast of the United States, where we raised two wonderful daughters. In that time, we owned and lived in a warm home with lots of memories, family gatherings, birthday parties, and seasonal parties. We loved to be the place where kids would gather to play games, watch movies, or just hang out.

Then the empty nest approached. We knew it was coming, but unlike many, we already had the outline of a plan that had been forming for most of our lives. Our youngest was approaching university graduation, so we started the serious discussion about starting to travel. Initially we thought about just living in different cities in the United States to see the country. Or driving around Mexico. Maybe even an RV.

I should mention that I had already been a full-time remote worker for more than four years, long before the pandemic. And my manager was fine with us testing the waters, so no hurdle there. We just had to take a first step.

What was that first step? A trial run in Daytona Beach, Florida. We got an AirBnB in the off-season, packed the work and personal gear we needed for an extended stay, and drove to Florida for the last part of 2021 for a six-week trial run.

It was life changing!

Not only did we discover that working from this AirBnB was exactly the same as working from home (with the right equipment), but we also found that the only real difference was in how we spent our free time before or after work. Instead of the same house with the same chores and even the same grocery stores, it was a new adventure every day.

In addition to enjoying the coast in the cold season (which we like), we enjoyed the slow vibe of beach life for that period of time, knowing that it was not vacation but just where we were living. We also enjoyed being close enough to the Disney parks that we could spend the day at Epcot on a day off (which is often the appeal of various cities, what is close by). It helped us make the shift from thinking about being nomads to experiencing a small taste of the nomad life.

We were sold! And we didn’t waste time.

Within three months of our trip, we had sold most of our stuff and put a small remaining amount in storage, listed and sold our house, and were living in short term furnished housing by March of 2022.

We had started our nomadic life!

We stayed in town until our youngest graduated from university, and then in October of 2022, we started our real adventure in Palermo, Italy. In our first two years, we traveled to more than 20 cities in more than 10 countries, and we have never looked back!

It is not easy. It requires sacrifice. It is not for everyone.

But it is definitely the life for us! And who knows, maybe you too!