FIFTY STATES AWAYAfter a lazy morning to recover from yesterday we prepared excitedly for our afternoon activity. We had a huge room that had the coolest lamp ever, which looked like it was out of 80s American movies and I couldn’t resist a cheeky pic, how long since you’ve seen one of these:
Although our hotel was just around the corner from the pick up point we had to make a run for it only just making it to the RV. Today we were being taken around on a tour in an RV, set up to honor one of our favourite TV shows: Breaking Bad. For those of you who don’t know it, an RV is a very important part of the plot line.
It was nice to be able to give Ben a break from the driving for a day to let him enjoy an activity as a passenger. To get to the pick up point we had to pass through what’s know as ‘old town’ Albuquerque. It’s an extremely pretty area with pastel coloured buildings and lots of fairy lights.
Arriving at the bus we were greeted by an actor that actually worked on the show. The requirement of this particular company is that only people who worked on the show are allowed to drive the RVs and conduct the tour. The guy sounded exactly like Jessie, at times during the tour it was hard to comprehend that it wasn’t actually Jessie showing us around. It was unbelievable, he greeted us warmly with the typical Jessie ‘Hey Y’all’ and we bundled onto the RV. Our seats were at the back, which gave us the opportunity to walk through the entire length of the RV and there was a lot to see. The inside had been set up as it was in the show, with the lab, it was pretty cool.
There were so many pictures and art work from the show surrounding the walls. We were ready to roll, we were told there would be some competitions during the tour, where we could win some prizes based on our knowledge of the show. Ben’s pretty good at film trivia so we were hopeful we might snag something and luckily for us we did! Ben won the first two items (a bumper sticker and a bag of blue candy) that were up for grabs in the first competition! Go Ben!
With a 20 or so film location stop it was a busy and fun day, we saw everything from the car wash (where we were given free popcorn and coffee), Jessie’s house, Walts house, right up to the corner where Combo hung out and had his ‘encounter’ with the young boy. We even stopped to have a free lunch at Los Pollos Hermanos. We learnt some insider info about some of the filming, for instance in the very scene where Walt throws the Pizza on the roof, the studio brought 50 pizzas for Brian Cranston to attempt it with only for him to stroll in and get it on the first take! I bet they were eating pizza for days!
Our English accents attracted a lot of interest, it usually does! We had a great chat with an older couple of the tour who had visited a few of the states due to the being in the military. We also got to see some of the locations important to the sister program: Better Call Saul, which was an added bonus! They were careful not to drop any spoilers as we are a bit behind with the second series. After a fabulous day, and an awesome experience we headed back to get some sleep. I wonder what we’ll get up to tomorrow.
