9 October – Albuquerque

In the morning we drove to the Balloon Festival Offices to pick up tickets and arrange parking. We then did a self-guided Breaking Bad Tour. First stop was up on the range at Hank and Marie’s place. Then we did a drive by Saul’s Office, the carwash, then on to Walter’s house. There were a few cars parked on the street with people taking pictures. The owners didn’t look too happy – they were sitting in the open garage door with a very big Doberman and… a flyswat!

We then headed over to check out Jesse’s house. As we were manoeuvring the RV through the streets of a beautiful old leafy suburb we got to a road that was blocked off by the police. We decided to park and walk the rest of the way, and across a park from us were lights and camera equipment being set up. After we got a photo of Jesse’ house we stopped to see what was going on. A security guard told us that we could watch from behind a row of seats, but “no cameras on set”! He wouldn’t tell us what was being filmed, but we saw crew members with “Better Call Saul” on their shirts, so we settled in to watch for a while. It was really interesting to see how they set up and filmed a couple of takes of a guy walking to the house and going in. We started up a conversation with the guard and he turned out to be very friendly. Eventually a people mover van pulled up to the curb and Saul (Bob Odenkirk) hopped out. He walked around for a while then came back to the van (gave us a wave and a “how are you folks”?) and was driven away again. The security guard mentioned that the light wasn’t right for the shot they wanted, so he would be back later.

As it got dark, the crew set up street lights, and the big lighting rigs on cranes. We were sitting behind some of the extras and it was interesting to overhear them talking about the show and what they had planned for the evening shoot. By this stage everyone was used to having us around, so we were able to wander around a bit and look, as long as we stayed out of the way.

One of the crew stopped by and asked us if we were fans of the show (of course we said yes, even though we haven’t watched it) and where we were from. A few minutes later he came back and called out “where are you, Australia! Bob wants you to have this”. Signed photo – excellent!

A few minutes after that, Bob himself came over for a chat. He shook hands with us and talked about how he is headed to Australia on a publicity tour in January, with his wife. He was a cool guy, very friendly. Then the action started on the set and we watched him do several takes driving down the street, and getting out, going into the house, coming out and driving off. By this stage it was 8pm and they called their lunch break (yes, really) and packed up to move locations. Apparently filming was going to go through until 2-3am.  We weren’t up for such a late night and mindful of not arriving at the RV Park too late, we called it a day. It was an awesome experience, and such a coincidence to have run across the filming. Now we have to watch the show! Season 2, Episodes 8 and 9.