First, however, the past continued its intrusions; 2008, “Reverie” at The Quilt Study Center, 

Special Collections, 120 West H Street, Benicia, minimalismo compared to now;

Then in June while on the way to hear George McGovern come out for Obama in front of a crowd of NRA members, coal miners and cattlemen at the Ludlow Massacre Memorial…Puppy!

Aggie from Aguilar*, torn from her litter a little too early and, much later, the only dog we ever

considered “re-homing” [but didn’t, of course] soon grew into a bright and handsome creature

but that was then.  Here and now she’s eleven and a half and as beleaguered as the House and

Garden – holes in the walls of the halls, post-apocalyptic craters and ripped palm fronds outside

– as they endure dog-aggedon…but they’re so cuuute.   Meanwhile by night ever more

memorious images roll by…April 2010, my sister Melinda’s yard in Half Moon Bay

soon after she painfully but inspirationally passed away…into the light, we hope.

The world went on without her, bringing brother Kirk to Wall in May for a photographic foray to the Seven Troughs, Porter Spring [the “Walter” FWD below was, along with every other abandoned historic vehicle in the area within range of a road, subsequently sadly and illegally*

hauled off to be sold for scrap to fuel rural tweakers’ meth-enthusiasms]

as well as, around the southern corner of the range, the mill and its surrounds at Tunnel [which for years I’d mistakenly assumed to be Vernon].

June [in the ongoing dash through the past still 2010]

found us at Libre where Luz and Christine [Dean Fleming in foreground] were married by their friend Lisa Mordhorst [behind C.] within 100 feet of the little dome where Luz was born…

The hits just kept on comin’ as I plowed into August and vicariously up to Berthoud where through various nefarious investigations on the internet I’d found a guy building cars** 

I thought I might like and ultimately commissioned him to do something with more fenders

for me though by the time he finished it was 2011, February, and maybe not the best season to venture over the Rockies….fortunately the weather held until chain controls on Donner stopped

me at Truckee but I snuck the thing [a 1945 Chevy] into California over 49 [chain controls there being confined to a sign at the pass in a blizzard [not shown; by then I was already taking a lot of digital pics for the record] and made it to Benicia, snow turning to rain at Downieville.

We jump to Summer 2011 [?], last time I saw the trailer, last trip out

to where the West Fork of the Little Owyhee meets the main canyon…

November daytimes eight years later temporarily brought winter to the straits just before

I made the final push, the record getting spottier all the time as film was employed less frequently although during the back and forth between Colorado and California the usual stops were still sporadically recorded; the Petroglyph site where our friend Bill Haynes would often camp though in our case it was ever only lunch and east [or west] on 50,

not the “loneliest road” by any stretch despite appearances…

Sierra Valley barn, unchanged since first seen since 1978…

and another trip to Tunnel, this time after all the old iron had been hauled away,

perhaps to be reborn at Billetproof, though that’s unlikely.

As the last years of film wound down the ’45 evolved – running boards installed by Matt Seret

and, the final frontier, a longer and more original original bed sourced from Brian’s Auto Salvage with considerable help from Linda’s studio assistant at the time Shawn HibmaCronan

…fade to Gerlach, fade to last picture, February 2017 [72 carousels covering 1963 – 2017]

So, there was that.  Done at last…

*Born on a ranch where, after Christine exclaimed over the “Free Border Collie puppies” sign at Ringo’s, we found her underneath a motorhome undifferentiated from her nine squirming siblings, six weeks old.

**The BLM designates anything over 50 years old as “historic” so all the vehicles removed from the Seven Troughs area were supposedly protected.  Enforcement, however, is difficult; all gone now.

***James moved to Arizona and doesn’t seem to be building cars anymore but he was great to work with and the ’45 runs and drives to this day.

****Unlike James. Matt is still very much in the business over in Vallejo.