Hey guys we are happy to share our first guest blog post with you! We teamed up with a friend we made at our most recent event, the Tinyhouse Living Festival in Colorado. Like us, she loves the tiny living movement and is a fellow midwesterner as well. Don’t let me spoil her post, lets read what she has to say, it may not be the last you hear from her here!

 

Greetings Midwest Wanderer fans! My name is Maggie and I’m the founder of Try It Tiny – an Aribnb-esq concept to rent private land (to park a tiny house on wheels / RV / Skoolie). If you don’t already have a small dwelling, you can try renting a tiny house, RV, or Skoolie on the site too!

I met Luke and Rachel at the most recent Tiny House Living Festival in Littleton, Colorado. Like many of you I enjoy them thoroughly, and being a Midwesterner myself (raised in Indiana), I love them even more!

I’m not sure how other Midwesterners feel, but growing up in Indiana, it was easy to feel mediocre about our (state) / home town. We had/have gray winters and hot, humid summers; our land is almost entirely flat (relatively speaking) and most people know of only a few facts about our home state:

• We grow corn.
• We have no mountains.
• We are near (but not,) Chicago.
• We exist somewhere between the east and west coast.

For these reasons, it’s not surprising that I ‘wandered’ my way to the east coast (New York) for 7 years after undergrad, in part, searching for that not-so-mediocre experience. What may be surprising, however, is that wandering back to Hoosier-land (Indiana; for those unfamiliar) ultimately led me to Try It Tiny. It was the sprawling space and extremely affordable land that allowed me to help micro dwellers find places to park. It’s the business-friendly environment here in Indiana that has kept us wanting to stay and grow here too.

Just like most of us who subscribe to the Midwest Wanderers’ amazing view on life, I still thoroughly enjoy traveling. I’m fortunate in that I’m able to be traveling, in search of and meeting new Hosts; but I never forget all of the great things in the “mediocre Midwest.”

Here are a few reasons I view it as myth-buster:

• Sports fan? Between the college towns (Indiana University, Purdue University, Notre Dame, Butler), NCAA Headquarters, the Colts, Pacers, the Indy 500, Brickyard 400, the Big 10 football and the Final Four tournaments – let’s just say we have you covered.
• Outdoor enthusiasts enjoy places like the Indiana Dunes, Turkey Run and Brown County state parks
• Any popcorn fans out there? Nearly 90% of the world’s popcorn comes from Indiana and is home to the famous Orville Redenbacher.
• Architecture: Known as the Covered Bridge Capital of the World., there are more covered bridges in Indiana than in any other state.
• And it’s hard to brag about Hoosier-land without giving credit to the folks at Forbes, who nationally recognized the capitol for things like:
  • #1 Most Affordable Housing
  • #3 Livability (downtown)
  • #2 Cities secretly great for Tech Grads
  • #5 Women in Tech

 

But you don’t have to take my word for it; come check it out yourself – I’ll even help you find a spot to park your home or you can rent one during your stay.

However you travel through the Midwest, I hope you’ll find that it isn’t so mediocre after all.