Hi, This is Matt and this is Brad from park Landia. We were lucky enough to be featured on the show Committed by Joe Piazza. Here's a snippet of that show. Now Committed is a production of I Heart Radio. The plan was to be nomads. I mean, I wish it was more complicated or there was actually more strategic planning, but we wanted to just be able to explore this beautiful country in the national parks, especially trial by Error,
and that Trial by Error was really rough. In the beginning last year, Brad and Matt Cairoat gave up there very comfortable and very secure lives to live as nomads and in RV no bigger than most people's bathrooms. It's been tough, like it's been really really hard, and we've had to dig deep and see if we really want to be together. There's no doubt about it that living this lifestyle will challenge you in every single direction of your life. And it's like kind of horrifying but also
just like the most exciting, thrilling thing ever. I definitely feel that we've had in the RV like our highest highs for sure, best memories, and also like our lowest lows, so it's like all the extremes crammed to Like I'm Joe Piazza, this is committed. Matt and Brad have been together for four years now and they've spent the better part of the last year traversing the country in their RV.
But before all that, they met on Tinder, and this was I think both of our first times actually like using Tinder felt like an actual possibility as opposed to like all these other Tinder matches or non matches are just like man. Probably went back and forth and talked for a couple of weeks, I would say before meeting, Yeah, because I was just busy wrapping up my activism for marriage equality in Illinois, which I said I would never
get married, and well here we are today. But yeah, no, I think it's just one of those crazy instances where we both weren't expecting anything out of Tinder and we both just downloaded the app. You know, we really only talked to each other. Brad came to meet me at
my loft I was currently renting in Chicago. He was living in the suburbs at the time, so probably like forty minutes away, and it's kind of miraculous that we even matched because I don't know, like what my geographic range was on dinner, but I don't think it a lot in for a suburb um. But we both expected Yeah, Brad must have been in the city or something of the time where he popped up on my app and I was like, so, I don't know, it was just
it was a different feeling. They went to this cute little dessert shop in an area of Chicago known as the Ukrainian Village, Black Dog Gelato. They took a walk. Matt gave Brad an adorable nickname. Matt said, you know what, I'm going to call you, Basil because the first ice cream eight together was Basil, and so we kind of bonded over food really quick, and it also got serious really quick. I basically moved in right away. It felt right.
It absolutely did. Although looking back in retrospect, I'm like, wow, that's a lot faster than the average. But for us, it really works. We got engaged, like I think literally three months after we Matt, and the funny part about that is one of my our friends, she said, you guys are just a bunch of lesbians. You got you moved in, you have two dogs. For lesbians, it's cats, but it was you know, those stereotypes. She was just making that funny joke and kind of resonated. We got married.
I think it was nine months after the engagement, one year to the day. Yeah, right, pretty much exactly one year to the day, and it was Labor Day weekend. We got married at Prad's cousins house in the suburbs of Chicago, in this town called Warrenville. The whole wedding was like super personal and how all these little intimate touches, Like not only was the location special for us, but
all the food was special. The people who made our cake, Dave and Megan Miller, owned this placed in Chicagohood Baker Miller. They made us a special kind of tiared bunt cake which was so delicious and it just wondering I think it had been was a banana banana plum banana plum, amazing. And then we also had of course black targ gelato location of our first date. They were there with this little vintage looking ice cream cart, thaying that they would
push around the yard. We had sparklers instead of flowers in the middle of the table because everything was sparklers because I was all outside themed and it was just it was a really magical, fun, easy going night. It was. It was after their wedding. Matt was working as a freelance food and travel writer. Brad did marketing and events for Maple Syrup Farm. They bought their adorable loft in the Ukrainian Village neighborhood in Chicago together, and they were
completely in love with it and each other. The neighborhood was homey, filled with wonderful people, coffee shops, and restaurants. It was Brad who made their apartment a real home. Before they got together, Matt was eating off paper plates with plastic forks. One of the first things Brad did was get them some proper plates, some silverware. They nested for a couple of years, and they loved their nest. The problem is both of them were on the road
all the time. They hardly saw each other. We saw each other probably for two days every three weeks for their entire it was a lot. Yeah, because I was traveling a lot. I would have a lot of work trips, and then Brad would also be working and traveling for the on the Maple Trail. Yeah, pretty much. So it just got to the point where, like, we needed to make some adjustments, serious adjustments, so that we can see each other in a more regular basis. Everything started to change.
When Matt visited the bad Lands in South Dakota for a story, he felt obsessed with national parks. I became obsessed with them kind of overnight. I just became infatuated, and it triggered this like curiosity where I wanted to learn more about national parks, visit more national parks. Not only was I personally obsessed with them and wanting to visit them, but as a travel writer, I was able
to write more about national parks. And then since I've kind of pivoted more towards that, focusing on writing about nature and national parks. But writing about national parks would mean even more time apart. For the new couple, the answer, the only answer, as they saw it, was for them to travel together. And to travel together that meant they had to become nomads. I just said, Matt, let's look into get an r V, and he started thinking about it.
We started talking about it. Since I work remotely and I can be anywhere, there was really no reason why the r V wouldn't work, and the RV thing, it's like kind of this Americana dream that a lot of people have, including me. Like I had been on an r V trip with my family when I was eleven or twelve or something and remember it. Probably it was
one of my favorite vacations ever. About twenty days later, I'm looking at r vs. Thirty days later, I'm buying an RV and Matt's like freaking out because I'm like, oh, yeah, we need to each put down three grand because we keep our finances separate. Everything is so that way. It's very equal within our relationship and Matt's money's Matt's money and my money is mine, but we sharing the journey together. During that time, He's like like three grand, what because
you told me it was gonna be zero down. I'm like yeah, but then this financing and blah blah blah blah blah, and it was just one of those fun parts where the dynamics kind of shifted. They had hoped they can airbnb their loft, but that was against the h o A rules, so they ended up having to sell it fast. That was in Chicago for two weeks, completely flipped the house. It was a crazy romant of a time to get that on the market so quick,
but you know, we did it. We did it, and unfortunately when we put on the market it was November, so then you have Thanksgiving, you have Christmas, then Chicago was going through one of the worst winters ever. Then you have the government shutdown. It took us six months to sell it in a market that takes thirty days, and so that was really difficult and very strenuous, not only on financial but are in a personal relationship because
of how we handle finances. So there was times where I actually had to borrow money from Matt because it just drained me. It created these little moments of panic, like, oh my gosh, did we make a huge mistake because we were that was like that loft was like our dream home and like the perfect neighborhood with the perfect neighbor It is surrounded by all our favorite restaurants and coffee shops and friends living close by. So that was stressful for sure. We end up getting it figured out.
There was a team that all worked out time for a quick break. When we get back, Brada and Matt hit the road. So if you like that and want to hear the full episode check out committed well link to it in our show notes too. As always, thank you for listening.