‘Things are not going to get better for a long time’

In early February, John Gillander, an older man with a thick white mustache and wire-rimmed glasses, parked his red Ford Fiesta inside a county park in Mohave County, Arizona. Snow dusted the top of Hualapai Peak, which jutted into the sky. His mobile home burned down during November’s Camp Fire in Paradise, California, and everything Gillander owns fit in the back of his car. His two dogs — an English cocker spaniel named Charlie-Horse and a red border collie called Scarlet — have accompanied him on his wanderings ever since he fled the flames. When I spoke with Gillander, he was waiting for his insurance company to give him enough money to purchase an RV — a stopgap until he can rebuild permanently in his hometown. “I’ve always wanted to travel,” Gillander told me. “And now I guess I have the time.”