"You're nuts if you think you can live in your car in North Dakota this winter", Minot Daily News Blog (Williston: camper, living)
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Set up right, a vehicle will serve as a cold weather camp. Millions of truck drivers sleep in their trucks in cold climates.
Can everyone do it? No. You need some knowledge and have to be kind of tough. The vehicle needs to be in good mechanical shape and you need to have enough money to eat, buy fuel, etc.
Nice thing about this cold weather....food don't go bad in your car. Just keeps everything refrigerated for you...hahahaha.
Can't do what I did in the summer, with out spending money on ice. Course people here would complain that it would be too Hot to sleep in your car then.
You don't get it. It has been not been cold yet. The weather has been unseasonably warm. We are at near record highs. When the cold sets in your food wont be refrigerated it will be frozen. Do what you want but if you think that staying in your suburban the past few weeks while trying to find a job means you can make it the winter while working you are sadly mistaken.
You don't get it. It has been not been cold yet. The weather has been unseasonably warm. We are at near record highs. When the cold sets in your food wont be refrigerated it will be frozen. Do what you want but if you think that staying in your suburban the past few weeks while trying to find a job means you can make it the winter while working you are sadly mistaken.
Right on! I had a whole thing wrote out and this damn laptop messed with me and I lossed it. Anyways, that was one of my points, it has been quite mild this winter and if it does get down to normal there will be no canned food unfrozen and same goes for any type of drink you have, cepting maybe something of the grain nature.
I bet the media is just waiting to jump on the first case of somebody freezing to death in their car. And you know at some point it will happen. There are going to be a lot of people who will shake their heads and say, "We told you so".
However I do believe that someone who is an extreme survivalist could possible last living in their car. But the other 99.9% better have a back up plan.
This is akin to an M.D. telling a patient not to smoke cigarettes. If the patient insists on proceeding against Dr.'s orders, the Dr. will still try to treat the patient.
Can you live in your car in subzero temps? Sure. But it is going to be difficult and perhaps life threatening.
Practice in your driveway at home or park in your local Wal-Mart for a few nights and see if it is a lifestyle that you can handle.
The real problem is that people that are from warmer climates, have no concept of cold, at least not N.D. cold. My first winter it hit -83 w/ windchill, I cried I was so cold sitting in a car that wouldn't start, being towed around the corner to a garage, only about 1 block from my house. I had never experienced anything like that. And I was bundled to the max, and had just come out of my warm house. I can't fathom living in those conditions. This is an unusual winter. I have never seen it like this in the 30+ years I've been here. Truly, pay attention to the warnings, because when it hits the normal winter temps, it is going to be devastating to anyone unprepared. be safe, spring is just around the corner.
On one of those really cold clear nights when you can almost hear the stars ringing and the snow kind of squeaks underfoot, I think the car campers will attain enlightenment. If they cry, the tears will freeze to their face.
"If you simply think sleeping in your car in ND in winter is inadvisable, and an all around BAD idea...fine. You are, after all, entitled to your opinion. I believe your opinion is unfounded, and is totally lacking any factual evidence to support your position/opinion.....and that is MY opinion."
I believe your opinion is wrong, unfounded and without factual evidence.
"People have survived harsh winter conditions for thousands of years. Yes they usually have something other than the thin steel of a car to protect themselves from the cold, but those people didn't have extreme cold weather gear either."
Are these your facts? The native people who lived in ND and did well built permanent structures. The nomadic people did not fair well. Also note these people were not spending 12 - 18 hours a day working at job. They spent all of their time surviving the harsh winter and still many did not. Where did you provide any facts that sleeping in your car is advisable or a GOOD idea? Someone died this year already in their camper in the oil field. Fact
#1. I guess you missed the part where I stated that this was MY OPINION. We're talking about ND, not the dark side of the moon. I believe that you have completely missed the point of my post... FREE WILL, and CHOICE. If people think they can hack it, who are you to tell them they can't? In case you didn't notice, there are a lot of people currently living in their cars there. talldarkone is living in his vehicle, and from the sounds of it, is doing quite well too. Or perhaps you're one of locals that think us "oilers" (that's the term I'm trying to coin for oil field transplants...lets help it to catch on) should stay away from ND. Well it isn't gonna work. Like I said in my earlier post, desperation is a good motivator. Speaking as an intended "oiler", I'm coming up there to make a pile of money, so I can get back on my feet. What's wrong with that? I'm not begrudging you your living, why should you begrudge me mine? I KNOW I can handle a ND winter, I grew up in Northern Michigan and am experienced in cold climates. It all boils down to CHOICE. You don't know me, and I'm guessing you don't know talldarkone, and you don't know what I/we can, and can not handle. If my only two choices are cold, or hot, I'll stick with the cold. I can always put on more clothes, but when it's hot, I can only take so much off. Then I'm naked and still hot.
#2.I did not include any factual evidence, as I figured that everyone has read at least one history book, so it wasn't necessary. Mankind has existed on this planet for well over one hundred thousand years...that's a long time. Also there are other places on this planet that are cold climates that aren't in North America, and so have not had any Native Americans living there. I'm not suggesting that anyone, now, or in the past has survived harsh winter conditions, without proper shelter...however we do know that they did survive with only simple furs to keep them warm and alive. Oh, and a car/truck/whatever IS shelter, if you're living in it. It will keep the snow off you, and block most, if not all of the wind. (Unless you have a rusted out hoopty.) The question here is... CAN it be done? The answer is YES. Now if you want to expand it to Should it be done...that's a different story. For MOST people, I'd say no. Far to many people are ill prepared to survive in harsh conditions. That being said, they still have FREE WILL and CHOICE.
Williston...prepare yourselves, for I AM coming. And there's nothing that you or anyone can do to stop me.
See ya around the water cooler.
lazarusman
Last edited by lazarusman; 12-23-2011 at 09:29 PM..
This is akin to an M.D. telling a patient not to smoke cigarettes.
Yes, this thread just goes around in a circle. If you want to try sleeping in your car, go ahead do it. Nothing anyone can say and some even get upset with people offering advice and feel they are being mothered. So go ahead have at it if you so desire. About all that can be said on the topic has been said. You are right it has been extremely mild thus far, I hope it stays that way. Best of luck to you all now and next year.
Yes, this thread just goes around in a circle. If you want to try sleeping in your car, go ahead do it. Nothing anyone can say and some even get upset with people offering advice and feel they are being mothered. So go ahead have at it if you so desire. About all that can be said on the topic has been said. You are right it has been extremely mild thus far, I hope it stays that way. Best of luck to you all now and next year.
This is kind of like beating a dead horse. People are going to do what they are going to do, regardless, we are a free country after all (sort of). I think there are some that can do it and make out just fine. talldarkone and a few others come to mind. The thing that gets to me is when people come here without a car or even with a car, get a job, then go door to door to businesses basically begging for someone to take them in to their home out of the kindness of their heart, playing on the sympathy of the people of this area. Why should we take them into our homes? Why should we feel guilty for not taking in someone we don't know? I'm sure that 99.9999 percent of these people are harmless. But guess what? I'm not risking my family by taking in that other 1 percent, no way. If you come here and think you are prepared and find out you can't make it in your car, camper or tent (the tent idea still kills me), don't come crying to the local citizens or social programs to help you - you came on your own free will. If you can't handle it here, get yourself back home on your own. It was your choice, plan, idea to come in the first place. I certainly am concerned about any children that might get caught up in this, but as for the adults that choose this - that's their business and their problem. Don't cry to the locals when your pipe dream bursts. Believe me, we have a multitude of our own problems already.
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I believe that you have completely missed the point of my post... FREE WILL, and CHOICE. If people think they can hack it, who are you to tell them they can't? In case you didn't notice, there are a lot of people currently living in their cars there. talldarkone is living in his vehicle, and from the sounds of it, is doing quite well too. Or perhaps you're one of locals that think us "oilers" (that's the term I'm trying to coin for oil field transplants...lets help it to catch on
) should stay away from ND.
I'm coming up there to make a pile of money, so I can get back on my feet. What's wrong with that? I'm not begrudging you your living, why should you begrudge me mine? I KNOW I can handle a ND winter, I grew up in Northern Michigan and am experienced in cold climates. It all boils down to CHOICE. You don't know me, and I'm guessing you don't know talldarkone, and you don't know what I/we can, and can not handle. If my only two choices are cold, or hot, I'll stick with the cold. I can always put on more clothes, but when it's hot, I can only take so much off. Then I'm naked and still hot.
