Lorrie Sarafin is a van nomad in the American Southwest, one of the estimated three million Americans who live on the road.
For three years she has been
without a house, but not a home, not just surviving but thriving in the desert
and mountains of Arizona and New Mexico, living in her van “LokiMotion”, named
after her cat. Now in her mid-60s,
Lorrie is living off her Social Security checks.
Raised in central Connecticut
she describes herself as a “small town girl, but not rich”. Not loving the big city, she moved to Arizona
in 1993 and reinvented herself as a self-taught musician and artist,
recording two CD’s of native American flute music. She even took extension classes
through Julliard.
In 2014 she discovered
minimalist and van-lifestyle guru Bob
Wells and she started thinking about different
housing options.
Unlike the van nomads whose
lives were so well documented in the 2021 Oscar winning movie “Nomadland”, Lorrie
didn’t lose her job and house, but walked away from both, choosing instead to spend
her retirement living on the road.
“I asked myself ‘why am I
doing a job just to have money to pay rent?’”. (Doubtless there are housing-squeezed folks
around here who may be asking the same thing.) “Now I don’t have to pay rent or utilities,
just car insurance and van payments.”
After working all through
Covid (without vaccination or getting sick), in 2021 she fitted out her new
van’s interior herself complete with a bed, cabinets, shelves, a small
refrigerator, Sirius XM radio and lights.
It’s all powered by a 500 watt battery she charges with solar panels for
about six hours each day.
Solar cells charge up her battery
She can’t cook in her van but
has mastered campfire cuisine. Her
biggest worry is bears so she keeps her bear spray close by and is considering
getting a gun.
In the winter she heads to the
warm side of the state where overnight lows are in the mid 30’s and daytime
highs in the mid 70’s. In the brutal
summer heat she abandons the desert for the mountains. “Above 8000 feet it stays in the mid 80’s,”
says Lorrie. “But when it’s cold and raining, it’s not a lot of fun (being
cooped up in the van).”
She can camp for up to 14 days
on BLM (Bureau of Land Management) or US Forest Service land, then has to move
on.
Sanitation depends on buckets,
her laundry being done at a laundromat. She
takes sponge baths in her van and says that daily showers are over-rated. As for her health, “I haven’t seen a doctor
in 20 years but take a lot of supplements and must have a great immune system.” She swears by Wild Oregano Oil as a
preventative.
While she prefers to camp
alone or with her friend, she actually likes being out of cellphone
range. She visits a small town PO Box
for her snail mail and uses her cellphone for internet and email.
Camping in the mountains
She describes her fellow van
nomads as “really nice people” who share her love of being alone.
“If you’re a
curl-up-on-the-couch and watch Netflix kind of person, this life is not for
you,” she warns. “But for me, I just have so much freedom and
am in love with nature.”
