Hello! We’re Andrew and Laura, a middle-age couple struggling to accept that we are in fact middle age. We live(d) in Austin, Texas, and had discussed becoming digital nomads from the early stages of our relationship, back in 2014.
We officially became digital nomads in April 2022, but we planned and budgeted for the change for years leading up to it and had some specific prep work right before the move. In the months before we hit the road, we primarily needed to move out of our house (which we own with a mortgage), rent it, and get our car ready for a lot of miles. Prior to this, Laura had shifted to a contract position with her employer to be able to work remotely, and Andrew had a flexible job.
We decided not to rent a storage unit for any of our belongings in Austin and opted to sell almost everything we owned. After packing up a few boxes of sentimental items and storing them in our attic or Laura’s parents’ house (thank you!), we priced our furniture, clothes, kitchen items, garage items, and all our random stuff. We sold a few of the big-ticket items separately on Craigslist, but we also held an estate sale that cleared out almost everything. The leftovers went to charities and the free page on Craigslist.
We deep cleaned our empty house and listed it for rent on Zillow ourselves, rather than using a real estate agent. Austin real estate is insane right now, and we had people offering us hundreds of dollars a month in extra rent to get the house. (For the record, we resisted the temptation to raise the rent. We accepted the first person who submitted a clean application.) We lived with Laura’s parents in Austin for the last few days before it was time to hit the road.
We took our car, a gold 2005 Honda CRV named Pony Boy, to a shop for a checkup to make sure he was prepared for the impending trip. Even with more than 100,000 miles under his belt already, he received a clean bill of health after brake replacements. We’re confident he’s up to the challenge.
We mapped out the first few places we wanted to go (Hot Springs, Arkansas; Knoxville, Tennessee; and Charleston, South Carolina), keeping driving to around 8 hours max and looked for Airbnbs. As soon as we filtered for “allows pets,” our options dramatically decreased and we booked the best of the options (while being aware of the housing problems Airbnb causes and trying to avoid adding to gentrification in our host cities). We had goodbye dinners and happy hours with friends, family, and coworkers. We gave Hermy, our 16-year-old cat, lots of pep talks about car rides and travel adventures. We even had “car training” sessions with her, where we just hung out in the car so she could get used to spending time there. And then the day finally came to load up Pony Boy with the last of our possessions and a skeptical cat and start the trip!
