“I’m travelling in some vehicle
I’m sitting in some cafe
A defector from the petty wars
Until love sucks me back that way”
~ Joni Mitchell
It’s been a whirlwind week. I started out in Two Guns last Sunday, and by afternoon I’d worked my way south of Flagstaff, just north of Sedona, AZ. I discovered an amazing part of Coconino National Forest that I’d been unfamiliar with. It was quite beautiful, sparsely populated, and the ground was packed hard as concrete from the constant rains we’d had all summer. Fortunately, it only rained briefly during the two nights I was there.
We left on Tuesday and headed south again to Camp Verde where I stay every year. It is a 55+ RV park, but they allow daily, weekly and monthly rentals. The first year they were quite full but offered me “remote camping” at a much reduced price. I’ve requested that same spot up by the pool and hot tub every time since. I stop there each May on my way north, and every September on my way south. I LOVE having the pool and hot tub entrance about 3 feet from my van, and I took advantage of both quite often in my two days stay.
We had severe thunderstorms the second night which put a damper on my pre-bedtime soak, but I made up for it the next morning. Heaven.
From there we headed down to Prescott Valley and parked in Barbara and Lark’s driveway. I always use my visits there to do some minor repairs and major cleaning. I did laundry and fixed (fingers crossed) the joint between my grey water tank and drain pipe which had been leaking. The pipe detached from the tank under the van in the spring. I’d repaired it, but it didn’t hold. The mended joint gets jostled quite a bit when I’m driving down rugged, rocky roads (which I do often) and although it didn’t fully detach, the repair started leaking. I’m not convinced my current repair will last much longer. But I’ll be meeting up with Matt in Quartzsite in a few weeks and this sort of repair is right up his alley. He brags that he can “Matt-gyver” anything, and when he does, I it usually will stay fixed for much longer than when *I* do the repairs.
I also made appointments this coming week to get my van registration and title changed over to Arizona and get an Arizona driver’s license. My other option was to drive back to South Dakota before January to renew everything on time, and that was an extremely unappealing option to me. I’ve had a cracked windshield for a year, which grows by an inch each month. Safelight is scheduled to come replace it on Tuesday morning. Before I leave, I’ll go to Valvoline and get my oil changed, my tire pressure checked and make sure wipers, and all lights are working properly.
While here, I’m getting my fill (pun intended) of dining out. Lark and I went to a Thai place for lunch on Saturday and we have plans for Mexican and Sushi this week. I sometimes (not very often) get takeout on the road but rarely go out to a restaurant to eat. Getting to dine out a few times this week is a nice treat.
Lessons From The Road: I sense something is in the ethers lately. The Hopi word for it is Koyaanisqatsi. It means roughly “Life out of balance,” and refers to the relationship between humans, nature and technology. I am sure I’m overly sensitive to this, living the life I do, off-grid and usually far from other humans. I also follow several nomadic groups online and spend time with other humans who live a lifestyle similar to mine. Many are noticing it and pointing out different (often scary) aspects of it. One man who posts nearly every day has gone from talking about the nomadic life being an alternative to those who want to be in touch with nature, to dire warnings about the imminent collapse of the system as we know it. Many other nomadic posts and podcasts have become much darker in their predictions of increasing homelessness and the government’s inability or unwillingness to do anything to remedy the situation, and everything they can to exacerbate the problems. Some of the warnings seemed to be a bit exaggerated in the beginning and often took a somewhat nefarious turn, but if I watch other (non-nomad) YouTube channels, or even just the current news, I’m inundated with stories about Flock Cameras, ICE violence, and AI steering us toward eventual destruction. I read of new laws being passed daily to prevent people from sleeping in a public park, or sleeping in a vehicle (car, van or RV) even on one’s own property. I pass more and more BLM land whose entry roads have been barricaded to keep wanderers and the homeless out. Walmart and Cracker Barrel parking lots used to be a haven for RVers to spend a night there safely while on their journey. Now, many if not most cities have passed ordinances outlawing overnight parking. Public parks threaten to fine or even jail anyone who falls asleep in public. (I’m certain that rule is enforced quite discriminatingly, depending who’s doing the sleeping and when.)
Advisories have been posted to different nomadic forums to never tell the cops or park rangers that you live full-time in your van or that you are nomadic. Always say you are on vacation or on the way to visit family or friends. I’ve been told that it is illegal to live in your rig in many places. Nearly a dozen states (including my previous home-state of Delaware) have made it illegal to stay in a van or RV even on your own property.
Everywhere in this country, you must have a permanent address in order to be “legal”. Of course, I already knew one needs a permanent address to drive a van or RV. And boy, do I know the hoops that must be jumped through in order to “prove” where you live. I’ve changed the address on my credit cards and phone bills to Barbara and Lark’s address. I have to bring those bills to the DMV to “prove” I live there. I also have to show a passport or a birth certificate to “prove” who I am. (Yes, it seems very strange to me that I must carry a piece of paper to prove I was born). I’m sure many of you reading this think that seems obvious. To most of us who live nomadic lives, it starts to look extremely absurd and controlling to have to prove identity and residency to the government. It also seems quite disturbing that one must have a permanent address, especially with rising housing costs, and rents being unaffordable to more and more people every day. Most government agencies require you to verify who you are if you use their website. You need to receive a code via text message to verify who you are. If you don’t have a cell phone, you can’t get the verifying text message and you cannot access many services on-line. And if you go in person to many agencies, you must already have an appointment which you could make if you had a cell phone.
I’ll admit that I, having lived off-grid for going on 6 years, may not be the most objective voice; I’ll entertain the notion that I might even be getting a little paranoid, but every day, there seems to be one more way the government is trying to track where I am and what I’m doing, and where I’m staying and figuring out ways for me,(and my kind) to be forced back into complying with governmental and societal norms. I feel fortunate to belong to a strong network of nomads who are constantly figuring out work-arounds for more and more government oversight and regulations.
If you have any interest, you can check out Nomad Syndicate or Digital Nomad Guy on Facebook. He’s quite an educated and very well-spoken man, and he has a lot of insights into where he believes all this is heading.
And finally, my happy song of the week:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9qqDuEP4okw
That’s all I’ve got.
See you down the road,
Scott