Welcome to the second and last day of ABQ exploration. If you didn’t check out the first day, I would strongly recommend checking it out here.
Today was all about visiting places that I couldn’t visit yesterday. I had the following list of places to visit for mu second and last day at ABQ, post which I had to board a flight to Denver, CO, which was my connection before heading home to Detroit, MI.
1. Tuco’s headquarters
2. Jesse’s house
3. Dog House
4. The Candy Lady
5. Gustavo Fring’s house
6. Jesse and Jane’s apartment
7. Deserted spot where Walt keeps his money
8. Saul Goodman’s office
9. Los Pollos Hermanos
Let us begin the exploration.
Tuco’s headquarters
I woke up after a tired yesterday, which I spent walking the streets of Denver and ABQ. I felt great for the day to come and was looking forward to having my breakfast at Java Joe’s which was Tuco’s headquarters on the show. I still remember the scene when Walt blows up this HQ to get back at Tuco.
I drove from my Airbnb to this place and found a spot to park my car right before this cafe. Just by looking at the building from the parking spot, I could recognize the place. The more surprising thing for me was the interior of this building. I didn’t expect this place to be so beautiful from inside. They had so many colors on the walls and beautiful artifacts inside, it was hard to take eyes off them.
I glanced through their menu and it was really impressive. I settled for a regular English breakfast, but underestimated the size of the dish. I realized how big the size of the plate was when I looked at it. It was a challenge to finish it, but I managed to do it.
After a tummy full of lovely and delicious breakfast, it was time to head to the next spot on my list.
Jesse’s house
I was excited to check out the house that Jesse lived in during the first couple seasons. The more interesting part for me was the neighborhood, which was nice, clean, and well kept. I had a hard time finding a parking spot, so I parked it at a distance and took a stroll through the neighborhood.
The house looked really pretty from the outside. I spent good time to check out the house and get a feel of what the owner must be feeling staying at this beautiful house. The most amazing thing I found out was that the owner had a dachshund. I found it so amusing because of the fact that Jesse used to go to this Taco stand “Dog House” which had a dachshund on its store board.
Dog House
That brings us to the third spot of the day. As I told earlier, Jesse used to go to this place for some “meetups”. When I was planning for the trip, I thought I would visit this place for dinner, but I was so tired yesterday that I pushed it to today. When I went to the place, they were closed. I wasn’t in the mood to eat, as I was still full after having breakfast. I wanted to see how the place looked like, but couldn’t. Fortunately, the owner of the place was around and she told me that it is still half an hour for them to open. I didn’t want to stick around for that long as I had other places to cover, so I just clicked a couple pictures and continued my journey to the next spot.
The Candy Lady
Ever since I have been the fan of the show, I was always intrigued to find out what contents the “meth” was made from that they had in the show. Upon my research, I found out that they got the candy from the store called “The Candy Lady“. I really wanted to check the store out and get myself a souvenir in the form of small packs of the blue candy that they had on the show.
The more amazing experience for me was that they had setup the life size cardboard cutouts of Jesse and Walt. The Candy Lady had gone one step further and had the hat and sunglasses that Walt wore during the show. I had fun clicking so many pictures in the store and pretending to be one of them. It was an amazing experience, which I will remember for the rest of my life.
Gustavo Fring’s house
I wasn’t much excited to check this spot, but didn’t mind it as it is quite close to the other places that I really wanted to see. They have shown Gustavo Fring’s house only on a couple instances, so it didn’t appeal to me more as compared to other places. That’s all about it.
Jane & Jesse’s apartment
This was an interesting spot I really wanted to see. When they showed this place on the show, I could relate to it as I was living in a similar apartment during that time. This place was located on a downhill road and located on the corner of a busy street, so I took some time to find the parking.
Upon realizing that I was standing in front of this place, I could imagine all the scenes that were shot there and pictured the scene where (***spoiler alert ahead***) Jane dies.
In the show, this apartment looks quite big, but isn’t that big IRL. I could roam around the apartment and could steal a quick look inside the backyard of the apartment.
Deserted spot where Walt keeps his money
This was the most anticipated spot I wanted to check out on this day. When I was researching for this spot, I realized that the coordinates that Walt remembers on the show take you to some office, which is not the spot where he hid his money. I had to some extended research just to find out the correct coordinates of the spot. This was the same spot where they cooked meth for the first time.
The most amazing thing happened to me when I was on my way to this spot. You should note that this spot is not on the regular road or highway, so I had to download the offline Google Maps just to be on the right track leading up to this spot. As soon as my phone showed that there was no internet or phone network, I saw a Native American Indian standing in the middle of the road, asking for a ride. I had only a few seconds to decide whether to stop or not for him. I chose to be a good samarratian and stopped for him. I let him in. This was the first time I was looking at the Native American so close, so I was a little frightened, but didn’t show it on my face. He couldn’t speak English and I his language, so I just kept driving straight until he requested me to stop. As soon as he opened the door of the car and let himself out, I heaved a sigh of relief. I felt good about helping him, but chuckled at the fact that I was so afraid too.
It took me a few more minutes to reach the spot. I parked on the side of the road and looked around. The place felt familiar to the one shown on the TV series, and I felt extremely happy and satisfied looking at the scenery around me. A little child in me was awake to see this beautiful place and I couldn’t help but enjoy the moment of witnessing the place where my favorite TV show of all time was filmed. I spent a lot of time here, just looking around and soaking it in.
Saul Goodman’s office
This was the second last spot during my trip. I had only couple more hours left before I had to be at the airport to catch my flight to Denver, CO, from where I had to board a flight which would take me back home.
Saul Goodman’s office that they had on the show is better known as the “Dirty Bourbon” which is a pub and bar. As it was the day time, the place was closed, which I found to be fortunate as I was almost done with the day and desperately needed some rest after walking almost 20,000+ steps. This place was surrounded by other stores too and when a couple spotted me taking pictures of the closed store, they could figure out that I was the fan of the show and just getting a kick out of it.
Los Pollos Hermanos
& that brings us to the last spot of the trip. I kept the Los Pollos Hermanos as the last spot as I was still quite full from the morning’s breakfast and thought would be hungry enough to eat something at this restaurant. Unfortunately, I still wasn’t hungry, so I settled for a glass full of mango juice.
I must tell you that this restaurant is named “Twisters” IRL. The only difference between this real and reel restaurant is the name. The parking lot and the interior is kept similar to the one show in the TV series. I clicked pictures of the signs showing that Breaking Bad was filmed at that location, and the original Los Pollos Hermanos restaurant logo.
I took off after spending 10 minutes at the restaurant as I was getting late for my flight to Denver.
When I reached the airport, I forgot my 2nd phone in the rental car, which caused me to go through the airport security gates twice, and just in time to board my flight. I really experienced the rush hour and was relieved when I boarded the flight in time.
Next stop: My birth “day” at Denver, CO.
stochasticity 