My life had been taken over by the Vampire Albatross, and Steve and I were unable to get away except for Christmas in Palmdale at the end of 2011. 
It was just down and back, and no side trip. In February we took a Sunday drive to check out waves and storm damage in Pacifica. Here’s Steve at the beach wearing his favorite t-shirt I designed and printed in my shop from my own large pen-and-ink drawing.
In June we drove to Palmdale by way of the Eastern Sierras and Hot Creek. I can see here his facial distortion from the new dentures-
Hot Creek overview and campsite
Stopping for lunch, I shooed him away from a jeep I wanted to photograph- to this day it breaks my heart . . . such a little thing, but it hurts me deeply. So many times I tried to get a candid shot of him–really, not to worry.
Then to Palmdale, to spend a few days at the homestead- where we rented a trailer to transport the 34 boxes of discovery that were the remains of the trial that put S in prison. I wish we had taken it all to the shredder.
On the way home we stopped to camp at Col Allensworth State Park- a post Civil War all-black community frozen into a little park in California’s Central Valley. 
I spent my time off that summer of 2012 sorting books and original artifacts and shredding multiple copies of requisition forms and photographs of evidence and other ephemera. I think this took a terrible toll on his psyche–All through 2011 and 2012 Steve faced a number of health challenges, and was having trouble finding work. Several elderly clients had died, and he was loosing his agility on ladders and struggling to stop drinking in a milieu of playing music for beer . . .
Here he is at Black But
te River Ranch, fourth of July Weekend, at the back of the Westfalia, after a wandering well-wisher came by dispensing a generous assortment of shots. . . .
Travels With Stevie 