why did we put the bare necessities in a camper, along with some tools and books and two cats, and wander the country for an indefinite period of time (that turned into 5.5 years)?  there are a myriad of reasons, which all melted into a definitive do-it-ASAP pile somewhere in 2013. 

in no particular order, it's because ...

• our boys had never been west of the mississippi in any meaningful way, and they needed to see the rest of the country

• we love a good road trip

• we have a lot of friends in a lot of places, many that we hadn't seen in eons.  we wanted to hug and squeeze and catch up with as many of them as possible

• we had the itch to settle down and build somewhere, and knew that once we did, it would be much harder to pick up and disappear from home, for several years at least, during which time the boys would have grown to the point that there would be no guarantee they’d to be willing to come along

• our dream of what we hoped to settle into once this was over was something that involves more than just us, and we wanted to find people who share some of that vision.  what was it?  a woodsy home, a gathering center, a place to build and learn and create and share.  more here.

• we needed to find out where to start shaping this place into being, and though the WV/VA corner of the country felt very right, it wasn’t ever the only possibility.  we needed to sniff out a few more corners first, and ended up in Rogersville TN

• michael always wanted to do this

• bethany wanted to learn how to fly by the seat of her pants, as her love for order and predictability had ruled the day for too long (she had NO idea how hard that transition would turn out to be!)

• we were not tied to anything at that point, in terms of jobs or schools or organizations.  we were about as free as we were ever likely to be