Who I Am
I’m Andy — dad, camper, writer, and road-worn IT engineer doing my best to stay close to what matters.
For years, I drove long-haul, chasing distance and meaning at the same time. These days, I work in tech during the week and run toward the woods every chance I get. I don’t camp to escape. I camp to hold space — for grief, for joy, for quiet. It’s how I breathe again when the world feels heavy. And when the kids are with me, it’s the most sacred thing I know: laughter by lantern light, firewood and forgiveness, all of us safe under the same sky.
I’m parenting from across 800 miles now. Not the life I imagined, but the one I wake up to — and I show up for it, again and again. Some weekends I drive across the Midwest to hold my kids for 48 hours. Some weekends I drive into silence and let the forest hold me instead. Either way, the van is packed and the fire is lit.
Hearthwalker is the name of my van — a silver Dodge Grand Caravan with 237,000 miles and more stories in her frame than most people ever hear. She’s been my motel room, my mobile kitchen, my sanctuary under the stars. Together, we’ve chased down the quiet, hauled grief through thunderstorms, and found magic in mosquito-ridden campsites where the coffee (and bug spray) hit just right.
This site is where I share the moments that don’t fit in texts or calls. It’s where I archive the in-between: quiet dawns, muddy camp roads, raccoons stealing our snacks, and the unshakable joy of hearing my kids laugh under the trees.
I write so I don’t forget. I write so someone else might feel less alone. And I write because even in all this distance, something sacred still lives in the journey.
I may not know exactly where this road leads, but I’ve got a van that runs, a fire that holds, and four little faces worth driving through anything for. And that’s more than enough to keep going.
