Who do we have here? This is no other than my new Grand Niece, Magdalena.

Some days you can run into good luck. Was heading south to San Diego, and of course had to stop in good old Los Angeles. While there, went to sister Elsbeth’s place, her driveway is large enough that I can park my 30 foot Bigfoot, nice. Luck would have it, I got there and my niece Claudette and her husband and her first daughter Magdalena were visiting from New York for a few weeks. But they were leaving 2 hours after I arrived. Ya, they didn't know I was coming, my usual behavior. So got to see them.

Two weeks earlier, another niece, this one from Georgia, sister Shirley’s daughter, Jane, moved to LA and is staying also here at Elsbeth’s while she gets oriented. She is planning to elope at the end of the month when her fiancee also moves here. Is good to get to know your young nephews and nieces as adults. You can see the family traits, and you can tell them stories about their parents. And me, I have 100’s of photos of their parents from babies till ..... to show them which they have never seen. It is cool to see their laughing expressions and catch a glimpse of a mannerism that reminds you that they “are” family. 

You probably noticed that it has been a awhile since the last blog. Well, on my way south decided to checkout boondocking, that is RV’ing without hooks. No hooks of any kind for the RV (no water, electricity or sewer, no cell phone service, and no internet access. I was truly in the boondocks. No far from home, there are BLMs, Bureau of Land Management areas which are government properties. You can camp in BLMs for free for up to 14 days at a time. And that is my excuse this time for not blogging in a timely manner.

I found a primitive campground in the BLM area, on top of a hill overlooking a small lake, probably a reservoir, about a mile away. I was the only one there, since it is summer and is very hot. Had to use the generator to run the air conditioner for a couple of hours in the eve, to cool the RV otherwise to hot to sleep.

When you shed the typical city infrastructure you have to think up stuff to do. Did lots of hiking early in the morning, and late in the evening. During the hot part of the day, well, there is nothing to do. Fortunately, had magazines and many books to read. Watched the sun go down and night stars shine bright. Have an app in my iPhone with a map of stars in the night sky. These apps are so cool, you can become an instant astronomer. You point the iPhone to any direction in the night sky and it will pan the map to show all the stars and constellations in that part of the sky. You can match the stars you see in the sky with the map, and you can tap on a star on the map and get the name and more info that you care to know, unless you are astronomer.

It takes time, about a week and half, to let go of the city life stuff and settle the mind, and just engage with the simple stuff of boondocking, all by your self; it is not as easy as I remember in younger days. I guess that is the nature of memories.