Nomadland

Linda turned 63 years old in June 2013 and drove with a campervan she bought from the Craiglist. It was called El Dorado and headed towards Junction camp site, three kilometers away from the East gate of Yosemite Nationalpark. There, in the fresh mountain air, she started her new life as a workcamper....

(Free translation from Finnish back to English)

The story of van lifers is not always what you think it is and they’re not just one group of people even if they fall under the same name. In this wonderful book, Jessica spends a good time among people who live in the cars - and eventually buys one for herself too.

We discover that in the USA there are different subcultures within a culture. Some brand-aware people cut the conversation short if you own a self-build van lifer or if and when they meet, they don't let a different branded van in their circle. They're the rubbers tramps who seem to be accepting of everyone - even if you wouldn't live full time on the van anymore. Some live not in the van but in a Prius. It seems that Prius is the choice among the smaller cars to be the choice of long-time car dwellers.

Some chose this life, those who do it part-time, but some once had a house but lost everything due to a personal financial crisis and can’t afford anything else. The book follows closely the life of a few vanlifers, the closest maybe the woman called Linda. She dreams about building an earthship - a house made out of care tires, sand, and the kind of house that would be self-sufficient. No need to pay for electricity, water, or anything that we count as a part of our living costs and think it’s close to impossible to live with.

At the start Linda is working different seasonal jobs, she’s a bit like a social loner who has required a lot of different kinds of van life skills like fixing broken tires - and she uses these skills as a camp host for the summer. I feel excitement when I hear the words Mammoth Lakes and I want to yell “That’s along the PCT!” Actually, many of these deserts mentioned are on the trail or part of it, this is giving me my kind of purpose for the hike I’m planning to do in a couple of years.

Winter is the harder season it seems, but one of the giants of the world has learned to tap into this working force. Amazon. All the warehouses need people to collect things from the shelves, to collect things from the shelves… it sounds like there are endless beton floors, a scanner, long days, and a camping ground that’s not the most luxurious thing you can imagine. Burana is freely available and people walk close to 30km a day - that’s a lot. As a cleaner the busiest holiday days took me close to 20km a day.

We meet also Bob, the creator of the blog called CheapRVLiving.com. He's one of those who first thought that when he moved into a van it would be the new low in his life. However, he ended up discovering that living in the car wasn't as horrible as he had thought. He among a few others discovered the importance of the self-made distinction between a homeless loser and a van lifer, car dweller, full-time camper - or whatever it is one decides to call oneself. It's just important that even if in the eyes of the law full-time van lifers are pretty much homeless, one doesn't feel like one. It's possible to live in a car, be part of the workforce, pay taxes like everybody else, and especially in the States be debt-free. But quite often there are phases in van life too when things get rough and one might have to get an expensive loan because the car broke down beyond repair.

"A person can do everything right, exactly the way society wants, and still end up being down-and-out, lonely and homeless."

According to Bob moving into a car can be a way the leave the society behind that failed you. It's like a rebirth to become a free adventurer.

However intriguing stories and worldviews, the book is not only that. Between the lines, it provides also historical context of how things have been developing. In the 1930s financial crisis, the first serial-produced campervans made their way into the market... and guess what happened? There are many written articles from the 30s with the same underlying tone where people living in the RVs are called vagabonds. On the other hand, it was believed to change the whole architecture and the way of living, and on the other hand, these people were believed to be homeless, tax-avoiding tramps who should be chased away. It also comments on the current development which chills my heart - in many states in the USA, being homelessness is almost a crime.