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Breaking Bad: The Route 66 Tour
ALBUQUERQUE, New Mexico – They really should've eaten the tableside guac.
In the very tense dinner scene in the "Confessions" episode of Breaking Bad a few weeks back Walt, Skyler, Hank and Marie meet for enchiladas and blackmail at a Mexican restaurant called Garduño's. During said dinner, the only thing breaking the tension is the Office Space-esque insistence from the waiter that they try the restaurant's famed tableside guacamole. I'm sitting in Garduño's now and gotta say, they should've had some – it's delicious, so good it can completely erase a family-shattering betrayal.
Since I'm a huge Breaking Bad fan, when I found out I was going to end up in Albuquerque en route to another assignment, I realized this was an opportunity: I could actually scarf a Dog House hot dog or go to the park where Jesse Pinkman ended his money-throwing run. (Attention citizens of Albuquerque: If you happened to notice anyone taking creep-shots in your neighborhood who looks like the person in the selfies in this story, I apologize in advance.)
I'm not the only one. There's been increase in the area's tourism thanks to the show, and now that it's coming to the end of its run, these locations may soon be the only part of Breaking Bad fans haven't already seen. So here I am, asking a waitress if Breaking Bad has increased demand for my order and getting a smile and a sardonic nod in the affirmative.
Since there are more Breaking Bad places to visit in Albuquerque than there are hours in the day, I asked for help and emailed the show's writer's assistant Gordon Smith and Jenn Carroll, the show's script coordinator, to tap their encyclopedic knowledge of the behind-the-scenes machinations of the show.
After recommending the guac, Carroll gave me suggestions of locations to visit and mentioned that while there have been a number of online Breaking Bad tour guides, "I think it'd be really cool to do a condensed tour of all the places you can visit just on Central (also known as Route 66)." So my Breaking Bad tour of duty -- which is chronicled above in photos, complete with tourist-y Instagram filters -- is largely focused on one of America's most famous roads.
Check out the locations adjacent to Route 66 in this handy Google map, and click through the gallery above for a quick tour of some of the most famous Breaking Bad locations that you can do in an afternoon.
