Going Nuclear

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Caroline Wise with Robert Bell and Grant Wiggins in Arizona

I present you with the oldest digital photo we could find in our collection since we first started taking digital images. Caroline, Robert Bell, Grant Wiggins, and I were on our way to Los Angeles to visit Disneyland, Siggraph, and my father, though our friends wouldn’t be making that visit with us. There’s some ambiguity if this photo was taken on this particular day or the day before and I have no way of reconciling that. Still, one thing is certain: this is the first travel photo taken with said digital camera.

Monument Valley – Ruby & Axel

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Axel Rieke, Ruby Rieke, Caroline Wise, and John Wise at Monument Valley in Arizona

This is the last day of an epic adventure that begins in Monument Valley. Over the past week, we’ve driven more than 1,600 miles, seen a ton of amazing sites, and had a good laugh along the way, where our lives become even deeper entwined by spending a honeymoon together. But all great things ultimately come to an end and rejoin the cycle of change, decay, and renewal. The four of us will change, and our friendship will change, but how much we didn’t know on this excursion into the old West, we will grow older, and finally, we will effectively become different people.

Caroline Wise and John Wise at Monument Valley in Arizona

For Caroline and me, this is our second visit to Monument Valley; the first one was some years before with my mother-in-law Jutta. We’ll return to every single location we visited on this trip in the coming years and always remain astonished that we are so lucky to have the opportunity to do so. Sadly, this corner of America grows more and more out of favor with the population of the United States as they no longer find the Old West as intriguing as previous generations once did. Today though, we were celebrating being able to share with Ruby and Axel a place that we found special and full of a character worth treasuring.

Ruby Rieke at Canyon De Chelly in Arizona

Looking at the map we were traveling with, Caroline spotted a national monument called Canyon De Chelly, and seeing we felt we could afford the detour, we went. Ruby is seen here trying to muster the guts to look over the sheer wall that drops straight down.

Caroline Wise and John Wise at Canyon De Chelly in Arizona

It’s funny looking at these photos 22 years after we made this trip and seeing our younger selves. While I can know the people we were and the enchantment of seeing such iconic places, we are no longer that young and sometimes troubled couple figuring things out. There’s a calm of togetherness and contentedness we grew into over the years, and while here in the year 2020, as I finally place these old photographs taken before the age of digital images into my blog, we are in a plague situation that in some ways seems easier to be dealing with than learning who we were back then.

Ruby Rieke and Caroline Wise at Canyon De Chelly in Arizona

Little did we know that the following year Ruby and Axel would move to America, and in getting situated, they would stay with us a while before the lack of opportunity in Arizona drove them to find their good fortune in San Francisco, where they thrived. It was the year 2000, following a trip to Yellowstone, that whatever bonds had us enjoying each other’s company for the previous 7 or 8 years would fray, and we’d all move into the realm of distant memories of one another. For a time, though, we shared a solid moment of discovery, and that was priceless.

Four Corners – Ruby & Axel

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

Ruby Rieke, Axel Rieke, and Caroline Wise at the Colorado State Line

It was just 11 days ago when Ruby and Axel got married in San Francisco, California, on this trip from Germany. We joined them for this big day, but it was what they chose for their honeymoon that was surprising, a road trip with Caroline and me. In some ways, this ends up being an extension of our first road trip together back in 1996 that made a good enough impression that on this trip to the United States this year, they have chosen to spend a good part of it here on another trip down some dusty roads. It should be noted that I was a bit surprised by this as Ruby might be considered a city person who was trying to escape rural America, well, as much as Bakersfield, California, where she grew up, could be called rural.

John Wise and Axel Rieke at Four Corners

Sharing time in a 24/7 journey with four of us crammed into a car and then sharing a single room with two beds so we could save on expenses should create big tensions but we’ve done pretty well so far. So, here we are at Four Corners, where Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico all meet. This wasn’t on the itinerary, but we had time for deviations from the route as my travel planning skills weren’t the best yet. It took time and many more trips for me to gather my senses about distances and what was possible in this vast country.

Caroline Wise and Ruby Rieke at Four Corners

It felt like we were hogging the spot here as first Axel and I situated ourselves to cover as many states as we could, and then the women figured out how both of them could be in all four at once. Sadly, I don’t believe we opted for any of the mutton dishes on offer at the stands dotted around the parking lot as we didn’t know the pleasures of Navajo cooking at that time, but we’d learn over time.

Ruby Rieke, Axel Rieke, and Caroline Wise at the Arizona State Line

Senseless driving back and forth so we could get photos in front of all the state signs started a tradition that would follow Caroline and me for the next two decades, stop at all state signs, and start shooting selfies of ourselves.

Ruby Rieke and Caroline Wise in New Mexico

Yep, head down the road to include New Mexico too.

Ruby Rieke and Caroline Wise at the Utah State Line

And then into Utah as this is where we are spending the night.

Axel Rieke and Ruby Rieke in Bluff, Utah

We couldn’t book a room at Goulding’s Lodge in Monument Valley at the last minute, so the desk clerk recommended I look in Mexican Hat up in Utah. Looking at the map, I saw that we’d be staying just north of Valley of the Gods; sounded good to me, and the motel had availability. We passed through the town of Bluff on the way, making a mental note to return. Mexican Hat ended up falling into one of our all-time favorite places in large part due to the famous “Swinging Steak!” Streetside of the Mexican Hat Lodge is an outdoor restaurant where a grill over a mesquite fire BBQs up steaks and burgers for their mostly European visitors. A small stage welcomes musicians while their family, if they have time, also take up an instrument and will play for visitors sitting under the Milky Way in the shadow of Monument Valley and the Valley of the Gods. The romance of this place cannot be conveyed with enough enthusiasm; it’s just that great.

Durango – Ruby & Axel

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

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

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

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

JWise Photo of the Day, Travels

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.