Nomadland wins

So, I've been on the road for 2 years now (started in South Florida, now in AZ) and I just saw Nomadland.

Is crapping in a bucket in your van really a thing??? That's gross. How do you deal with the stench? And what do you do with it?  Man, no wonder vandwellers aren'tt welcome anywhere. lol

There are effective ways to deal with it. There are threads you can check out here on the forum that will explain if you're curious. How do you handle it in whatever you're driving?

????? It's the folks who DON'T use a bucket that are unwelcome!

If you're genuinely curious, try searching the subform "Personal Hygiene". Or watch the many videos on people living in their vehicles on the CRVL youtube channel, because Bob always asks them what they do. Much more informative than taking a general pot shot.

[email][email protected][/email] said:

So, I've been on the road for 2 years now (started in South Florida, now in AZ) and I just saw Nomadland.

Is crapping in a bucket in your van really a thing??? That's gross. How do you deal with the stench? And what do you do with it?  Man, no wonder vandwellers aren'tt welcome anywhere. lol

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That made me very curious about your method the last two years?

[email protected] said:

 . . .
Is crapping in a bucket in your van really a thing??? That's gross. How do you deal with the stench? And what do you do with it?

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No stench.
Urine and feces are separated.  Both are kept in airtight containers.
Urine is dumped in a toilet or diluted and dumped back in the woods.
Feces and tp is double bagged and put in a dumpster.

If you are using an RV toilet with black tank - that gross smell is because urine and feces are mixed.

I finger painted with mine then framed it and sold it at fairs. He’s a troll. Don’t feed him.

^^^I think I've seen some of your art work! Lol!!!

That’s a good example of recycling,

LOL....good one.

RVTravel said:

Correct me if wrong. Bob's story about his son is true? Swankie's lung cancer going to her brain is not true?

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I had a small benign tumor removed from my airway in 2017. The rest of the cancer/brain tumor story in Nomadland is not real. I am not sick. I had told the Director the story of my ex-husband dying of brain cancer and she used that, knowing it would trigger emotions in me. She was not wrong.

jacqueg said:

Swankie is very much alive. And healthy, judging by her appearance at Nomadland's premier.

I'm sure Bob's story about his son is true, he's alluded to it before.

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I am alive! Thanks. In Quartzsite.

ChileSauceCritic said:

How so? I've seen a few with that basic look while I was out camping. especially solo ones that are new to it I imagine as it's easy to keep short hair, plus dressing kind of andro prolly makes them feel safer than being spotted as a woman from a distance.

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And then there is comfort! Older women who are freshly widowed, usually, USUALLY, don't dress to impress or please others.

cyndi said:

Everyone I know wears sweats to bed or shorts and a tee. That way they can roll out of bed and drive away quickly. Never, ever saw or heard of anyone sleeping in a nightgown. Nevermind walking through an abandoned town in one

Also, Fern's curtains... sheer? Not pulled tightly closed? Nope.

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I think that was a summer day dress, not nightgown. Yes, they modeled her van after mine... except, I did not have sheer curtains in the back, in fact I had no windows in the back, but I did/do have heavy lined curtains across the back doors for insulation. Remember, she is representing a new-bee at this van life... so she was still on a learning curve. LOL

WanderingRose said:

Sorry, I sleep in a nightgown or pj’s every night, tho I am only about a halftimer these days.

If no one else was around, I might wander a ghost town in them, too.

I have and would again drive away in them, too.

My observation is that in any community, this one or any other virtual or actual, a common element is the wide variety of individuals within.

Vast differences in appearance, income, clothing standards, living standards, mental health issues, etc.Dd

I try to remember, every time I encounter someone who seems for whatever reason to be out of step with the world around them, that I just don’t know what they have been thru or what they are experiencing right now.

Lots of walking wounded out there, not all of whom could be portrayed in a few characters.

I haven’t seen Nomadland yet, as I am traveling, but will when I get home.

I admire Bob Wells tremendously, and the difference he has made in the lives of many.

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Cammalu said:

LERCA I wasn’t thrilled with how things were portrayed either but really it represented Fern and her few friends. It’s fiction and as such a story of Fern. Not all of us. I thought the acting was great and I was pretty shocked how well it was done by non actors.

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We were good because we were NOT acting (mostly!) LOL

Cammalu said:

I don’t get it. Price out? On BLM? It’s free. Who is they? Who is more likely?

I participated in a big clean up a few years ago in Ehrenberg. I’d say about 90% of the trash looked like it was from someone’s home not an RVer. Not saying all RVers are clean but this crap (washing machines, a couple of boats, lots of big metal stuff, barbed wire, house toilets, other house renovating materials, sure couldn’t have come from them.

I’m out in the desert almost daily on trails. You don’t see much where it isn’t easy to back a truck in and dump. There is a large community of youngish folks that you can find begging on corners and I’ve driven thru various of their camps. It’s usually pretty trashy. Really I guess I must say that everyone that I’ve been through had lots of trash. I don’t discriminate against them or anyone else I’m just saying what my eyes saw. I’m sure there are those that don’t do that but I haven’t seen it.

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And I was just out there last week and there are three new trash heaps! Disgusting. And I was thinking about how hard you and the others had worked to clean the place up.

wanderingsoul said:

That was excellent, thank you for posting!

(I can't watch anything to do with this movie without needing a box of kleenex close by)

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Don't cry for me!!

swankiewheels said:

And I was just out there last week and there are three new trash heaps! Disgusting. And I was thinking about how hard you and the others had worked to clean the place up.

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Wow. That is crazy. Thanks for sharing the pics.

I guess the land fill sites in California are just so expensive that the fines for dumping on Federal land is the better bargain? It is of course none the less a criminal thing to do that. Hope the rangers are sensible enough to travel with fingerprint ID kits when they come across a recent dump site. The dumpers might wear work gloves but they could have been hired by someone to remove the debris.

maki2 said:

The dumpers might wear work gloves but they could have been hired by someone to remove the debris.

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The dumpers might have charged the trash owners for the expensive dump fee, pocketed the fee, and dumped on BLM or other private property. (My brother would do that.)

crofter said:

I think that result is due to the desperation of the current times, and not to the quality of the film...

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.
Agreed.
.
Although I enjoyed the flick, nothing in it has the staying-power of:
* ADVENTURES OF ROBIN HOOD, 1938, Errol Flynn.
* CASABLANCA, 1942, Humphrey Bogart.
* NATIONAL LAMPOON'S ANIMAL HOUSE, 1978, John Belushi.
...or a hundred others.
.
I think NOMADLAND is a reflective piece, illustrating a minor and hidden segment of that collapsing civilization known as 'former-USA'.
I believe most viewers -- the vast majority -- see it as a documentary/seminar, hoping to glean a few hints for their inevitable transition to living 'without a fixed abode'.
.
And therein lays the rub.
I think many millions of Americans and Europeans realize they face a hostile future.
With tragedy -- a vast degradation akin to genocide -- a mere few meals away, how many are teetering on the brink of personal collapse, mental health and common courtesy forgotten, their sole focus a reasonably-safe place to stay the night.
.
From this perspective, the stories within NOMADLAND offer a small condolence to those many millions of hurting hearts.
The potential for hope -- not the real thing, but just the potential -- is their tossed life-ring as they flounder in the deep-end, trying to learn to swim *after* falling overboard.
.
And yet, where am I in all this?
As a Perpetual Traveler for several decades, I too face the inevitability of limits on my beloved fuels -- diesel and propane -- and the strong possibility of no tires to replace these after they 'time-out', their sidewalls cracked, their treads peeling, their valves reluctant to hold air.
.
And I have to ask... how many new adherents can our quiet places absorb without re-creating that hideous monstrosity known as 'city'.
.
.
My prediction:
I think our species faces some difficult decisions.
I think we are slowly realizing the promise of agriculture and its homicidal sibling 'civilization' was a bucket with a rusted bottom, unable to follow-through on the glitz and glamour of the brochure.
.
As unlikely as it would be for me to agree with The Ruling Parasites, I see no alternative to a massive de-population.
I think the space-traveling alien locusts of many sci-fi novels -- acquiring a planet, extracting all the resources, abandoning the empty husk -- is a case of 'hey, I resemble that remark!'.