In my previous post, I noted that I struggled with Thoreau’s writing. It took me many months to slog through that book. Ken Ilgunas’s Walden On Wheels was much easier to read.
I was drawn to this book because it was written by a fellow “Wheelestate” owner. Living in a van is unique way to live. I was hoping for insights as I had found in Blue Highways and, to lesser extent, in Travels with Charley.
I was disappointed as I dove into the book that a good portion was devoted to how he came to live in his van rather than about actually living in the van. But that made sense. For most of us who end up as any type of van-dweller, it is not a snap decision. His journey to van-dwelling starts years before as he graduates from college with a liberal arts undergraduate degree and $32,000 debt. He realizes that the debt is an anchor that can limit his life and sets himself to clear it away.
(As I read his initial chapters, I felt his problem started even earlier when he opted to go into debt for a degree that did not increase his prospects for good, higher paying jobs… but what do I know).
He had an opportunity to work in a remote Alaska spot with little chance to spend money. Since food and lodging were included in his compensation, he saw a huge opportunity to pay down his debt.
His friend takes a more traditional route, getting a job, an apartment, a car, etc. and struggles to make a dent in his debt.
Ken continues with his drive to pay down debt by returning to Alaska and accepting other jobs that include lodging. After a few years of this diligence, his debt is gone.
When he decides to further his education in graduate school, he knows he can afford tuition and books but living expenses would be too much. That is when he chooses to move into a van.
Unlike us, he needed to stay in one place – Duke University. Parking in a campus parking lot was not something he could share with anybody. Stealth was critical to keeping safe and from the campus police evicting him. Eventually he needed to tell some one and even wrote a class paper about it. That paper was eventually published in Salon.
The college was lenient, allowing him to stay until graduation in his van. But he had to move to a more appropriate parking lot. He graduated with no debt and over $1,100 dollars in savings.
As with Walden, its clear from the book that our choices determine our life. In Walden, debt seemed a sidebar in the authors decisions. In Walden on Wheels, debt is the driving force for both Ken and his friend. Debt keeps his friend chained to a job he hates while Ken obsesses about his debt until he debt free and then refuses to take on additional debt.