How does Fern meet a mother of her ex-students so easily?

In the movie, Nomadland, Fern meets a mother and her two children in a hardware store, one of who used to be a student of hers. I am a bit confused by how coincidental Fern manages to meet them by accident. My rationale is:

Fern loses her job and has to leave her home state, Nevada.
Fern travels in her van to a distant location, taking on a job offered by Amazon while parking her van at the desert rose park.
Fern is tired and rests in a hardware store while meeting this mother and her two children by accident.

I have this feeling Fern is really far away from where she used to be a teacher geographically, but neither she or the mother or her children looks surprised to meet.

plot-explanation nomadland

Best Answer

I think that the Amazon job is near Empire and during the time and due to the entire town of Empire being shut down, the family that she meets is in the same area that Fern migrated to after Empire got shut down. I'm not entirely sure though.