13/10/18 I woke up at 5am as I had 1h drive left to reach Albuquerque. I thought I’d get to the balloon festival to catch the morning ascension but traffic was bad so when I got close enough I stopped next to a park nearby and watched from the car. I had a nap later then drove to the airbnb by 3pm. Christin, the host uses a bluetooth device to lock/unlock the door, it is really cool. She has a 4 months old cat named Max who met me in the bedroom. By 5pm I thought I might use the shuttle bus to get to the festival for the night glow and fireworks so I drove to the shopping mall and bought a park and ride ticket.
I had an Indian taco and lemonade for dinner, had time to explore the shops and activities on site before the balloons started to rise. The show was magical, as the hundreds grounded balloons regularly light up together. I stayed to watch the fireworks too which was good. The shuttle took me back to my car around 10pm and I went straight to bed as I have to wake up at 3 for my balloon ride tomorrow.
14/10/18 The weather forecast showed a 30% chance of rain so I thought I would be fine. I took the first shuttle at 4.30am and arrived just in time for the 5am checkin. Unfortunately, they decided to cancel the flights (like many others during the festival) due to bad weather conditions, as a storm was on its way and the wind was too strong to fly. So sad I can’t get on the balloon, and as today is the last day of the festival, there is no chance to reschedule it later. It makes you realise how powerless we are against nature! I had a breakfast burrito and a hot chocolate to keep me company until the first shuttle bus picked up the people who wanted to get back to the shopping mall.
I slept from 6am to noon and found out that Breaking Bad was filmed here. As the weather was not great I thought I could explore the city and thanks to Google found a few locations like Walter White’s house, Hank & Marie’s house, Jessie’s house, the carwash and Los Pollos Hermanos where I had fish tacos. The fast food and car wash now have iconic features to promote the series like posters, t-shirts, photos but you would not guess the houses except for Walter’s, where the current owners built a fence around the house and there is a sign that asks visitors to respect their privacy and asks that pics be taken from across the road. I read that a few people tried to reproduce the famous launching pizza scene on site, probably why the poor owners decided to build the fence.
I had dinner at the airbnb house and spent the evening with Christin the host and Reese, a friend of hers crashing on the couch. We watched a few movies and as I hadn’t seen Max the cat since last night I asked where he was and… Christin burst into tears saying she was hoping we would go through the night without talking about it. There was an accident the night before and the cat got out. They found him on the street when they came back from the festival ?. I felt so bad for bringing up the topic. I know how hard it is to lose a companion. Christin left the house for a few hours to help a friend then when she came back after a few drinks she felt nostalgic and told me about her personal life, her love for turtles, the complicated ex husband, and we went through a few photo albums. We managed to stay away from the cat topic and she was not crying anymore when we all went to bed.
