As we left the Balloon Field after 4 days at the Albuquerque Balloon Fiesta, we were not quite done with the town just yet. Like a lot of people, we were excited to visit some more shooting locations of the TV show Breaking Bad.
I will do my best to not spoil the show for anyone who hasn’t seen the show but if you have, you might recognize some of these locations. First stop, the John B. Roberts Dam. We were waiting for a maroon Toyota minivan to show up but it never came.
As the Balloon Fiesta is going on for a few more days, this town is still packed full of tourists. We needed a place to go dump and fill our tanks after nearly a week of boondocking so we headed up towards Sandia Peak and found ourselves at Turqoise Trail Campground.
This place is on a nice spot in the hill side but the campground leaves for a lot to be desired. We were glad to have found 2 adjacent spots but only one of the hook ups worked.
Instead of taking a chance with a potentially faulty electrical hookup, we decided to just piggy-back off of Kyle’s connection.
The main reason why we ended up here is because our friends Nathan and Leah came after their time at the balloon field ended.
We didn’t get to see their van since they were camped across the road at the event so we finally got to check out all of the custom work they’ve done to it.
Leah is meticulous with her organization and Nathan was masterful in designing the layout. In this little van, all four of them have everything they need.
There is that Milo again walking around holding Mila’s hand. “Ahem, I am watching you!”
We resumed with a little more of our self-guided Breaking Bad tour after we dropped off the trailers. First stop, the White residence.
This is Octopus Car Wash, also known as A1A Car wash. Have an A1 day!
In an older but nice neighborhood of Albuquerque is Jessie Pinkman’s house. I believe there has been some remodeling done to it since it was originally used but it was definitely recognizable.
We had lunch at Lydia’s favorite meeting place.
The food was actually very good.
Kyle left with a box of goodies that made all of us drool.
And finally, we visited the compound where the final scene of the series was filmed. There was a really cool fan tribute along the railroad but for the sake of not spoiling the ending for some of you, I cannot show you the photo 🙁
We only stayed at Turqouise Trail one night before we headed north towards Santa Fe. Santa Fe is known for having many adult-only RV Resorts so we dared not bring our 3 little ones in there with the trailer.
We found a casino with a RV Park a few miles south of town and settled in for a few days.
Full hookups for $20 a night, it isn’t too bad of a deal. It is about half way between Albuquerque and Santa Fe so we decided to stay a few nights here before start making our way back.
We drove into Santa Fe for the day to meet up once again with Nathan and Leah who drove up here in their van and are overnighting at the Walmart.
We waited for them to meet up at the San Miguel Mission. It claims to be the oldest church in the United States with the original built date in 1610 right around the city’s founding.
Marlene loves old churches so she ponied up the entrance fee to go in to take this picture. Thanks to this guy for not getting out of the way of her shot.
Just down the road is Loretta’s Chapel, home of The Miraculous Staircase.
The staircase was said to have been built by a nameless master carpenter who came after the Sister of the chapel prayed to St. Joseph, the patron saint of carpenters, after countless carpenters claimed that it could not be done. The man came on the back of a donkey with his toolbox and built this spiral staircase and was never paid and never seen again.
We meandered through Santa Fe’s old town square as our kids played with Nathan and Leah’s two boys.
Near Burro Alley, we stopped for some coffee and desert at a little bakery.
As beautiful as Santa Fe is, we are always reminded of how unfriendly the people are here to families. Every shop we walked into we were glared at by the keepers as they were certain that one of these hooligans was going to break something. Even at the bakery, the clerk at the counter looked at the children and asked Leah with furled brow, “Are these ALL yours?”
We tried our best to enjoy our time in Santa Fe and hoped that one day we will come back. Just before we left, we drove up towards Hyde Memorial State Park to check out the camping scene here. Hyde is New Mexico’s first state park and the drive up is beautiful. Unfortunately it is too far into the mountains and has no phone reception so we would only be able to camp here if I didn’t have to work.
After spending over a week with Kyle, he will stay behind and give Santa Fe another shot sans children. I am sure they will embrace him with big smiles and arms wide open.
We hitched up and started making our way south. We will try to not take I-40 on our way back so expect some more exploring to happen in the next post.
over and out,
dan
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