I had quite a bit of money saved up from years of traveling and not really paying any rent as I was staying in hotels and accommodations paid for by my tours.

Why not keep buying out-of-state in other areas of the country where properties are still relatively cheap but still appreciating a ton. 

Cheap is not always better. 

Outside of real estate, I enjoy traveling (who doesn't?)

Even back then there were a lot of high rise hotels where you could get a decent condo-style room with hot water, cable tv etc for really cheap ($15-20USD/night).

Buy as cheap as you can.

Anyone have any insight into how much a strong dollar would affect the domestic travel?

The cost of changing a light bulb is quite a bit more when you factor in travel time to get across town, vehicle cost, a qualified person on payroll with benefits, overhead cost for the office to deploy that person.

My out of state clients are successfully BRRRRing and flipping here and are purchasing deals at a very cheap price point.

Additonally, purchase price points are cheap - you can still find $120k-$180k deals here in Columbus.