Road Trip 2025: Day 20

Our Breaking Bad tour continued this morning. G3 wanted to go to Denny’s for breakfast, but the location used in the show, he explained, is now a Chipotle. Therefore, he asked if we could eat at Loyola’s, a restaurant that appears in Better Call Saul. From there we returned to the Old Town Plaza because one of the minor characters—Luis Moncada—from Breaking Bad was scheduled to be at the store we visited yesterday to sign autographs. Of course G3 wanted to go. Again this is why we never travel with specific locked in plans, it allows us to change course when necessary. We got there early incase there was a line before the store opened.. There wasn’t. While G3 and Kati waited, I took another walk around the Plaza. It has a very Latin American feel to it, which isn’t surprising. It was settled first by the Spanish, and then was part of Mexico, until we provoked a war in order to take it.

It was so worth going back to the Breaking Bad store for G3 to meet Luis Moncada. He was extremely personable and took the time to chat with G3. G3 asked him to sign the shirt we bought him yesterday—which he did—before posing for photos. Moncada even recoded a short video (which you can see on my FB page) for G3 to show his friends.

Next, we took a break from Breaking Bad to visit Petroglyphs National Monument because I couldn’t be this close to North America’s largest concentration of petroglyphs and not go see some of them. There are three separate locations—each involving a short hike—to see Petroglyphs. Since I was the only one interested, we did not go to all of them. I selected the Piedras Marcadas Canyon and Kati dropped me off. While I hiked the two mile sandy trail, she and G3 waited at McDonald’s in the air conditioning. Even in just the one location, I got to see more than a hundred petroglyphs etched into volcanic rock.

The petroglyphs are between 400 and 700 hundred years old and they were carved predominantly by ancestors of today’s Pueblo people. However, other natives passing through also added their own designs, as did some of the early Spanish settlers. Regardless of who carved them, I find it fascinating that they have survived—social upheaval, war, colonialism, and a changing climate. Our world is so different today than when Native Americans were leaving their mark on rocks. They could never have conceived of life as we know it. Yet, we remember them, and ponder what they may have been thinking as they scratched out their pictures. A need to create, to leave behind pieces of ourselves and our culture, is something all people—regardless of when we lived—share. And it’s a way for us to connect through time.

Two more Breaking Bad stops completed our tour. After visiting petroglyphs, we drove to a building that was used as law offices in Better Call Saul. Then, we stopped at the school where Walter White taught chemistry. It’s kind of sad that even with Breaking Bad’s success, teachers still get paid poorly and insurance companies remain immoral and unethical. How is it we as a society can’t learn and grow, recognize our failings and improve?

Breaking Bad for G3. Petroglyphs for me. Wine for Kati. We hadn’t been wine tasting since Iowa. So this afternoon, we stopped in at Casa Rondeña Winery and I am glad we did. The winery was one of the nicest, most scenic, we’ve ever visited. The buildings were Southwestern in design. The architecture was beautiful. My Dad would have loved it. But the wine was also some of the best we’ve had. In fact, we liked it so much, after our tasting, we stayed to enjoy a glass. One of the wines was named 1629. Of course, needing to understand the historical significance, I Googled it. I learned that 1629 was the year that the wine industry started in what is now New Mexico. That was nearly 150 years before California began growing grapes and producing wine.

Before leaving Albuquerque, we stopped for ice cream at I Scream Ice Cream. It was a cold treat we could all enjoy before getting on the road to head south.

I am dismayed. G3 is dismayed. We have not encountered a Culver’s since Salt Lake City. (There are none in New Mexico.) This is extremely disappointing because we count on Culver’s to feed us on the road. It’s bad enough I can’t get cheese curds at home, but on vacation they are supposed to be a staple. Unable to get Culver’s—again—we had to settle for Subway for dinner.

We are camping beside the Rio Grande, just outside a tiny town called Truth or Consequences—about two hours south of Albuquerque. The Rio Grande does not look very Grand. It looks more like a muddy puddle. It doesn’t even appear to be flowing, though I’m sure it is. Truth or Consequences may have been a quaint town once upon a time. If you peer beneath the cracks and peeling pain and general decay, there is evidence of a once charming place. But now, poverty has taken root. Houses are in disrepair. RV parks are crowded with vehicles that appear to have taken up residence. Trailer homes are close together and run down. I did, however, count four churches, none of which match the crumbling condition of the surrounding town. Also, main street, which was literally one street, was cute and busy and not falling apart. There was even a movie theater.

We got our tents up before it got dark, but the gathering clouds are dark and ominous and while there is lightning, I haven’t heard any thunder. Random cows are walking around. One nearly scared the life out of me as I slipped onto the bushes to pee.