However, the hours I work are inconsistent (by choice) as I do freelance and contract work (no 1099) and like to travel etc.

This is due in large part to major corporations like Intel, Honda, Nationwide Children's Hospital, and Wexner Medical Center investing heavily in the region and creating numerous job opportunities.

From student housing, travel nursing, to the Air BnB thing.

Croix shows that you have never traveled...I lived in the US Virgin Islands and Puerto Rico for two years on our sailboat.

However, fair housing laws as interpreted by the California courts make the process a little more complicated.Fair Housing FoulThe Unruh Civil Rights Act and the California Fair Employment and Housing Act prevent landlords from discriminating between would-be tenants on the grounds of their sex, race, color, religion, sexual orientation, marital status, ancestry, national origin, source of income, disability or medical condition.

On a Huffington Post blog this travel writer named 5 secretly cool cities in the US, and Jacksonville Florida came out on top.  

Thanks for the feedback all, already BP has definitely been a big factor in helping me decide to take action, with their unfiltered views as @Stephen Akindona states, and yes, affording me a certain level of trust whereas I would invest my time in traveling to meet with the companies.

Traveling, seeing new things, and going to new places really inspires and invigorates me, and fuels my art.

Im looking to possibly start off part time as the income is less than steady obviously, but i don't want to waste my time at a job that i can not leverage a skill or experience that will help me in the career path i want to travel down.

Decided I was "rich" and sold them all by 2006 and traveled the world.