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Comment by lowglow | Hacker News Reader

I tried this around SF Bay Area. Unfortunately SF isn't as van-friendly as I would have liked, and the high crime rate and high rate of break-ins left me less than desiring to stay in SF. Had a friend successfully camp out in East Bay, but got sick of it.

I moved down to Redwood City but the cops basically harassed me, and treated me like a criminal. I finally would park in my van outside of Social Capital in Palo Alto.

Palo Alto remains a legal place to live the van life. You'll also meet a bunch of other van dwellers from tech companies around there. There is even a couple of secret facebook groups for nerds working/living out of their van in and around SF/BA.

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That's the first big strike against vanlife for me. In the US there's no cheap and reliable way to park and sleep without being harassed by police.

The second is illness: I ate some bad chicken earlier this year and was violently ill, projectile liquid from both ends ill, for three whole days. It was miserable but bearable because I had an apartment with a bed and a bathroom. I can't imagine what it would have been like in a van.

> That's the first big strike against vanlife for me. In the US there's no cheap and reliable way to park and sleep without being harassed by police.

The US is large. There are tons of places you can park without issue. BLM land, for example, is explicitly available for anyone to use. Most cities don't have anti vehicle dwelling laws. All you have to do is go somewhere that doesn't care.

> The second is illness: I ate some bad chicken earlier this year and was violently ill, projectile liquid from both ends ill, for three whole days. It was miserable but bearable because I had an apartment with a bed and a bathroom. I can't imagine what it would have been like in a van.

OP has an RV with a bathroom. It'd be much like your apt but with less distance to travel between the toilet and your bed.

> In the US there's no cheap and reliable way to park and sleep without being harassed by police.

IF you want/need to live in a city. The west has tons of public land with an LTE signal. I'm hanging out on BLM land in the middle of gorgeous Utah right now.

Should that happen to me I'd just check in at a cheap airbnb for a week until feeling better, possibly with a friend taking care of me while i complain about being sick

I went from feeling fine to could-not-walk-three-steps-without-vomiting in the course of an hour. Could probably not have seen it coming and booked an airbnb in time.

Here is a serious pro-tip, take two shots of apple cider vinegar and 30-40 minutes later you'll be right as rain.

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