Follow us in our Rolling Meadow as we adventure through the forests, mountains, swamps, and maybe even a desert someday!

2024 in review

how it started…

love & fiction

See more from the our Love and Fiction wedding!

Follow our post-nuptial travels on our Honeymoon Adventures StoryMap!

rolling meadow

While we were planning our wedding (and finishing grad school), we began looking at what we might do after school finished. We knew we wanted to get out of the city, away from all the cities, and we began looking for somewhere we might be able to get a good bit of land where we could spread out, maybe bring some other folks to help build something different. We thought about starting a dog rescue on the land and maybe building some spaces to hold gatherings and events. At the top of our list of places to move was Carbondale, IL, so we decided to visit on our honeymoon.

Carbondale was everything we wanted—liberal enough of a college town, great hospital, affordable land, enough state protections of our rights to feel safe for the time being, and when we visited it did not disappoint! We looked at a few houses that we really liked, but decided to wait until school finished to make a decision (wanted to be sure we had reliable income after school).

However, shortly after we came home, my health deteriorated quickly, and I ended up in the hospital. I saw all the specialists under the sun, and no one had a clue why I could no longer walk more than a few steps or use my arms or hands for anything delicate or strenuous. Since we lived in a two-story apartment at the time and I could no longer make it up the stairs, we decided that if we had to move out and we weren’t buying a home yet, that we might as well buy a bus and live in that until we make more permanent plans.

As of writing this, we are a about a year and a half into the journey, and while we have certainly seen some trials, overall, we couldn’t ask for anything more. We get to wake up next to great lakes and mighty rivers every day. I got my dream job and can work from anywhere. If I can’t get out of bed, I can take my bed with me anywhere.