10 October – Albuquerque

Laundry in the morning, then we set out for the Balloon Fiesta grounds. They had a temporary RV Park set up with space for over 1500 rigs. They had been pretty full, but given it was the last weekend, people were leaving and there was plenty of room. No hook-ups, so we are free camping.

Around 4pm we caught the free shuttle to the Fiesta for the evening session. The Balloon Fiesta park is ever 300 acres of launch sites, carnival alley, food and souvenir vans and lots and lots of people. We found ourselves a little bank to sit on and settled in for the show. As it got towards dusk the balloons started to set up. Each balloon is carefully unrolled from its canvas covering and laid out on the ground. They have big fans to fill the balloons with cold air to start the inflation process, then switch to the gas blowers when the mouth of the balloon is open and the bag is partly inflated. After a while the balloon starts to lift off the ground, then the handlers use guy ropes to hold it in position as they stand the basket up and get everything prepared. 

As balloon after balloon inflated, the whole arena filled up. They were bumping up against each other as a big wall of colours. Night fell and they started the “Night Magic Glow” – each balloon pilot switched from a hot blue flame to a bright orange flame that lit up the balloon like a giant lightbulb. It was amazing! They co-ordinated a few blasts so the whole lot were lit up. There were around 550 balloons at the Fiesta, and most of them were there.

As the balloons slowly deflated and sank to the ground the arena went dark. They had a short laser light show while everything was packed up and then fireworks. The Americans certainly know how to put on a fireworks display. It was something else to see!

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=35.18251,-106.60245&ll=35.18251,-106.60245&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

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.

8 October – Albuquerque

In the morning we dropped the RV off to have a check over by the service agents at Camping World. While we waited, we took a look at the new and second hand RV’s for sale. There are some pretty elaborate rigs available! Leather couches, outdoor TV’s, 2 bathrooms, marble benchtops and the list goes on and on. We drooled a little tiny bit over some of the more pricey ones.

The RV checked out ok – not issues other than some window seals starting to crack. Next stop was the tire place for new tires. The rig will be good as new when we are done.

While waiting at the tire place, Steve struck up a conversation with a lady in the waiting room who is the Transportation Dispatcher for the TV show “Better Call Saul”.  She chatted about the logistics of location scouting and getting people and equipment to and from locations. She gave us a business card and offered to get us spots as extras on the show. Sadly all the weekend shoots had extras organised already, but she said the offer is there if we ever get back to Albuquerque. 

7 October – Holbrook to Albuquerque

We had a leisurely start this morning and headed out to the Petrified Forest / Painted Desert National Parks. The Petrified Forest was the first stop. During the Triassic Era, 225 Million years ago, Arizona was a rainforest. As the rainforest trees died, they fell into rivers and were swept downstream to form log jams. The trees sank to the bottom as the wood became waterlogged and were buried by layers of sediment. The logs soaked up silica from volcanic ash, which over time crystallized into quartz. Different minerals created different colours, white, orange, brown, purple, pink, green and blue.

We did two walks, the Giant Logs walk and the Crystal Forest walk. Now a dry grassland and desert, it is amazing to walk amongst tree trunks, chunks and shards all made from quartz. The outer layers still look like bark, but the inners are colourful crystals.

 Route 66 also runs through the park, and there is a rusted out 1932 Studebaker sitting on the old road.

The Painted Desert was quite a sight too. The sand and rocks are bright reds and oranges. Very pretty to look at from the many overlooks on the road.

Leaving the Parks we got back on the I40 headed for Albuquerque again for the Balloon Fiesta. We heard about the Fiesta when we arrived, and decided to back track to catch the last few days. The RV Park required a minimum of 3 days booking, so we will check out the Fiesta and also a few other things we missed the first time round.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=35.05930,-106.79736&ll=35.05930,-106.79736&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

6 October – Holbrook

We headed out this morning on a round trip. First stop was Winslow to find the street corner made famous in the Eagles song “Take it Easy”.

Well, I'm a standing on a corner
in Winslow, Arizona
and such a fine sight to see
It's a girl, my Lord, in a flatbed Ford
slowin' down to take a look at me
Come on, baby, don't say maybe
I gotta know if your sweet love is
gonna save me

At Standing on the Corner Park we found a statue of a guy with a guitar and on the wall behind him, the girl in the flatbed Ford. Cool!

It was pouring rain, so we had a coffee in a diner over the road while we waited for it to stop enough to take pics.

Leaving Winslow, we kept on Route 66 to the meteor crater. The crater is nearly one mile across, 2.4 miles in circumference and more than 550 feet deep and was the result of a meteor strike around 50,000 years ago.

The crater was discovered at the end of the nineteenth century by Grove Gilbert, and studies proved that the crater was formed by impact of a huge metallic meteor, the first and best preserved of (so far) about 150 such craters on Earth to be identified. The largest surviving fragment of the meteor weighs 3/4 tons. Current theories place the size of the meteor as 150 feet in diameter, and its weight at 300,000 tons.

The site is privately owned and the admission fee of $18 each was a bit steep, considering that you can only view the crater from a viewing platform and can’t walk the rim or go down into the crater. Worth a look though!

5 October – Canyon de Chelly to Holbrook

We were picked up from our campsite for our 4WD tour into Canyon de Chelly. Because it is a site of cultural significance to the Navajo, you can’t go in without an approved and registered Navajo guide. Our guide was a lady called Maureen. All formalities completed and we were underway. The tour follows a dry riverbed into the canyon, and it was pretty challenging driving. The sand is deep and fluffy and it was quite a job keeping the 4WD going. As we wound our way up the canyon the red rock walls increased in height, from 30 feet at the canyon entrance to a towering 1000ft at the highest points.

We stopped regularly to look at the many cliff drawings, pictographs and ruined cliff dwellings. Having seen the canyon from the rim, it was lovely to get up close and see things in detail. Some of the rock drawings run right along ledges for quite a long way, depicting scenes like the rounding up of the Navajo by the Spanish and the first antelope hunt on their return to Canyon de Chelly. Some of the drawings are very faded with age and when you sit and look, you see more and more.

One of the interesting cliff painting styles is by the Hopi tribe. They passed through the canyon and traded cliff art for supplies.

The guide told us that de Chelly is a Spanish mispronunciation and misspelling of the Navajo word for canyon. So the name means Canyon Canyon.

On the trip we passed the many farming plots, with cornstalks, fruit trees and little houses. Most of the Navajo move up to the Canyon rim for the winters to make it easier for the kids to attend school and the adults to get to work.

It was quite a sight to see the amazing colours of the rock walls and the sheer height of the steep sides of the canyon. We drove along the base of one of the walls that slopes inward – it’s called Martini Rock because when you look up you have a massive hangover… Ha ha!

We finished the tour at lunchtime and only just in time as the heavens opened and it poured with rain. Thunder and lightning too.

We drove south through the rain, and it cleared up a little as we travelled. We had a stop at the Historic Hubble Trading Post, established in 1878. Mr Hubble set up quite an enterprise, he built a trading empire that included stage and freight lines as well as 24 trading posts, a wholesale house in Winslow, and other business and ranch properties. The trading post still operates and it was fun to poke around the shelves and see such a mix of goods – chocolate, yo yos, skin cream, horse collars, books, rugs, canned food, and the list goes on!

We took a tour of the Hubble homestead too. Avid collectors of art, the walls are covered in paintings and drawings, and the ceiling of the great room is covered with woven baskets. 

We walked around the farm buildings after and saw a turkey, his “gobble” noise kept us laughing for a while.

Finally back on the I40, or Route 66 and heading west again to Holbrook.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=34.92267,-110.14301&ll=34.92267,-110.14301&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1

4 October – Canyon de Chelly

We spent the day doing the 2 driving tours of the Canyon – the North Rim and the South Rim. Both have many overlooks where you can walk to the edge of the canyon and look at the stunning views. 

 The canyon was occupied by the Ancestral Puebloans from round 2500BC until 1600AD when they simply vanished. They left behind them their legacy of the many cliff dwellings and petroglyphs.

The Navajo people arrived in the area around 1700 and took advantage of the canyons water supply and sheltered sites to grow crops and farm sheep and goats. Sadly, their tranquil life didn’t last long with war breaking out in the late 1700’s between the Navajo, other tribes and the Spanish settlers. The Navajo built fortresses atop the bluffs and in the caves, including a fortress on top of this massive pillar of rock, but to no avail and the Spanish wiped out their settlements in 1863/64. The Navajo who were left were forced by the Spanish to walk to Fort Sumner in New Mexico, with many dying along the way and at the Fort from disease and starvation. In 1868 they were freed to return home, but with their crops and flocks gone they had to adopt the Spanish and Mexican model of Trading Posts to trade jewellery and rugs for supplies. Today, Canyon de Chelly remains the epicentre of the Navajo culture and the Navajo Nation.

We had a truly great day – the canyon is so beautiful, with its colours and the contrast of the green valley floor against the reds and oranges of the rocks. Unfortunately it was cloudy most of the day, so the photos are not as good as we would have liked. However, we have booked a 4WD tour tomorrow morning, so fingers crossed for sunshine!