<– Day 4 – Wed. Apr. 15th: Salmon and Subway | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 6 – Fri. Apr. 17th: Art Fair in Alamogordo, NM –>

Ann in front of ‘her’ plane, a B-52 (though technically not this model). Back in her Air Force Days before Bin Laden blew her up, she used to load it with weapons. @ the National Museum of Nuclear Science and Technology.

For years I”d read and heard about the television series Breaking Bad. This past summer, lacking any good TV, Ann and I decided to watch the episode’s pilot to see if we’d enjoy it. We were hooked from the very beginning. Within a couple weeks we watched the entire six-year series. In case you haven’t seen it, the show is about an Albuquerue science teacher named Walter White who feels forced to produce meth to save his family’s finances. If you haven’t watched the show and don’t want to know the ending, leave the post now!

With that background in mind, our first item of business was to find the real gravestone marker for the mythical Walter White. The headstone was initially put into a real cemetary, but some reasonable complaints caused it to be moved to a small strip mall. When we arrived at the mall, the location of the headstone wasn’t obvious. We had to look around before spotting it in an outdoor alcove. Ann was particularly pleased, because this was her idea.

There are both guide-tours and self-guided tours of Breaking Bad film sites in Albuquerque. You can learn all kinds of things here.

Following that quick stop we headed to the touristy area of old town Albuquerque. Anchored by a church established in 1702, the area is typical of New Mexican town squares. In the center is a square bordered on all sides by a road with shops/restaurants lining the road. I was surprised to see that the square was much quieter and subdued than the square in Santa Fe (or it was on this day).

Perhaps the most striking difference between the Santa Fe and Albuquerque shops are the proliferation of Break Bad memorabilia. There were also some Better Caul Saul shirts as well, the prequel to Breaking Bad.

Believe it or not, there are some confederate soldiers buried in Albuquerque.

Continue reading →

<– Day 3 – Tues. Apr. 14th: Winds and more Winds | TRIP OVERVIEW | Day 5 – Thu. Apr. 16th: Meth and Science –>

I now have an additional reason to eat Subway sandwiches! This truck was in Albuquerque off of Wyoming Blvd.

Today was a breather day. Our simple goal was to make the four hour drive from Durango south to Albuquerque. Without anything planned, we let chance be our guide.

It turned out ‘chance’ liked jeeps on this day. On our way out of Durango we saw a flat fender, a cj-5, and a beautifully rusted truck (orange-red patina). Unfortunately, we were on a two-lane busy road with no pull-offs. All we could do was shout to one another, ‘there’s another jeep!”

After taking a wrong turn in Cortez, we found ourselves in Farmington, New Mexico, where we spotted two unusual vehicles. The first reminded me of a Tour FC with it’s white and red top.

The second was a limoseum parked out front of Farmington’s museum.

Despite the cool car, we didn’t go inside the museum. Instead, we got back on track and headed east for Bloomfield. That’s where we saw the strangest sign: SALMON RUINS. As you can imagine, we didn’t expect to find any salmon bones, carcasses or ruins in New Mexico. So, naturally, we had to investigate.

Continue reading →