Nomadland: Surviving America in the Twenty-First Century

Bruder calls Linda during the fall of 2015, and Linda tells her that her family is facing eviction. Linda lends them her van so that they have somewhere to live. Linda and her daughter sell off most of the family’s belongings. Despite putting on a cheerful face, Linda grows exhausted. LaVonne helps to support Linda during the crisis. Linda asks Bruder if she will attend the 2016 RTR, and Bruder says she will.

Many van dwellers this year, however, are fearful about the upcoming changes to driver’s licenses with the REAL ID program. This change at the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) would mean that nomads could no longer use commercial addresses or fake addresses when renewing their driver’s licenses or car registrations. Bob Wells views this as yet another way the system would become rigged against nomads and the unhoused in America.

Bruder wonders what will happen to many of these nomads given the tighter DMV restrictions as well as the inevitable issue of caretaking in old age. A few nursing homes and trailer parks specifically cater to the aging, sick, and dying van dwellers. Still, many stories of people being found dead in their RVs circulate around the community. One CamperForce employee that Bruder knew, Patti DiPino, died of cancer. She had told Bruder that her dream was to find some kind of permanent community where she could settle, but that never happened. A friend posted on DiPino’s Facebook wall in tribute, “You are finally debt free and living in your forever home!” (215).

Bruder asks several subjects what their long-term care plans were. Silvianne jokingly plans to travel forever and eventually die by suicide á la Thelma and Louise, driving off a mountain cliff when it all becomes too much. Iris wants to be left in the desert and buried under rocks. Bob Wells plans to buy a school bus and camp out in it as a final shelter before dying by suicide out in the desert. Quartzsite had already seen several suicides within the past year.

Still, van dwelling only grows more popular, making van dwellers fearful that it is getting too much attention and will potentially come under further police scrutiny. One nomad Bruder interviews says that, although his niece and nephew offered to take him in if he really need it, his plan was, “Don’t die. Don’t get old” (218).

Linda’s family is still struggling living out of a van, and Linda begins to see a black spot in the middle of her eye. She also learns that a workamping job she was relying upon for that spring has been terminated.

Bruder’s plan had been to end the book with Linda’s return to RTR in 2016, but instead, she learns that Linda has fallen ill. Linda’s fellow nomads care for her. Linda tells Bruder she has finally found land for her Earthship in the border town of Douglas, Arizona. Fearing she will not be able to continue as a van dweller, Linda decides to purchase the plot of land off of Craigslist.

Linda had recently become involved with a man named Gary. Bruder plans to join Linda and Gary when they go to visit her new plot of land. Gary suffers a minor stroke and Linda is no longer able to travel, so Bruder offers to travel to the land in her place.

Bruder drives down to Douglas, a boom-and-bust town once known for manufacturing that is in decline, making Linda’s land purchase more affordable. The town’s proximity to the Mexican border as well as drug trafficking activity is also concerning. When Bruder arrives at Linda’s plot of land, she initiates a video call so that she can walk Linda around her new property. Linda and Gary are thrilled by what they see.

Bruder worries about how remote the property is, since there are no neighbors in sight. While trying to search for nearby neighbors to speak to, Bruder’s rental car gets stuck. She struggles to find reception to call a towing company, and when she finally does get help, she feels vulnerable as a woman traveling through the area alone.

She emails photos and notes for Linda, conveying her concern about just how remote this place truly is. Linda, who is at CamperForce earning money to build her Earthship, doesn’t address these concerns. Still, Bruder fears whether or not Linda will be able to survive the construction process. Linda eventually tells Bruder, and also posts to social media, her wish to, “be independent, get out of the rat race, support local businesses, buy only American made. Stop buying stuff I don’t need to impress people I don’t like” (240). Although she isn’t sure if Gary will want to help build and settle down in the Earthship with her, Linda is excited to finally build her dream home.

Swankie Wheels returns to Quartzsite for another winter, and plans to hike the 800-mile Arizona Trail. Silvianne camps out near her while working at a gem store in town. LaVonne, after joining the Standing Rock protests, dreams of buying land near Taos, New Mexico to permanently park a bus that she will live in. Bob Wells continues to host RTR, which grows in attendance as more people grow interested in van dwelling after watching his YouTube channel.

Bruder is unable to attend RTR 2017, but realizes as she walks through her neighborhood in Brooklyn she starts spotting other mobile homes and van dwellers she never noticed before, “an invisible city hiding in plain sight” (245). She also learns that she has met LaVonne’s son unknowingly at an unrelated event.

Around the time Bruder first met Linda, Linda had commented on Bruder’s octopus-shaped ring, mentioning how smart octopuses are and citing a specific video of an octopus. Scrolling through Linda’s Facebook years later, Bruder finds the video of an octopus Linda once mentioned. In it, an octopus escapes a predator by squeezing itself inside the two halves of a coconut shell, rolling along in what Bruder calls a “coconut mobile home” (249).

When Linda finally arrives in Douglas to see her land for herself, she is pleased with it. She plans to start construction after that year’s RTR. Gary and LaVonne help her build a greenhouse. Linda hires an excavator to clear one acre of the land so she is able to finally have something to build her home upon.