I have to make a correction to yesterday’s list of vendors for our Arizona Gypsy Gathering rally. I reported that Donna Tuffenkjian would be representing Arbonne skin care products. Actually Donna’s last name is Scaturro, and most of the RVing community know her by her nickname of Cookie. I apologize for the confusion.
Okay, the question of the day is, who makes the rules? I never get invited to the meetings when whatever secret society it is that determines such things get together, but apparently there is a set of rules some of us never got the memo about.
I bring this up, because a lady wrote to ask me what makes a fulltime RVer. She is a traveling nurse, who spends an average of four to six months in a given location on a work assignment, then usually takes a few weeks off before moving on to her next assignment. She has lived in her Class A motorhome for over five years and has worked in hospitals from Oregon to Montana to Alabama to New Mexico,
Apparently she was at a social hour at the RV park where she is staying, and mentioned that she is a fulltimer and explained her lifestyle. Immediately two different people informed her that she is not a fulltime RVer, because she remains stationary for long periods of a time.
Who makes these rules? What defines a fulltimer? To me, if you live in an RV all of the time, and that RV moves from place to place occasionally, you are a fulltime RVer. At least that’s my definition. But again, I don’t get invited to the meetings that determine such things.
While we’re at it, I have had people tell me that the correct spelling is full time or full-time RVer, not the compound word fulltime that I use. Likewise, I write motorhome, and it should be two words, motor home. I’ve been told that neither fulltime nor motorhome is in the dictionary. Hey, they are in mine, I just wrote them in myself! I’ve seen both words written both ways in RV publications and on the internet. Besides, it’s my newspaper and my blog, I’ll blend whatever words I want, thank you very much. I have to have some perks in life – sometimes wandering around the country at will, living with a beautiful, intelligent woman, and getting paid to do the things most people do on vacation just are not enough.
Another bone of contention I have heard around campfires and happy hours are the maps many RVers put on their rigs to show which states they have visited. Who knew there were map police?
One author wrote in a book about her RV life that when they started out, she and her husband filled in states on the map as they drove through them. But then at a happy hour somewhere, someone mentioned that they were doing it all wrong. Apparently you should only put a state on your map if you spend the night there. So her husband, being an obedient little RVer, scraped off the map and bought a new one, upon which he dutifully filled in only the states they had actually spent a night in.
She said that things were going along just fine until some prankster in another RV park explained the “nookie rule,” which states that you can’t fill in a state on your map until you make love there. She said her husband was back outside scraping off states and saying “Honey, we need to go back to Oklahoma!”
Thought For The Day – “Instead of getting married again, I’m going to find a woman I don’t like and just give her a house.”– Lewis Grizzard
Nick Russell
World-Famous, New York Times Best Selling Author, and All-Around Nice Guy!
What ever if it is full timer or fulltimer, when in our MH we make the rules for ourselves. We have our rules for spelling and also our visited state map. On the subject of the map if the wheels hit the road of a state it is good. We have the state of NM and we traveled in it about 3/4 of a mile at four corners and we are happy with that.
I’m with you Nick on those word questions. I thought that was what the option “Add to dictionary” was for in my spell checker ! ! !
Oh Nick, you got to love ya!!! You ruffle feathers and make steam come out of some people’s ears; you amusingly write about it and the rest of us get to laugh our heads off. Today’s post was absolutely wonderful and we wholeheartedly agree – it’s your word – spell it any way you want!
Thank you, thank you, thank you for doing what you do because it adds so much to our enjoyment of life.
Bobbie Chapman
Subscriber
I just went into dictionary.com and motorhome can be spelled either way. Fulltime is listed as two words but in both cases these are words that have evolved specifically for the RV world. They can both be spelled as one word.
Maybe the whole problem is rules. Too many people are too rigid about what they think is correct. There is no harm done if we spell these words as single words. It also isn’t life threatening if we use different guidelines in adding states to the map. After all, who is going to ask for campground receipts to prove that you stayed the night in a state?
If those who say ‘motorhome’ is not a word, have them look on the license plates of some motorhomes………. says it all. 😉
I’m with you also on the word police. They are authorities in their own little world.
Nick you ROCK! Thanks for brightening my mornings.
Guess I’m not a fulltimer,since we spend 4 months workamping in one place…..
Nick, I love my dictionary, but use it only for when I am doing the writing and am unsure about a definition or spelling. What are people lacking in their own lives that they would write to you about how you spell a word? Unbelievable!
“Nookie rule.” Now that is a good rule. Seriously though, if you buy the map, you fill it in according to your rules; period! And when you write, you get to use your own rules; period. I think maybe some of these campground meetings should be avoided.
Nck,
Graet bglo 2day. Keepe up teh goode woik. By teh wy, what in tarntan is a
dicksonairie?
What a gas! We have only recently been introduced to you and your many blogs and look forward to the new ones on a daily basis. As long as it’s not misspelled, who cares where you hyphen or if you don’t at all! I love it! There are so many know-it-alls (that’s how I want to spell it) in every field, that we cease to amaze ourselves when we meet the new ones. Go get them, Nick! Your response was fabulous.
You have a LIFE!!! Some who criticize need to get one!!! Carry on Good Fellow!!!
How abowt states like Rhode Island and Delaware, that everyone rushes through and nobody sleeps in.
We fill in our map when the wheels touch the state line.
BTW, would three hours ZZZ’s in a Deleware rest area count as sleeping in a state? Besides, who can find Deleware on a US map?
Keep up the good work!
K&K
Nick,
You was the one that convinced us to leave the state off the map until we had sex in it. Now you are adding we have to sleep in it too?
It is OUR MAP, WE bought it, WE put it on OUR rig, WE will decide when a state will be put on it. We do have them all on except 9 of the 48.
Hope you and yours are doing well.
JoeandMarcia CLASS OF 2007
Hey, you forgot WORKAMPER… or is it workcamper… or work camper… or………..
and do you have to get paid $$$ or can you trade labor for a site? And what state(s) do you have to claim income taxes.
Oh, BTW, when it comes to TP we are “overs”, never an under.
Go get ’em. I’ve thrown out my old AP Stylebook.
Judy (former — or should I say “ex” — Journalism professor.
Hi All.
Hey Nick. Like who really cares anyway what someone else thinks in the first place. We have been RV’ers for the past 40+ years now. Its our RV, and our life, so we will fill our map as we please. If our RV has touced the road in any state, thats good enought for us. One could get really picky, how do you mark a state, that you have been to several times? And as for the No-It-All’s, we just blow them off, and move on to much more frendly RV’ers. Life’s to short to worry about the other kind of RV’er. Great Work. Keep it up, and smoke some more busy-bodys.
BAD Nick is the BEST!!!! Thanks for always bringing a smile into our day….we sure will miss Casa Grande this year! Big hugs to both of you!
M&B