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, Sarafin 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 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 retire and live 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.
She can’t cook in her van but has mastered campfire cuisine. Her biggest worry is bears, so she keeps her bear spray nearby 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 8,000 feet it stays in the mid 80’s,” says Sarafin. “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 federal Bureau of Land Management or U.S. 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 P.O. Box for her snail mail and uses her cellphone for internet and email.
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.”