This autistic woman is traveling the USA in a van

Post Reply New Topic

Wish I could do something like this. She is a friend of my cousin, which is how I heard about her blog, and she has been living in a van for about a year traveling the country. I like her writing style. I thought the Thanksgiving post very interesting. She describes what is going on inside when she feels overwhelmed in a social situation, and I was wondering if that is how you guys feel?

http://www.90000milestome.com/01/9132-miles-an-autistic-comes-for-thanksgiving/

How does she make money?

I've always thought it would be kind of cool to do something like that, but of course that requires paying for gas, food, maintenance on said van, insurance on it ect....So I've never understood how people are able to do this, unless maybe they inherited a lot of money or something and decided to spend it that way rather than buying a large house.

So while I find it to be a pretty cool and fascinating lifestyle, I don't understand how people sustain it.

She said she does some digital freelance work, a little savings, and lives frugally; doesn't have a lot of expenses.

This chic is awesome. I wish I could go nomad.

I can relate to the need for limited social contact. My mother spent the warmer half of each year in her van for decades. She really couldn't handle deeper conversations than you get in a rest area very well, so moving down the road every day or so suited her just fine. She'd usually go to one coast each year. I'm currently building the only micro-camper I know of with a full interior kitchen.

Yeah, I can relate very much to that text.

I've never really thought about why I've always wanted to go nomad, but now I get that it's mostly about avoiding people. I've had my "escape" in mind since I was 10 or so. I think a bike and a tent would be my best option, then I wouldn't have to earn any money. Or learn how to drive.

A bike tour can be very cheap, but there's still food, and lots of it. I did 2 months in California, after a couple of build-up tours in Ontario. It was great, but I was also somewhat lucky.

I do three weeks each spring or summer in my camper van and usually a couple of shorter trips at other times of the year, but I think three weeks is about the most I can manage at a time. I don't think I could do a long journey going to new places all the time. I think it would very quickly become overwhelming. I always go to the same places in the north west of Scotland or the Hebrides where I know what to expect. I have been going there for over thirty years now and never get tired of them.

Her manifesto all sounds very familiar to me as does her description of the way she analyses social interactions.

Yeah, food used to be an expensive problem to solve for me, but now I've figured out dumpster diving, so I eat for free.

I have 3 RVs, a sailboat and I've never slept in any of them. I'd go nomad in a heartbeat if I didn't have a business. I'm jealous.

I have an 85 Renault with a working stove and faucet. It gets 35mpg. Someone drove it all over Europe before a German brought it to Oregon. I've had it for 4 years and it just sits.

Oh, wow! My crappy caravan isn't even 10 years old and not a single thing in it works.

I've lived in my car for years. I only had one change of clothes so laundry was not an issue. I now get money from SSDI, but before then, I subsisted on the foodstamps and funds from DSHS as well as food from local foodbanks.

What do you need three RVs for, especially since you don't take them out for overnight trips? Do they all work?

Does anyone have good tips on where to sleep in a car? It was a lot easier to vanish with a bicycle and tent, but overnight security was still a big concern in an unfamiliar land. Now, I tend to wake up badly scrambled if interrupted.

I wanted all 3 classes of RVs. They all run. Sometimes I hideout in the big one.