Looking for Star Light

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Mt Graham in the distance on the way to Duncan, Arizona

We are traveling in the general direction of where millions of others are going: to the eclipse. Months ago, when we snagged a motel room outside of the eclipse totality. We knew we’d be positioning ourselves a couple of hours north of where we wanted to be with the hope that the drive to our destination wouldn’t be a road of mayhem. The booking in Ozona, Texas, was hundreds of dollars cheaper than in the path of the totality, where we were seeing places that would have normally cost about $100 a night going for close to $1,000 for the evening of April 7th, 2024. Flights into the areas of the totality were also too pricey, so we are driving, which is what we were doing when I snapped this image of the setting sun. Once again, we are staying out at the Simpson Hotel in Duncan, Arizona, right near the New Mexico state line.

Happy New Year From Out Here

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Simpson Hotel in Duncan, Arizona

Happy New Year, and welcome to 2024. I took up my place in the first sunlight of the day while Clayton was busy in the kitchen making coffee and presenting us with a parfait breakfast starter.  Caroline is on the phone with her mom in Germany, and I try basking in the warm sunshine while writing, but enjoying the ambiance of the Simpson Hotel is a powerful distraction.

Karthik and Lakshmi at the Simpson Hotel in Duncan, Arizona

A newly married young couple who arrived last night joined us for our morning meal: Lakshmi and Karthik, who also live in the Phoenix area. They’ve been out wandering around the area for the past week, trying to get more of the Southwest into their senses before Karthik takes off for India to deal with some of the beaurocracy involving working on an H1B visa. While he’s gone, Lakshmi will be dealing with their move up to the Portland area. When they told us about their travels from the Petrified Forest to Gallup, over to Santa Fe and Albuquerque in New Mexico, and various points between before finally landing in Duncan, Arizona, it was nice to see a mirror image of Caroline’s and my enthusiasm for sharing time together exploring our world. In the popular vernacular of the day, they are vibing. Over breakfast, sumptuous as always, we discussed the drive home, in which all four of us were traveling in the same direction but talked of a detour through Virden, New Mexico, to try catching sight of some sandhill cranes.

Sandhill Cranes in Virden, New Mexico

These large birds were in short supply, and the ones we did spot were quite distant from where we could observe them. We’d brought binoculars, but even so, nobody got a great view of the cranes. No matter, we’d seen wildlife and were able to share some enthusiasm with Lakshmi and Karthik about how incredible these opportunities are.

Cow sign in Virden, New Mexico

With nothing left to do, and instead of trying to wedge something else into the last minutes of our getaway, we accepted that our long weekend was coming to a close and that by focusing on the drive west, we’d be able to go further into In Search of Lost Time.

On a final note, Clayton left us with a quote from historian Charles A. Beard to ponder: “The bee fertilizes the flower it robs.”

Into The Shadows With 2023

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

At the Simpson Hotel in Duncan, Arizona

Now, here we are in the early sunrise of the final day of the year, perched in our respective comfy spots in a room about to turn 110 years old. Not the oldest place we’ve ever taken up, but a cozy location nonetheless. As for the other side of the windows, it’s a wintery freezing morning out there where the warming cup of coffee would quickly lose its potential, followed by turning cold, too.

At the Simpson Hotel in Duncan, Arizona

Before any thoughts of finding the bravery to venture beyond our lazy comfort arise, the clinking and clatter of kitchen sounds clue us in that to head out for a walk at this time would be nothing short of rude as the symphony from that side of the hotel could only signal one thing: we were soon to find ourselves feasting.

At the Simpson Hotel in Duncan, Arizona

Meanwhile, we, too, bask in the warm indoors to avoid the bitter cold that is ushering out the year that was. This guy is Crocket, the trust fund kitty I’ve mentioned before. Through the cosmetic surgery available in Photoshop, I tried cleaning up the worst of his lung condition, which is the reason why, in the early part of the day, he’s a snotty, mucusy mess of a cat. Yet aside from trying to bite me if I attempt to pet him, he seems nice enough.

At the Simpson Hotel in Duncan, Arizona

This is beyond eating. Eating is too vulgar a word: all who pull up to a table this day will eat. Instead, we dine on a feast of flavors and textures that conspire to punctuate the end of 2023 with a duel in which this final breakfast takes up a sword and, with a challenge, says en garde! to the 364 morning meals that came before it.

This wicked concoction from the genius imagination of the artist in front of the stove can be described as a perfect mystery demanding that we forge a way to decipher where our taste buds are traveling. Flavors arrive from numerous points on the globe, maybe Oaxaca, a little bit of Persia, and the American Southwest, while the other locations must remain offshore in the chef’s repertoire of tools and brushes he used to craft this canvas.

Mystery must remain a part of this extraordinary beginning of the day because revealing precisely what went into our breakfast might chase away some of the enchantment. With my own imagination swirling around just what was on this plate, what Chef Don Carlos brought to our senses, and how it will flavor the experience of this last day of the year, I am allowed to savor what has been presented as though I were gazing into a culinary diorama.

Entering New Mexico between Duncan, Arizona and Lordsburg, New Mexico

With the proverbial one thing leading to another combined with the knowledge of proximity due to this weekend’s destination, Caroline had already coordinated a meeting with a friend we’d not seen in more than ten years on Sunday, that’s today. The couple we are visiting are Sandy and Tom, who now live in Silver City, New Mexico, following an extended stay in Sharjah, United Arab Emirates, where Tom was teaching engineering. Well, here we are, crossing the desert into New Mexico for the 75-mile drive to our destination, thus violating what I wrote earlier about trying to accomplish nothing on a lazy close of the year.

As isolated as they could find, up in the hills and quite similar to where they used to live in Prescott, Arizona, we found Tom and Sandy awaiting our arrival. While Caroline and Sandy have kept in touch over the years, this was the first time they were seeing each other face-to-face in the intervening years. Over coffee and about three hours of the afternoon, we chatted and chatted before making a date to visit again on April 6th, when we’d be passing through the area again on our way to the total solar eclipse on April 8th. This time spent with old friends added a nice punctuation to the last day of the year.

Leaving Silver City, New Mexico

Leaving when we did offered us all the fireworks we’d need to usher in 2024 because the sunset delivered a performance that sang to our senses. As the sky brought a song, our dinner with Clayton and Deborah, owners of the Simpson Hotel, would be a symphony performed in the Philharmonic de Paris, only better.

Caroline Wise in New Mexico

Caroline and I have shared very few New Year’s celebrations with others and to be invited, unexpectedly, to the table of our hosts to note the arrival of the new year over a sumptuous meal and a bottle of sparkling Riesling wine from Wiesbaden, Germany, well, that surpassed everything we might have otherwise considered as a potential celebration of the change from one year to the next.

Dusk in Arizona and the end of the sunset

There are so many parts that lend themselves to what is experienced. It is not simply food or alcohol, not only the ambiance of this 110-year-old art hotel. Our remote location in a beautiful corner of the sparsely populated Southwest also factors in, but the real front of the orchestra is the chemistry between the quartet and a passion for the aesthetic found in the love of time and what these participants in life are able to bring to it.

Dithering in Duncan Arizona

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Breakfast at the Simpson Hotel in Duncan, Arizona

Before we know it, we are waking in a bed not our own, just before sunrise. This being a lazy closure of the year that was 2023, we are in no hurry to discover anything that hasn’t already been collected this year. Okay, that is mostly true. Last night, upon reaching Pima, Arizona, Taylor Freeze was luring us in to accentuate our state of fullness by offering us a chocolate malted that might be our favorite anywhere, but that and Guayo’s was really it.

Now, it is time to linger once again in the parlor of the Simpson Hotel, awaiting the warming rays of the rising sun. A cup of coffee from our hosts, who woke much earlier than expected, arrives, and based on the sounds emanating from the kitchen, we can anticipate breakfast will be coming up soon. Lord Chef Don Carlos, under a different hat, is the renowned artist of the same name, sans the beneficial title Lord Chef. True to my perception, another of his famous vegetarian repasts is in the works. We have come to understand that these creations rival any other early-day meals we’ve taken from Stockholm to Santa Monica or Portland to Vienna. World Class eating of the gourmet variety right here, miles from the New Mexico border in the middle of nowhere, Arizona.

Duncan, Arizona

From there, we did what anyone else would do who was trying to escape the year that had been, we merged into a transitional state where little was allowed to happen. This type of being is often referred to as vegging, and we were practicing hard to enhance our mastery of this skill. Caroline was back at the window, you know, the one with the cushy seat where the cats tend to congregate due to the slightly closer proximity to the sun spilling into the front window of the Simpson. My place in the parlor is at the same spot I was last night, where I took coffee and was served that amazing frittata, breakfast bruschetta, and sauteed veggies. Seems that by neglecting to include a photo, I might have otherwise missed that prior to the savory, we were offered a sweet in the form of a Crème fraîche-topped hearty pastry studded with a rainbow of various colored fruit. Lethargy was obviously the third course, but the cold, hardwood of my chair meant my butt would pay for it.

West of Duncan, Arizona

While my heart was into accomplishing little, my bottom insisted I get up and move as it’s been hours in the parlor, although time seemed to be standing still. Ah, coffee and maybe some lunch could be in our future? Heck, we can also get into some more Proust on a drive over to Safford.

Starbucks in Safford, Arizona

At Starbucks, we were able to duplicate our efforts and much of the positioning we’d taken at the Simpson. Sitting down, we got busy doing what needed to be done. But then, just as a new routine of being in place was finding comfort, we’re informed that they must close for unexplained reasons at 4:00, which is only 15 minutes away. Even had we known the reasons, our need to depart would have remained the same.

Undeterred, we took the opportunity to finish volume six of In Search of Lost Time and finally put The Fugitive behind us. Our speed of return to Duncan was adjusted in order to best facilitate our goal. And guess what? We won. Volume six has been vanquished.

Of the details that followed, nothing of import is noted as simple things one might do in the front parlor of an Old West hotel from 1914 were actively engaged. The quiet, warm lighting, purring cats, and wonderful setting carried us into the evening, and that was that.

Into the Duncan Portal

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Miami, Arizona

The end of the year is rolling around and also our final journey of 2023. We are heading to the opposite of extravaganza by taking ourselves east to Duncan, Arizona. Do not pity us or insinuate that we will be deprived in this town of under 700 people because as soon as we get out of Phoenix, we are escaping illegal fireworks and gunfire. It’s not just from New Year’s celebrations: this noise has been going on since just before Christmas. Combined with the proliferation of “Slammed Trucks” (lowered to the ground and super loud) and the usual Harley Davidson Wolfpack morons whose modified vehicles often produce up to 125db of sound, living in Phoenix becomes more and more depressing.

Caroline Wise in Miami, Arizona

Knowing that we’d be going east on the 60, we packed a healthy appetite as Guayo’s El Rey in Miami was on our path. One does not drive by this town where the best steak smothered in green chili and cheese is found. On our drive to Miami, Caroline was busy reading aloud Marcel Proust’s In Search of Lost Time in the belief that we were about to finish the sixth volume and could start the seventh and final volume titled Time Regained, meaning we are likely under 225,000 words remaining in this 1.2 million word super novel. But no, we are not about to crack volume seven, as volume six has a fourth chapter. Well, at least we are past page 3,000. Rest assured, we’ll miss Proust when this comes to an end.

Simpson Hotel in Duncan, Arizona

Barely a week after the solstice, the days are still short, which is nothing to complain about when one finds oneself deep in the big dark desert on a cloudless, moonless night with the Milky Way directly overhead, motioning for us to pull over for some proper gawking. A resounding “whoa!” wasn’t only offered to the celestial display as at 3,500 feet of elevation (over 1,000 meters) in December, we also found the air outside of our car very cold and were reminded that we were driving into freezing weather. Being tough, we held out for nearly two full minutes before jumping back into our warm car.

Simpson Hotel in Duncan, Arizona

Once in Duncan, we were greeted by nobody and nothing, as our hosts had already informed us that they’d be in late. The other guests were out visiting family nearby while the cats were upstairs, where it was warmer than in the parlor where we set up to spend the early evening before retiring to the Library Room, our old favorite. It wasn’t long before the curious cats had to investigate us and our not-so-familiar voices. After all the snuggles that could be had from us visitors, the cats let us know they wanted out, and as they left via the backdoor, two others came in from the cold.

Simpson Hotel in Duncan, Arizona

After a bite to eat, they joined us in the parlor for further inspection. First up was Dimitri, a.k.a. Pizza Boy, who, as a stray kitten some years ago, warmed up to me while I was sitting curbside eating a pizza, which appealed to the hungry little guy, hence the nickname. Being cute, cold, and alone were the only conditions required for him to be adopted for an extended stay here at the Simpson Hotel.

Simpson Hotel in Duncan, Arizona

The other cat, Crocket, approached me but I apparently misread his signals as when I reached down, his sharp little teeth said, “Not so fast.” Instead, he headed over to Caroline. He crawled into her lap and made himself warm and cozy. It turns out that Crocket is a recent addition. He was adopted after his previous caretakers passed away, but not only that, he arrived as a trust fund kitty who receives a monthly inheritance check to care for him.

In a plush chair by the window, Caroline and Crocket kept vigil, Caroline knitting, Crocket purring. I had taken up my usual spot at the same table we’d be eating breakfast at in the morning, and with my computer open, I continued with some preparatory work that had been eating the majority of my time and would keep me occupied for the duration of our stay out here in Duncan, Arizona.

Dreams of Scandinavia

JWise Dreams, Travels

Norwegian hot dogs a.k.a., Pølse

Two weeks since we left Europe, and not an evening has gone by yet where Caroline and I haven’t been retracing or reinterpreting our vacation in Scandinavia through dreams. Sometimes, our travels while sleeping are strange tasks that require working through labyrinths of peculiar constructs taken from fragments of something our minds have assigned to a hybridized version of a place. Still, there’s no mistaking that they are created from elements of Denmark, Sweden, Norway, or a combination of all three.

On one hand, it’s great that our brains are still processing our trip of a million impressions but at other times, the nocturnal chores being performed in our skulls become disruptive of finding a relaxing sleep. I feel that we are likely contributing to these repetitions of experiences and creating new ones because, after two weeks of being home, I’m working on the 6th day of our trip at this point, with 22 more days still to go. The idea that I will likely have another month and a half of writing and processing photos ahead of me means that Caroline and I will continue to be immersed in our memories of Scandinavia and enrich our dreams with the intensity of processing the experiences during our waking hours.

Two more weeks later, in the middle of October and a full month after our return, our dreams are still dwelling in Sweden. Repetitive pattern matching with maps and objects from Stockholm accompany my sleep just as waking thoughts of our travels guide my blog posts. I wonder if our dreams will shift to Norway in the next couple of days as I start documenting our time in Oslo and beyond.

Sixty days of writing about a nearly 30-day trip had the effect of keeping the two of us deeply immersed in the details of our lengthy vacation on an almost constant basis. Subsequently, we took it all to sleep. Waking over these months was to fragments of travels I believe we both hope are the work of cementing the beautiful moments we shared into our experiential memory in order to never forget another perfect vacation.

As for the photo, nothing says dreams like thoughts of Norwegian hot dogs, a.k.a. Pølser.