Durango – Ruby & Axel

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Caroline Wise in Durango, Colorado

How exciting is this that we are going on a steam train journey into the mountains? We’ve never been on one of these old-fashioned narrow-gauge relics from the past, but we are thrilled about being here and listening to this sound out of history.

Axel Rieke, Ruby Rieke, and Caroline Wise on the Durango Silverton Steam Train in Colorado

Not only is the track very narrow compared to normal train tracks, but the path we are traveling next to the Animas River is pretty treacherous in my eyes. There was one spot on a tall cliffside where it felt like the shelf that had been cut into the rocks wasn’t much more than about 10 feet wide. If that wasn’t bad enough, as the rest of the passengers realized the view, they all rushed over to our side of the train. In an instant, I could see our slow-moving train teetering into the rushing water over 100 feet below. While the soot from the coal-burning steam engines is drifting all around us, it’s a small price to pay to be out here in the cattle car, having an unobstructed view of this beautiful landscape.

Axel Rieke, Ruby Rieke, and Caroline Wise in Silverton, Colorado

Our destination is the old mining town of Silverton, and we’ll be here long enough to have lunch. While some passengers opt to go back to Durango via a bus on the windy road, we have to take in every precious moment of the experience and will plod along on the train back down the mountain.

The Animas River near Durango, Colorado

It took me six years after this first visit before I brought my daughter Jessica back this way for a father-daughter adventure, and the year after that, in 2005, we brought my mother-in-law, Jutta, up for a train ride into the mountains. Back on this first visit, another passenger asked us if we’d taken the Cumbres & Toltec that runs between Antonito, Colorado, and Chama, New Mexico; we had not. That tip would take us 11 years until in 2009 over the 4th of July long weekend to finally get scheduled, and then we had to ask, “Why’d this take so long?”

John Wise on the Durango Silverton Steam Train in Colorado

No, I’m not on the caboose bringing up the rear, but I am dangerously hanging out the train so Caroline can snap a photo of me. By the time this long day came to an end at our hotel, I don’t think any of us could believe how much coal soot was being washed away. One other thing, with this trip we have fallen in love with the San Juan mountain range.

New Mexico to Colorado – Ruby & Axel

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Ruby Rieke and Caroline Wise in New Mexico

Our first impressions of New Mexico have been terrific. A giant cavern, a whopper of an alien tale, and the delightful taste of New Mexican cuisine all made for a great experience as we cut a diagonal line across the state. The state sign features the claim that this is The Land of Enchantment; I wouldn’t disagree. While difficult to see, Caroline is pointing to the spot on a map where we currently are, which is at one of the boundaries of the Navajo Reservation.

Ruby Rieke and Caroline Wise in Colorado

I searched high and low, trying to find where we were passing through, but I came up empty. I’m fairly certain we are in Colorado, as our next stop was at Mesa Verde National Park. This was an unscheduled detour as we found that with just 100 miles to drive today, we had plenty of free time.

Caroline Wise and Ruby Rieke at Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado

And here we are at Mesa Verde. After we visited this profound site, we had to head south again back into New Mexico as we were staying in a cabin over in Brazos.

When we arrived after dark to check in to the Honeymoon Suite, we couldn’t find anyone at the front desk. The lights were out, and the door was locked. So we just hung out a bit, trying to figure out what to do. After a short wait, someone emerged from the darkened front office and apologized for not opening it. It turns out that in the seconds before we drove up, a black bear was right in front of the door and had been wandering around camp. Needless to say, we were somewhat disappointed not to see any sign of the bear though we were a little nervous as we made our way in the dark to our cabin.

But the story didn’t end there. In the middle of the night, well after we’d all gone to sleep, Axel had to get up to use the bathroom. Having finished taking care of business, he went to leave the toilet and like people are apt to do, he was turning off the light in the instant before he opened the door. In that quickly fading light, he saw his wife Ruby. Axel hit the floor like a bucket of water being dumped out from above, smack. Ruby screamed, thinking Axel had just had a heart attack, and from his gasping for air Caroline and I were seriously frightened by Axel’s condition. He tried to tell us what was going on, but he gasped and couldn’t get whole words out. He stuttered with, “I, I, I…” but that’s all he could say. Finally, he croaks, “I’m okay.” We are all frantic with the situation and demand to know, what do you mean, “you are okay?” With his breath returning, he starts to tell us that when he sleepily opened the door, there was just enough light for him to see the BEAR. He didn’t see Ruby; he registered seeing the bear that was still on his mind and fell absolutely limp with what was likely the biggest adrenaline rush of his life up to this point. We finished our midnight adventure in hysterical laughter and were still laughing about it the next day.

Roswell to Santa Fe – Ruby & Axel

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Caroline Wise and John Wise in Roswell, New Mexico

In the scheme of things, I don’t think it ever occurred to me that we’d make it to Roswell, New Mexico, which plays host to America’s most famous alleged alien crash site. There’s not a lot more besides aliens and those trying to make a dollar off the fame of them out this way; well, there is a lot of gas and oil, apparently.

Ruby and Axel Rieke in Roswell, New Mexico

This is when Ruby and Axel submitted to their abduction adventure and willfully left us for some undetermined amount of time, only to rematerialize later this day, telling us of their anal probes. True story.

Caroline Wise in New Mexico

With nothing else going on in Roswell, we headed north to continue our journey across New Mexico.

John Wise, Ruby Rieke, and Axel Rieke in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Our destination today was Santa Fe.

Ruby Rieke, Caroline Wise, and Axel Rieke in Santa Fe, New Mexico

Dinner was at the incredible Cafe Pasqual’s; maybe I should say it was at the incredibly tightly packed and very busy Cafe Pasqual’s. Tonight, we fell in love with New Mexican cuisine.

Carlsbad Caverns – Ruby & Axel

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John Wise and Axel Rieke at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico

Spent the day before driving from Phoenix to Superior to take Ruby and Axel through the town U-Turn with Sean Penn was filmed after watching it with them. From there, we continued on the scenic route eschewing Interstate 10 as we headed to Globe and Safford before entering New Mexico near Mule Creek. Down through Silver City, we traveled south to Deming, where the I-10 was unavoidable until we were able to merge on the US 180 outside of El Paso, Texas. We arrived a bit late at the Best Western in Carlsbad, so maybe driving 598 miles of scenic route wasn’t the best idea, but we were adamant that we’d avoid major freeways, so we accomplished that to the best of our ability.

Yes, Axel and I are reaching out for the giant nipple.

Caroline Wise at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico

Early in the morning, we arrived at Carlsbad Caverns National Park and sadly took the elevator in as we didn’t appreciate yet what the natural entrance had to offer as this was our first visit, and we had reservations to visit the Left-Hand Tunnel at 9:00 and didn’t want to be late. These photos were taken in the Big Room if I’m not mistaken. While you can’t see it in this photo, Caroline is wearing cords, and it wasn’t even the ’70s anymore.

Ruby Rieke at Carlsbad Caverns in New Mexico

In the afternoon, we had reservations to visit the King’s Palace in the cavern, and from there, we needed to get going for Roswell where we were spending the night. This is our friend Ruby Rieke. As for our impressions of the caverns here in the southeast corner of New Mexico, we were so enthusiastically impressed that we would return many more times after this.

The Honeymoon – Ruby & Axel

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Axel Rieke and Ruby Rieke in Scottsdale, Arizona

Sometimes it pays to dig into the archive and have the means to rescue long-forgotten memories. At some point, I scanned a bunch of old negatives and threw them into a directory grouped to the best of my ability. Old film images weren’t stamped with dates, GPS data, or anything at all that would help you identify details that are lost in time. But an old itinerary floating around from 1998 helped me identify the order of an 11-day visit that Ruby and Axel Rieke took with us that summer. But this wasn’t just any journey with us; this was Ruby and Axel’s honeymoon as they had just gotten married five days before, and we were there too. So, to the best of my ability, I’m trying to match those random photos to the days the itinerary says we were doing particular things. The day prior to our departure to New Mexico, Colorado, and Utah, we went to the hottest new restaurant in the Phoenix area at the time called The Rainforest Cafe. It was at the Mills in Tempe, where there was also a new IMAX theater. According to my notes, we took in a movie there but there’s no recollection of what it was.

Caroline Wise with Axel Rieke and Ruby Rieke in Scottsdale, Arizona

We’ll never forget the long-gone restaurant Sam’s Cafe, as it was a favorite, and it was on our way to our next stop.

John Wise with Axel Rieke and Ruby Rieke in Scottsdale, Arizona

Fashion Square needed a visit as we required a couple of things before taking off on our 7-day road trip that starts tomorrow. You may not notice it right away, but in my mouth is a cigarette. I believe this is about the only photo that exists of the short time I was a smoker. From the day we landed on April 6, 1995, I started smoking and finally stopped on September 9, 1999. I still can’t believe I subjected those around me to such an ugly stench, but on the other hand, I had worse personality traits at work during those years; good thing I was on a path to growing up.

In a couple of days, we left for New Mexico, but sadly there wasn’t one photograph that documents our day on the road.

Getting Married – Ruby & Axel

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Ruby Rieke, Caroline Wise, and Axel Rieke in San Francisco, California

Caroline and I flew up to San Francisco this week to join Ruby Alvarez and Axel Rieke as they get married. Sadly, this was the age of taking photos on film, and it hadn’t occurred to us yet to take lots of photographs, but it was also pretty expensive, so there was that. While this isn’t the best photo of Caroline, though she is sweetly beautiful, notice the long hair because a week later, all that hair was gone, and we were welcoming Mr. and Mrs. Rieke into Arizona to spend their honeymoon with us on a road trip across the southwestern United States in the four corners region. Thanks, Ruby and Axel, for having us join you on these momentous days.