Speaker 1: Hi, This is Matt and this is Brad from park Landia.
Speaker 1: We were lucky enough to be featured on the show
Speaker 1: Committed by Joe Piazza. Here's a snippet of that show.
Speaker 1: Now Committed is a production of I Heart Radio. The
Speaker 1: plan was to be nomads. I mean, I wish it
Speaker 1: was more complicated or there was actually more strategic planning,
Speaker 1: but we wanted to just be able to explore this
Speaker 1: beautiful country in the national parks, especially trial by Error,
Speaker 1: and that Trial by Error was really rough. In the
Speaker 1: beginning last year, Brad and Matt Cairoat gave up there
Speaker 1: very comfortable and very secure lives to live as nomads
Speaker 1: and in RV no bigger than most people's bathrooms. It's
Speaker 1: been tough, like it's been really really hard, and we've
Speaker 1: had to dig deep and see if we really want
Speaker 1: to be together. There's no doubt about it that living
Speaker 1: this lifestyle will challenge you in every single direction of
Speaker 1: your life. And it's like kind of horrifying but also
Speaker 1: just like the most exciting, thrilling thing ever. I definitely
Speaker 1: feel that we've had in the RV like our highest
Speaker 1: highs for sure, best memories, and also like our lowest lows,
Speaker 1: so it's like all the extremes crammed to Like I'm
Speaker 1: Joe Piazza, this is committed. Matt and Brad have been
Speaker 1: together for four years now and they've spent the better
Speaker 1: part of the last year traversing the country in their RV.
Speaker 1: But before all that, they met on Tinder, and this
Speaker 1: was I think both of our first times actually like
Speaker 1: using Tinder felt like an actual possibility as opposed to
Speaker 1: like all these other Tinder matches or non matches are
Speaker 1: just like man. Probably went back and forth and talked
Speaker 1: for a couple of weeks, I would say before meeting, Yeah,
Speaker 1: because I was just busy wrapping up my activism for
Speaker 1: marriage equality in Illinois, which I said I would never
Speaker 1: get married, and well here we are today. But yeah, no,
Speaker 1: I think it's just one of those crazy instances where
Speaker 1: we both weren't expecting anything out of Tinder and we
Speaker 1: both just downloaded the app. You know, we really only
Speaker 1: talked to each other. Brad came to meet me at
Speaker 1: my loft I was currently renting in Chicago. He was
Speaker 1: living in the suburbs at the time, so probably like
Speaker 1: forty minutes away, and it's kind of miraculous that we
Speaker 1: even matched because I don't know, like what my geographic
Speaker 1: range was on dinner, but I don't think it a
Speaker 1: lot in for a suburb um. But we both expected Yeah,
Speaker 1: Brad must have been in the city or something of
Speaker 1: the time where he popped up on my app and
Speaker 1: I was like, so, I don't know, it was just
Speaker 1: it was a different feeling. They went to this cute
Speaker 1: little dessert shop in an area of Chicago known as
Speaker 1: the Ukrainian Village, Black Dog Gelato. They took a walk.
Speaker 1: Matt gave Brad an adorable nickname. Matt said, you know what,
Speaker 1: I'm going to call you, Basil because the first ice
Speaker 1: cream eight together was Basil, and so we kind of
Speaker 1: bonded over food really quick, and it also got serious
Speaker 1: really quick. I basically moved in right away. It felt right.
Speaker 1: It absolutely did. Although looking back in retrospect, I'm like, wow,
Speaker 1: that's a lot faster than the average. But for us,
Speaker 1: it really works. We got engaged, like I think literally
Speaker 1: three months after we Matt, and the funny part about
Speaker 1: that is one of my our friends, she said, you
Speaker 1: guys are just a bunch of lesbians. You got you
Speaker 1: moved in, you have two dogs. For lesbians, it's cats,
Speaker 1: but it was you know, those stereotypes. She was just
Speaker 1: making that funny joke and kind of resonated. We got married.
Speaker 1: I think it was nine months after the engagement, one
Speaker 1: year to the day. Yeah, right, pretty much exactly one
Speaker 1: year to the day, and it was Labor Day weekend.
Speaker 1: We got married at Prad's cousins house in the suburbs
Speaker 1: of Chicago, in this town called Warrenville. The whole wedding
Speaker 1: was like super personal and how all these little intimate touches,
Speaker 1: Like not only was the location special for us, but
Speaker 1: all the food was special. The people who made our cake,
Speaker 1: Dave and Megan Miller, owned this placed in Chicagohood Baker Miller.
Speaker 1: They made us a special kind of tiared bunt cake
Speaker 1: which was so delicious and it just wondering I think
Speaker 1: it had been was a banana banana plum banana plum, amazing.
Speaker 1: And then we also had of course black targ gelato
Speaker 1: location of our first date. They were there with this
Speaker 1: little vintage looking ice cream cart, thaying that they would
Speaker 1: push around the yard. We had sparklers instead of flowers
Speaker 1: in the middle of the table because everything was sparklers
Speaker 1: because I was all outside themed and it was just
Speaker 1: it was a really magical, fun, easy going night. It was.
Speaker 1: It was after their wedding. Matt was working as a
Speaker 1: freelance food and travel writer. Brad did marketing and events
Speaker 1: for Maple Syrup Farm. They bought their adorable loft in
Speaker 1: the Ukrainian Village neighborhood in Chicago together, and they were
Speaker 1: completely in love with it and each other. The neighborhood
Speaker 1: was homey, filled with wonderful people, coffee shops, and restaurants.
Speaker 1: It was Brad who made their apartment a real home.
Speaker 1: Before they got together, Matt was eating off paper plates
Speaker 1: with plastic forks. One of the first things Brad did
Speaker 1: was get them some proper plates, some silverware. They nested
Speaker 1: for a couple of years, and they loved their nest.
Speaker 1: The problem is both of them were on the road
Speaker 1: all the time. They hardly saw each other. We saw
Speaker 1: each other probably for two days every three weeks for
Speaker 1: their entire it was a lot. Yeah, because I was
Speaker 1: traveling a lot. I would have a lot of work trips,
Speaker 1: and then Brad would also be working and traveling for
Speaker 1: the on the Maple Trail. Yeah, pretty much. So it
Speaker 1: just got to the point where, like, we needed to
Speaker 1: make some adjustments, serious adjustments, so that we can see
Speaker 1: each other in a more regular basis. Everything started to change.
Speaker 1: When Matt visited the bad Lands in South Dakota for
Speaker 1: a story, he felt obsessed with national parks. I became
Speaker 1: obsessed with them kind of overnight. I just became infatuated,
Speaker 1: and it triggered this like curiosity where I wanted to
Speaker 1: learn more about national parks, visit more national parks. Not
Speaker 1: only was I personally obsessed with them and wanting to
Speaker 1: visit them, but as a travel writer, I was able
Speaker 1: to write more about national parks. And then since I've
Speaker 1: kind of pivoted more towards that, focusing on writing about
Speaker 1: nature and national parks. But writing about national parks would
Speaker 1: mean even more time apart. For the new couple, the answer,
Speaker 1: the only answer, as they saw it, was for them
Speaker 1: to travel together. And to travel together that meant they
Speaker 1: had to become nomads. I just said, Matt, let's look
Speaker 1: into get an r V, and he started thinking about it.
Speaker 1: We started talking about it. Since I work remotely and
Speaker 1: I can be anywhere, there was really no reason why
Speaker 1: the r V wouldn't work, and the RV thing, it's
Speaker 1: like kind of this Americana dream that a lot of
Speaker 1: people have, including me. Like I had been on an
Speaker 1: r V trip with my family when I was eleven
Speaker 1: or twelve or something and remember it. Probably it was
Speaker 1: one of my favorite vacations ever. About twenty days later,
Speaker 1: I'm looking at r vs. Thirty days later, I'm buying
Speaker 1: an RV and Matt's like freaking out because I'm like, oh, yeah,
Speaker 1: we need to each put down three grand because we
Speaker 1: keep our finances separate. Everything is so that way. It's
Speaker 1: very equal within our relationship and Matt's money's Matt's money
Speaker 1: and my money is mine, but we sharing the journey together.
Speaker 1: During that time, He's like like three grand, what because
Speaker 1: you told me it was gonna be zero down. I'm
Speaker 1: like yeah, but then this financing and blah blah blah
Speaker 1: blah blah, and it was just one of those fun
Speaker 1: parts where the dynamics kind of shifted. They had hoped
Speaker 1: they can airbnb their loft, but that was against the
Speaker 1: h o A rules, so they ended up having to
Speaker 1: sell it fast. That was in Chicago for two weeks,
Speaker 1: completely flipped the house. It was a crazy romant of
Speaker 1: a time to get that on the market so quick,
Speaker 1: but you know, we did it. We did it, and
Speaker 1: unfortunately when we put on the market it was November,
Speaker 1: so then you have Thanksgiving, you have Christmas, then Chicago
Speaker 1: was going through one of the worst winters ever. Then
Speaker 1: you have the government shutdown. It took us six months
Speaker 1: to sell it in a market that takes thirty days,
Speaker 1: and so that was really difficult and very strenuous, not
Speaker 1: only on financial but are in a personal relationship because
Speaker 1: of how we handle finances. So there was times where
Speaker 1: I actually had to borrow money from Matt because it
Speaker 1: just drained me. It created these little moments of panic, like,
Speaker 1: oh my gosh, did we make a huge mistake because
Speaker 1: we were that was like that loft was like our
Speaker 1: dream home and like the perfect neighborhood with the perfect
Speaker 1: neighbor It is surrounded by all our favorite restaurants and
Speaker 1: coffee shops and friends living close by. So that was
Speaker 1: stressful for sure. We end up getting it figured out.
Speaker 1: There was a team that all worked out time for
Speaker 1: a quick break. When we get back, Brada and Matt
Speaker 1: hit the road. So if you like that and want
Speaker 1: to hear the full episode check out committed well link
Speaker 1: to it in our show notes too. As always, thank
Speaker 1: you for listening.