Saturday, January 21, 2023

Albuquerque and Beyond!

We skidded into Albuquerque on two wheels leaving a path of death and destruction in our wake. No literally, well maybe not destruction but definitely death. You ever have one of those moments when a bird or an animal dodges in front of your vehicle and you think to yourself “I hope that guy made it”? Well, sadly, this meadowlark did not make it. Poor guy.

We had one mission when we got to Albuquerque, score on some Crystal Blue. Those of you who are Breaking Bad fans know exactly what I am talking about. Albuquerque is the home of Walter White, Jessie, Saul Goodman and Gus Fring. Breaking Bad is one of the best dark (dramas?) ever and it was filmed right here in Albuquerque! So, we set out to see if we could score some of the infamous 'Blue'.

Our first stop was Walt’s house. Although Walt is dead, maybe Skyler can point us in the right direction. According to the show, it should be at 308 Negra Arroya Lane. Well, they must have moved some streets around as we did not find that address, but we did find the house! A quick internet search will tell you the real address of the house along with many of the other filming sites for the show. There was a note in the site we read asking you to leave the residents alone. It even stated that more than once, someone has thrown a pizza on the roof!

Apparently, they must have a lot of people looking for the same thing as there was a fence, gate and signs asking people to basically leave them alone. Seriously, what do they expect, they bought the house of basically the most famous meth manufacturer in the world.

With no luck there we went to find Saul. Surely, he would know where we could score. If memory served me correctly, his office was in a nail salon…… Found it! Unfortunately, it was boarded up and no one there to help us.

Undaunted we carried on to the car wash. You know, the one Walt and Skyler bought to launder all their money? Well, we found it, but it was sold, and the new owner had no idea where I could find some ‘Blue’.

As we were leaving the car wash area, we spotted this in someone's driveway.

Now I cannot say for sure if this is the RV as I could not see the door with the telltale bullet holes but I do not think it was a coincidence!

By now the dogs were ready for a walk so we went to a nearby park. The park, like most businesses in the area was closed. It looks like the meth problem has really taken its toll on this area of Albuquerque. But we parked the truck outside the gates and walked the dogs in where we found this….

There was really a lot more than this. There had to be a dozen syringes and two crack pipes (and a bunch of other stuff) in an area that was very recently vacated. My first guess that Dino was in the area, but I looked around and did not see anyone in an EZ Lift chair. If it was him, he obviously left the area.

Where to next? How about Los Pollos Hermanos the fast-food place where Gus had his office? It too had been sold and changed names.

I had one last place I could look. Certainly, Wendy would know we could get some. We headed over to the Crossroads Motel that she frequented. It was exactly how it was portrayed in the show. Run down, beat up, seedy and weedy. As we pulled into the parking lot, I found the song ‘Windy’ on Pandora and cranked it up hoping she would show up, but she was a no show. She must have been "busy" somewhere else.

So, we were not able to score, but we did see some interesting sights. Not your typical tour of Albuquerque, but being such big fans of the series, we found it entertaining. 

So, what else did we do in Albuquerque you ask? Well, we went to the Petroglyph National Monument. Although we had just seen some petroglyphs a few days before, we wanted to see some more (and Barb wanted to get her Passport stamped). We went to the Piedras Marcadas Canyon area which is dog friendly and walked the 1.5-mile loop which contains hundreds of petroglyphs.

It is believed that the majority of the petroglyphs were created from 1300-1680. Very interesting. 

Was this really a means of honoring Gods or communicating to others or was it some bored kids in the 1200's doing rock graffiti? We may never know. 

The hike and entire area did not disappoint. We saw dozens and dozens of petroglyphs throughout the area and one wily coyote who was eyeing up Zoey like she was a tasty morsel.

Having worked up an appetite, we headed to our Harvest Host location for the night.  Starr Brothers Brewery has a nice gravel lot that would accommodate a dozen rigs or so. We were one of 3 to stay there that night. Their slogan should be 'Come for the beer, stay for the food' as both were delicious! If you stop there, get the truffle fries, trust me. 

The next day we rode the Sandia Peak Tram to the top. The elevation went from around 6,000' to just over 10,000'. At $24/person it was well worth it. The views were incredible! If you look closely at the bottom left picture, you can see the shadow of the tram in the bottom left corner.

New Mexico has a very interesting State Flag and here is a tidbit of information that we had not known before.

Another 'Must stop at' in Albuquerque is Amy's Donuts. A definite top 10 in all the donut places we have stopped at in our travels. 

So, what do the girls do all day when we are exploring? They spend the day in the camper snuggled up in their beds or on our bed. The first time we left them we came back, and poor Zoe Belle was shivering. So, from then on, we left the heat on for them. 


Albuquerque has been on our list for several years now and was very interesting. We had wanted to get to a few other places like the rattlesnake museum, but they were only open on the weekends. There were some nice parts, and some very run down parts. Hundreds and hundreds of homeless, many with obvious mental health issues. Signs of drug abuse were everywhere as we saw them walking the streets, panhandling, ranting or huddled in ball trying to keep warm in the freezing cold. Many of the businesses were boarded up and closed. Those that were open had bars and gates on their doors and windows. I do not know what the answer is but what we are doing now is not working. Really sad. 

The next day we carried on south looking for some warmer weather. We did not find it. What we found was, snow, snow and more snow. At first it was just flurries, then it got progressively worse until the road was covered entirely. 
We followed NM 117 up, down and around mountains. Another very desolate route. Had we broke down, Zoey would have been fat and plump having eaten our bodies before anyone found us. 

We did have portions of the route that were snow free and very cool though. The first was La Ventana Arch. I believe it was John and Pam's blog that alerted us to this attraction. The next was this bull statue in Quemado that Barb had to stop and take a picture of. 

Our destination that day was Catwalk Recreation Area. We saw this gem on Steve and Debbie's blog most recently. It is a hiking trail with a series of catwalks attached to the side of a rock face right over the river. Although dogs are allowed on this hike, I knew Dakota would not have been a fan of the open grates.  




We got to one spot where the river was flowing over the trail. We stood there for a few minutes contemplating whether to turn around or walk through getting our shoes soaked. We did neither, we took our shoes and socks off and waded through. It was beyond cold. By the time we got to the other side our toes were stinging like someone was poking needles in them! As luck would have it, the trail was closed 100 yards later due to a rockslide, so we had to turn around, and do it all over again! 



Selfie Time!
We spent the night a few miles down the road at the Aldo Leopold Scenic Picnic Area. We were all alone, it was peaceful and very dark!
The landscape was dotted with these trees. Anyone have an idea what kind they are?

The next day was a day that Barb and I have been looking forward to for a long time. We have seen this site in numerous blogs and every time we see it, we want to go there. Well, it finally happened!

The Gila Cliff Dwellings are 44 miles outside of Silver City. But those 44 miles takes you 1 1/2 - 2 hours with twists and turns and ups and downs and all arounds. A very pretty road but you cannot be in a hurry and if you are not a fan of roads with steep drop offs with no guard rails mere feet away, you might want to think twice. 
These are the first dwellings that we've been to that we could actually hike up into themselves. 

It is believed that they were inhabited from around 1200-1300AD.

Sorry for the picture overload but this place is so cool I could not help it. 



While we were exploring the dwellings, we got to talking to another couple that were in there. Ken and Donna (Roadtrippin' Roadlovers) are also parttime truck camper explorers based out of Michigan. We have been to many of the same places and some that one of us have yet to get to. We compared notes and experiences. A very nice couple. Feel free to follow along on their adventures using the link above. 
Their rig is very identifiable so if you see this setup going down the road tell them Jim and Barb say hi!

Tomorrow, we leave New Mexico crossing over into Arizona where more adventures await us. For those of you in Q, we will be stopping by Total Wine and More in Tucson on or around the 28th (arriving in Q on 2/8). If you want us to pick you up anything, contact us via email, text or messenger.

51 comments:

  1. Wow. What an adventure. I tried to watch Breaking Bad but it was a little too dark for me. You rode the tram...I'm so jealous. I'm looking forward to your next adventure!

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    1. The tram was pretty cool. I was surprised to learn that it was constructed in the 1960's, I thought it was much newer than that.

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  2. What an adventure you guys are having. I have to say the barefoot water walk made me laugh!!!!

    Deb

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    1. I've been in cold water before putting in docks and boatlifts, but this was colder than anything we've been in before!

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  3. I loved Breaking Bad so I was riveted to your tour!! :)
    Never knew what the symbols meant on the flag. That was really interesting.
    I am glad you took ALL the pictures--from petroglyphs to the high dwellings...all of it!
    Nice you met new folks, but sorry you froze your feet and so quickly had to turn around and freeze them again. ;)
    Have a great weekend and stay warm! :)

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    1. The Breaking Bad tour was kind of an oddity but we found it interesting. We used to binge watch it over the holidays but have not done it for a few years now. We'll have to do it again now that we've been there!

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  4. Sadly Albuquerque is not what it used to be. With all the drugs coming across the border unchecked, more and more people are going down the dark hole. Great places to explore in the state however. I would not have thought of a Breaking Bad tour ... you might want to offer up your tour guide services! I bet you'd be swamped!!

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    1. There were signs of drug abuse everywhere and is was during the cold season of a smallish city. I cannot even start to imagine what it looks like in large warm weather cities.

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  5. I haven’t watched Breaking Bad but I will after this! Such a wonderful adventure in Albuquerque! I smiled with every new paragraph…but the drugs. What we are doing is definitely not working. I fear for our grandchildren. Times were much more innocent when we were their age.

    How wonderful to see those Cliff dwellings. I love how you open your lives to adventure! Continued fun and adventure, Jim and Barb.

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    1. I would be interested in knowing if you liked Breaking Bad or not. It certainly is not for everyone.

      I also wonder if our grandparents thought the same thing of our generation. In my opinion, it cannot get much worse with taking us to total chaos.

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  6. Now that I know that you guys are meth groupies, that explains a lot. I once drove the family many miles out of the way to Dodge City Kansas thinking that that was where they filmed Tombstone. Boy did I feel dumb about that. We also drove to Lone Pine California to see graboids so it is fun to chase down sites from favorite movies or TV shows. Don't be so hard on cripples in the future. We want to be people too.

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    1. Somethings you just can't make up. I would have loved to have seen the look on the volunteers face when you were at the visitor's center asking where the film site is!

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  7. We were also completely mesmerized by the Gila Cliff Dwellings. There is also another cliff dwelling…Tonto National Monument near Payson, AZ that you can enter and explore…well worth a stop. Your post brings back such nice memories…we rode the tram in Albuquerque and did several hikes there. See you soon!

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    1. Mesmerizing is an accurate word. You cannot help but stand there and wonder what life must have been like. Especially in the winter!

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  8. Hope to get to the catwalk and Gila dwellings one of these days. One day I need to stop in ABQ, I have family there but for now I see them in IL in the summer. Never watched Breaking Bad but it certainly took you on quite the adventure.

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    1. You guys would enjoy both of those sites. Dave would probably get into Breaking Bad, I'm not sure if you would.... maybe.

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  9. now i know why i enjoy your blog so much, we have nothing in common. if i hit a bird, i would cry, real tears and i am not sure i could take a picture. i have never watched breaking bad but i will surely be putting it on today, "while i knit"!! you don't knit do you?? is crystal blue a drug?? i did however like the donut shop but here again, i have never watched the simpsons.

    i really enjoyed the picture overload, beautiful stuff!!

    i'm just messing with you you know, you seem to have a great sense of humor, if not, i take it all back...and leave a lovely comment about all of it!!

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    1. Well, we both like birds and the outdoors. Knitting, haven't tried it. My sausage fingers would have things in a mess in no time at all!

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    2. well, i will agree with you there!! the donuts are hot and fresh, made right before your eyes!! i will have to go back in the spring, everything was roped off. i wanted to go past the ropes but the husband wasn't having it and he was driving!! i was lucky to get what i did. i'll definitely go back in the spring!!

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  10. You paint such a lovely picture of Albuquerque! We enjoyed the drive up to the Gila Cliff Dwellings and exploring the area also. The Catwalk was so close, but we never made it there. Next time perhaps.....

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    1. The drive to the catwalk is nothing compared to the dwellings. You can be in and out of there in a couple hours easily.

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  11. Great adventure blog, however, you had me lost with the Breaking Bad; I made a mental note to pass on the RV area in Albuquerque, but sure would like to visit the Petroglyph National Monument. You guys are quite something walking barefoot through that ice cold river at this time of year!! And kudos taking your RV through that forest to the Gila Cliff Dwellings. It was a white-knuckle ride for me and that was without an RV.

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    1. Yeah, if you are not familiar with the series you would not get that at all. We really enjoyed the sights and scenery of New Mexico, the big cities, not so much.

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  12. What a fun mix if stood! Breaking Bad, strangely interesting. No Bacon donut masterpieces? Not sure if winter is the prettiest time for the Cat Walk but still fun. You know you’re supposed to boulder hop across?! Bummer on the rock slide. I guess they haven’t fixed that yet. We loved the Cliff dwellings too. You better not bring that snow to Q or they’ll run you out! If you’re taking drink orders, you’re going to need a bigger truck!! 😆

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    1. We considered rock jumping across but the water was too high and even those were underwater.
      Funny you should mention bacon donuts, that is exactly what I got.

      As for the taking booze orders, Dino is not there so I should be good.

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  13. Since you are taking recommendations, go to Clovis NM. You can find the trailer park I lived in for 2 and a half years while I was stationed at Cannon AFB fighting the Cold War. Near the trailer park there was a corner gas station called Allsop's that served a very good corn dog. I highly recommend it. Not far away at Ft. Sumner NM is the grave site of Billy the Kid. Enjoy the blog.

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    1. We have seen several Allsop's on our journey south. I can only imagine the quality of meat they use in their corn dogs. I think I'll pass.

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  14. Looks like you are having fun.. thanks for taking us along for the ride.

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    1. Not the exotic places you guys go but we are having fun nonetheless!

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  15. Since you won't be too far away Howling at the Moon will be celebrated February 5 & 6 Yuma Foothills. They have a Facebook page.

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  16. We're hoping to get there (howling), sounds like a lot of fun and also there's RV parking! Loved the blog today with the Breaking Bad antics in Albuquerque! Never heard of it until today, I'm thinking Ken will be watching it now. Love the selfie pic, especially of you two! Beautiful places you've been, putting some on our list now! Very nice of you to offer to shop at Total Wine, my favorite store! We'll be making a run before we head that way! LOL.

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    1. We knew about Howling at the Moon until Elva mentioned it. We'll look into it. Let us know if you make it down!

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    2. Do you know where people stay and how to get reservations?

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  17. I believe you can park on rv on the grounds for, I believe $10.00. I don't think you need a reservation. Between the 3 of us we can figure it out.

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    1. It's not a Facebook page like I thought. It's a Facebook group....Howling at the Moon. Yuma AZ.. Aren't you friends with Steve and Diane? If yes...they attended this event. They can probably give you good information.

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    2. Thanks for the information Elva! We'll check with Steve and Dianne as well!

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  18. You've been having a great time in NM. We need to head back to see a few places that a winter storm kept us from visiting like the Gila Cliff Dwellings. The Catwalks are on our list, as well. I had to go back and visit our blog to refresh my memory on the La Ventana Arch. Super cute puppy photos. Glad that the heat is being left on for Zoey:) Love your adventure with sites from Breaking Bad. We did the same by visiting Oceanside, CA to see the sites from Animal Kingdom. Hope you find warmer weather. It's been a chilly winter.

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    1. We were going to stop by the Bisti Badlands that you featured in your blog post but it was too cold. We don't mind cold, but we draw the line at single digits!

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  19. We had friends who went to the howling in Yuma a couple of years ago and they said it was lots of fun. Sounds like you had fun in Albuquerque we stayed there a few years back and enjoyed it our last overnight there did not end well. The Catwalk Recreation Area is on our bucket list. Enjoyed seeing your pictures of the area. When looking at Petroglyphs Tom and I have often thought, will people someday make seeing the graffiti that is now being painted on rocks a destination???

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    1. You'll have to tell about your Albuquerque experience should we ever meet up. We've wondered the same with about what we see as graffiti. Someday people will look at it and wonder what life was like back then.

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  20. We have some friends who live in Albuquerque and they love it, but it was definitely not for us. It was just an odd city. So many bars on windows and boarded up buildings and trash everywhere. I don't know what the answer is either, but the current situation is definitely not good.

    The hiking and exploring you did, however, was very good! Pretty pics and a fun adventure! Stay warm out there!

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    1. There were signs of a revitalization in Albuquerque but they have a long way to go. The area has so much potential!

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  21. Those are some interesting stops, especially the cat walk and cliff dwellings. Every time I see petroglyphs I wonder if that was the way ancient people blogged about their day. We’ll get our Total Wine order in to you soon. Safe travels!

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    1. Weve already started to look into trailer rentals so we can haul your order back with us!

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  22. My daughter lives in Arizona and has shown me over much of the State. I love the place, and hope you both really enjoy your time there :) xx

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    1. Arizona is a beautiful state. I suspect it is a lot different than New Zealand for sure. I picture New Zealand with lots of steep hills and mountains and everything being green.

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  23. Interesting post. Sorry to hear about Albuquerque going downhill. lad you took the tram, we drove up ant the was a mistake. Hundreds of twists, turns and hairpin turns. Contessa

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    1. We didn't know you could drive up as it was always our intention to take the tram. The ski hills were all closed down but it was still fun to see.

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  24. You are right about the Ken and Donna's Camper being very identifiable. We pulled into the same parking lot with our Class C in Gila Bend, AZ yesterday. I told my husband, Wow, they have certainly been places.

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