Do we all agree with this definition of boondocking?

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DonTom said:
Because then it is not available for use by the full-timers.


Sure it does. Then you can return to it at any time and live in it. So then you're not a full-timer. You have a place you can return to and use that is not on wheels.

-Don- Auburn, CA
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Fulltimers always have someplace they can live other than the RV. It might be a rental house, a hotel/motel, an apartment, buying a house, or even moving in with a relative. How does owning a piece of property with a house on it change living in your RV as your home for years at a time? You own several houses I believe, so if you took off for 10 years in your motorhome as your current home you wouldn't consider yourself a fulltimer? Ok, that's your call, but my wife and I are fulltimers in our minds, and that's all that really matters. Knowing we have a place we can go when we hang up the keys is irrelevant, since every fulltimer always has someplace they can go.
 
What if you live in a park model fulltime? Our son does. Does that make him a fulltimer? Way back in 1998 we lived in our 5th wheel fulltime; not traveling yet, were we fulltimers? We had neighbors set up permanently in a 5th wheel in Texas and they had another 5th wheel set up permanently in another state. They traveled back and forth. Were they fulltimers?
 
Oldgator73 said:
What if you live in a park model fulltime? Our son does. Does that make him a fulltimer? Way back in 1998 we lived in our 5th wheel fulltime; not traveling yet, were we fulltimers? We had neighbors set up permanently in a 5th wheel in Texas and they had another 5th wheel set up permanently in another state. They traveled back and forth. Were they fulltimers?
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If they considered themselves fulltimers, then they were. Period...
 
NY_Dutch said:
so if you took off for 10 years in your motorhome as your current home you wouldn't consider yourself a fulltimer?
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Nope, not IMO. Not if I had a house I could return to and live in for a while, if used or not. Where I could make an exception is if a full-timer stayed in a motel, such as needed if their motorhome broke down.

Nevertheless, I agree with NY_Dutch. None of us have the copyright on the definition on full-timing or on boondocking:
NY_Dutch said:
If they considered themselves fulltimers, then they were. Period...
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And the same for boondocking.

We need to ask for the details in either case to know what others mean.

-Don- Auburn, CA
 
NY_Dutch said:
I think if anyone was trying to come up with a definitive definition of "fulltiming", like "boondocking", it would be something like "Whatever the one doing it thinks it is."
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It is impossible to come up with a definition we all agree on. Dictionaries generally contain more than one definition for most words. Could we all agree on a definition of love or war or sex or any ambiguous word?
 
Dictionaries are a pet peeve for me the way they blow in the trend wind, changing definitions at whim while "schools of learning" put out their annual lists of words that are no longer acceptable or cool.
They don't even understand that a dictionary is for words, not phrases. As has already been pointed out, words often have multiple meanings. Put a couple words together into a phrase and the number of possible definitions goes up exponentially.
This is all telling people what to think rather than encouraging them to think for themselves.
Language is (and should be) like art, in a free society, in the creativity of the composer and interpretation of the beholder.
 
I've "camped" in the real Bundoks and other warm humid places in many other countries. This WAS WAY before being an Eco-tourist become popular. My current opinion of roughing it would involve a B&W TV.

BTW if you could locate a length of copper wire you could thread it into the rim of your boonie hat and bend the rim to achieve the Cpl. Agarn look.
 
WME said:
I've "camped" in the real Bundoks and other warm humid places in many other countries.
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Do the Central Highland Jungles of Vietnam count?

I think they have to because being out there was referred to as being out in the "boonies".

-Don- Auburn, CA
 
Wasillaguy said:
put a couple words together into a phrase and the number of possible definitions goes up exponentially.
This is all telling people what to think rather than encouraging them to think for themselves.
Language is (and should be) like art, in a free society, in the creativity of the composer and interpretation of the beholder.
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I don't even agree with that. I know a Professor of Hermeneutics who always said "If it can mean anything, it can mean nothing". If you can interpret a word or a composition to mean anything, you can interpret mathematics to mean anything and then both can mean nothing. Your theory btw. is called "reader response". Jaques Derrida famously advocates it in his work termed "Deconstruction".
 
This is an interesting, but moot thread. I was highly criticized by a millennial or Genxer when I told him that some words had a specific meaning. It seems now words only mean or can mean whatever the speaker wants them to mean. So, Boondocking can be anywhere and even have hookups available. It is what ever the speaker wants these days and the importance of vocabulary for clarity seems to have died years (like 40) ago.

This has to be so I have to understand that if an owner wants to store potable water in a holding tank, it is completely clear to him what he means. Therefore, accurate vocabulary is an non-issue.

I will always separate Boondocking from Drycamping, Lotdocking, Blacktopping and the rest. But then, I realize that I am a dinosaur and just waiting for the comet to finish the language off once and for all.

Matt_C
 
Matt_C said:
I will always separate Boondocking from Drycamping, Lotdocking, Blacktopping and the rest. But then, I realize that I am a dinosaur and just waiting for the comet to finish the language off once and for all.
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I’m boondocking right now. Just microwaved the last of our chicken curry and sitting in my electric recliner watching Netflix. Just heard the wife flush the toilet and the shower start. Glad to have city sewer and water here.
 
Matt_C said:
This is an interesting, but moot thread. I was highly criticized by a millennial or Genxer when I told him that some words had a specific meaning. It seems now words only mean or can mean whatever the speaker wants them to mean. So, Boondocking can be anywhere and even have hookups available. It is what ever the speaker wants these days and the importance of vocabulary for clarity seems to have died years (like 40) ago.

This has to be so I have to understand that if an owner wants to store potable water in a holding tank, it is completely clear to him what he means. Therefore, accurate vocabulary is an non-issue.

I will always separate Boondocking from Drycamping, Lotdocking, Blacktopping and the rest. But then, I realize that I am a dinosaur and just waiting for the comet to finish the language off once and for all.

Matt_C
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I’m not sure if an absolute definition of boondocking is necessary to prolonging language.
 
DonTom said:
Do the Central Highland Jungles of Vietnam count?

I think they have to because being out there was referred to as being out in the "boonies".

-Don- Auburn, CA
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I'm a couple years too young to have enjoyed the boonies in Nam, but I have spent a few nights in the jungles of Panama and Belize. I wasn't taking incoming, but the purpose was comparative. Does that count?
 
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