I just drove away….
THE STORY
In November 2024, a surgeon removed my heart and replaced it with someone else’s. I had spent 22 years managing congestive heart failure — then it wasn’t enough. On the other side of the OR, I found that surviving wasn’t the same as living. After 35 years together, the marriage ended. So I pointed myself at the open road and started figuring out what comes next—and writing about all of it along the way.
THE ROAD
Where I’ve been and what I found there.
THE GEAR
What works, what doesn’t, what I’d buy again.
THE LIFE
Rebuilding from scratch at 57, disabled, alone on the road.
THE RECKONING
What a heart transplant and the end of a 35-year relationship teach you about starting over.
LATEST POSTS
- Yeah So?
Something just occurred to me while I was sitting here writing today. I could get in my car right now and drive to the Smokies. Today. This afternoon. There is nothing and no one stopping me from doing exactly that. And my reaction—the one I was not expecting—was: yeah, so? As in: obviously. Of course I could. Why wouldn’t I? That surprised… Read more: Yeah So? - Built for a World That No Longer Exists
There’s a guy sitting in a borrowed basement in Cincinnati. He’s 57. He’s a heart transplant recipient—eighteen months out, managing a complex medication regimen, immunosuppressed for life. He spent thirty-five years in houses. He had a career, a marriage, a life that looked, from the outside, like the standard American version of having made it. Then his heart failed. And… Read more: Built for a World That No Longer Exists
James Nerlinger
I’m a writer, rogue scholar, and heart transplant recipient currently car camping in a Jeep Renegade — the first step toward full-time RV life.
I spent 22 years with congestive heart failure before receiving a donor heart in November 2024. After that, a 35-year relationship ended. So did my fixed address. Rogue Wayfarer is where I write about all of it — the gear, the places, the people I meet along the way, and the slow work of rebuilding a life you didn’t plan for.
Contact
Thoughts? Questions? Fellow wayfarers?
jnj@roguewayfarer.com