An empty nester who felt “lost” when her daughter left home - sold everything she owned to backpack around the world alone on a midlife gap year.<br /><br />Rachel Stump, 49, always knew she wanted to do “something big” when her daughter, Wynter, 20, fled the nest to go to the University of Hawaii in August 2021.<br /><br />The recovered alcoholic had been putting money she previously used for booze aside into an envelope since getting sober nearly 14 years ago in May 2009 – saving $10,000 for her trip.<br /><br />After roughly planning her travels, and selling everything she owned, Rachel set off to Spain in April 2022.<br /><br />She’s since hopped around Europe visiting Italy, Sweden, Albania, Lithuania and Bosnia – before heading to India and Vietnam.<br /><br />Rachel immersed herself in culture – experiencing the pyres of Varanasi – a ritual in India where the community cremate the bodies of lost ones on the side of the Ganges river.<br /><br />Rachel hopes to inspire other “empty nesters” to solo travel and “live your best life”.<br /><br />Rachel, a waitress, from Louisville, Kentucky, US, said: “I knew once I got her raised I wanted to do something big.<br /><br />“I found every time we went away together I never got homesick.<br /><br />“The months leading up to my daughter leaving were so hard.<br /><br />“I felt lost when she was gone.<br /><br />“I would go to the grocery store and wouldn’t know what to just get for me.<br /><br />“Planning my trip was a nice distraction.<br /><br />“It was terrifying leaving but I’m living my best life.<br /><br />“I’m on my midlife gap year.<br /><br />“I hope to inspire others facing this.”<br /><br />Rachel is “best friends” with daughter Wynter and the pair have taken month long trips together every since Wynter was in high school.<br /><br />She said: “We’ve always been barebones travellers.<br /><br />“I never felt the urge to come home.<br /><br />“I felt I could be away for a year.”<br /><br />Rachel is 14 years sober in May and had been putting money aside since recovering towards her travels.<br /><br />She said: “For the last 20 years all my focus has been on raising my daughter.<br /><br />“Being the best mum.”<br /><br />The mum-of-two found it “so hard” when she knew Wynter would be leaving to pursue her studies at the University of Hawaii.<br /><br />She set her hopes on her travel plans as a “distraction” and set off in April 2022 on the anniversary of her grandma, Lillian Frances Stump’s, 61, death.<br /><br />Rachel said: “My grandma raised me.<br /><br />“She wanted to travel when she retried but she passed in a car crash just weeks before her 62nd birthday.”<br /><br />Rachel spent the first few weeks of her trip in Spain before meeting up with Wynter in Venice, Italy.<br /><br />From there she hiked in the Theth mountains in Albania which she says was “spiritual”.
