Mille Nomads

Writing a little appreciation post for Sweet Tyler  to celebrate his 30th trip around the sun! This past trip and a half has been a whirlwind adventure. Reflecting on all our travels, trials, triumphs as well as the SIGNIFICANT amounts of one-on-one time, I am so very thankful that I get to live this adventure life with Tyler. Tyler is the perfect traveling partner. He loves to do the driving, so I get to be the passenger princess 99% of the time. He is amazing at logistics and planning; he enjoys scouring National Park websites to find the right dog friendly hike, Thrillist to find the perfect restaurant with an outdoor patio, and Furnished Finder to find us a safe and cost effective short-term rental. I hate doing all that research; so getting a short list of options to choose from is such a blessing. I think my go with the flow attitude and Tyler’s ability and love of planning (mostly this) has made us a strong traveling pair. Driving with Tyler Tyler is also the opposite...

After we left Austin, our next home base was Colorado Springs. We decided to check out two National Parks on our way from Texas to Colorado: Carlsbad Caverns in southern New Mexico and Guadalupe Mountains on the very western edge of Texas. We rented a small converted garage Airbnb in Carlsbad, NM for two nights. When we arrived, we brought our bags inside, and Tyler went to sit down on the bed. He looked up at me immediately with a look of surprise and shock on his face. I asked him what was wrong. He told me I had to feel the bed because it was a water bed! We cracked up; neither of us had ever slept on a water bed before, unique for sure. A big reason I decided to blog was to help myself remember all the funny little things that happened on our adventures too. The surprise water bed was certainly one of those funny little memories.  We got in later in the day, so after checking in we spent our first evening by the river, letting Bailey swim and play since he wouldn't be allowed i...

Our first extended stop on our adventure was in Austin, Texas, where we spent 5 weeks starting in June. Some may think it is a bit silly to choose to be in Austin in the heat of the summer, but we had a great reason! Tyler had agreed to be the Director of Photography on a film our friend Caleb was producing and directing. Tyler was very excited for this opportunity, and we both had really enjoyed Austin when visiting before, so it was perfect timing for us to be in the Texas capital for an extended amount of time. The Oracle headquarters is also in Austin, so I was able to go into the office several days a week and meet up with a couple of coworkers. It was a great change of pace after working fully remotely for the previous 2 years. I loved getting to spend some face-to-face time with my coworkers in the office, at happy hour, and going out to dinner. Zilker Park  One of our favorite parts of Austin is Zilker Park, a large park on the edge of downtown Austin and Ladybird lake with...

We left Jacksonville and headed to our first-month long stop, Austin, Texas! We soon got a taste of the many long driving days we would have ahead of us on this adventure during this part of the journey. We also experienced our first "low light." The initial leg of the trip went smoothly, we got off work at 5 and drove the 6 hours from Jacksonville to Mobile, Alabama.  We had booked a hotel room with a well-known chain that allowed dogs, and we thought would be in for an easy, peaceful sleep, but instead we were in for a rude awakening! We are by no means fancy-shmancy hotel people, but thinking about this place still makes me cringe. We arrived around midnight and were just ready to crash and get up and get back on the road in the morning. The rooms all had external entrances, and when we drove in there were multiple people sitting outside their rooms just staring at us, that made me feel uneasy right off the bat. When we opened the door to the first room we were given, the ...

Our first big stop was in Jacksonville, FL, where our best friends, Amanda and Griff, were on a travel nursing assignment. We stayed with them and their two dogs, Lilly and Daisy, in their furnished rental for a week and a half. We had a blast as they showed us around the city and the beaches they had been exploring. Griff also works from home, so the three of us worked together while Amanda worked at the hospital. The rental had a big front porch that we enjoyed as we worked. The three pups loved being outside with us too, watching all the pedestrians walk by throughout the day. We started many mornings with a walk around the block or to the nearby park with the pups. Then, after we wrapped up work for the day, we would make dinner together or try out a local restaurant. I had been trying out several new salad recipes with homemade dressings that we made together. They were a huge hit, and we have made them together many times since! Amanda and Griff had been raving about a silent dis...

I have decided I wanted to start a blog to encourage myself to write about this special time in our lives. I want to cherish and remember these adventuring years. Documenting with a blog feels like the perfect way to do so and be able to share our adventures with others. What are we doing and why? Anyone following Tyler or me on social media may have wondered where we are living and what we have been doing for the past year or so. We, along with our dog Bailey, have been digital nomads for the past year, traveling around the U.S., taking in the beauty, while working remotely from furnished rentals. Two main considerations brought us to the adventure we are on now: 1) we have a goal to see all of the U.S. National Parks together, and 2) we really weren't certain where we wanted to settle down long term. In 2020 we started dreaming up a plan of traveling full-time for a year or two, or until we felt ready to settle down. In May 2022 we made that dream a reality! How we got started ...