by Jessica Bruder, 2017
Eye-opening book about a subculture of aging Americans living in RVs, vans, or cars and traveling around the country. Gretchen recommended this book. These Americans lost homes in the 2008 Great Recession, went through messy divorces, had physical injuries or illnesses, or a combination of factors that made them unable to afford rent along with everything else. They purchase used vans, RVs, or even cars and begin living in them. They work in terribly difficult, low-paying seasonal jobs like Amazon warehouses (“workampers”), the sugar beet harvest, campground hosts, tourist traps, and amusement parks. She focuses on one particular person, Linda May, and tells this most interesting and depressing of stories through her. Things I learned: You can clean foggy headlamps with insect repellent and an old t-shirt. Earthships are intriguing! Linda May dreams of building one. She finally purchases a cheap piece of ground near Douglas, Arizona, and will build one. Black people are not among these people; is it racism among these nomads? Or more than likely, black people know they would be fined, jailed, or possibly worse if police found them to be stealth camping in towns and cities, whereas white people are simply checked on and sometimes helped.
Bob Wells is one of these nomads with a very popular website called cheapRVliving.com. He holds a two-week seminar near Quartzsite, Arizona every January called the Rubber Tramp Rendezvous to help others learn how to live in a van. They give all kinds of seminars to help others. Walmart allows overnight parking in many of their parking lots. When you work for Amazon, you work 12-hour shifts that involve walking up to 18 miles on concrete, and scanning products all shift-long that cause repetitive hand/wrist injuries. Amazon pays about minimum wage. They encourage and like older workers because of their work ethic. The jobs usually last 3 months until Christmas time and then the nomads head to warmer climates where they can camp for the winter. You can get cheap but good dental work, eye exams, eyeglasses, and hearing aids in a Mexican border town south of Yuma, Arizona, called Los Algodones.
She is an excellent writer! She spent 3 years with these nomads and actually worked in the sugar beet industry and in an Amazon warehouse. She bought her own van and camped with them in Arizona. She knows of which she speaks. Very, very eye-opening book. I see that there will be a Nomadland movie out in 2020, by Chloe Zhao, the woman who made, “The Rider.”
After reading this book, I am filled with gratitude to God for a wonderful husband and a wonderful home! Thank you, God!