Balloons and Breaking Bad in Albuquerque (SPOILER ALERT!)

I looked at the number of views on these posts, and notice that it is dwindling.  My readers started out enthusiastic but when I ask people now "Have you read my blog?"  They say, "Oh, um, yeah, I read a couple."  (Except for certain family members, you know who you are!) This is not surprising as people have busy lives and here I am swanning around the USA.  But I need to keep writing because every single day is so packed with fun, unique adventures that I myself will forget what happened each day if I don't keep a record, so I guess my blog is mainly for me!  A stunning record of a once in a lifetime journey across this land.  Visions...of...America!

It all started with a sunrise hot air balloon ride today.  I know that's touristy, but I wanted to try it.  We got to the launch site right as the sun was coming up, and met with our pilot, Murray, and his assistant.  They showed us how the balloon inflated and soon we were off!  There were at least another dozen balloons taking off around us.  Albuquerque is the hot air ballooning capital of the US, because it has about 300 days a year when you can fly in a balloon: the lack of wind, the dryness, etc.

 
After our ride, we wanted to take the "Breaking Bad" tour of the city, since it is one of my favorite shows, and all of my family members, young and old, are obsessed with it.  There are three separate tour companies, all involved in a turf war, here in Albuquerque, fighting over the hordes of fans who come to find such locations as Saul Goodman's law office, the park where Mike takes his granddaughter, the train tracks where Jesse saves Mike from robberies, the cafe where Walt puts the ricin in the Stevia, Los Pollos Hermanos, the A-1 Car Wash, and of course Walt and Skyler's house, Hank and Marie's house, etc.  Most of the tours last more than three hours; one is by trolley, one is by limo, and the best one (in my opinion) is in an RV like the one they use as a meth lab in the first season or two.  However, we wanted more independence and to spend less time, so we did a self-guided tour to some of the locations.  I didn't see everything I wanted to, but we did hit some of the best spots.

Heisenberg and me

"Mike" sitting on the bench

Walt's house

 I think the reason that Breaking Bad is so compelling to so many people is because the story of Walter White's descent into evil follows almost exactly the Aristotelian pattern of the Tragic Hero.  Like Oedipus, Walter White has excellent intentions.  He wants to provide for his family.  Aristotle says that the tragic characters are revealed by the choices they make.  We see the events unfold as the characters make choices, and before our eyes we watch as they go down the wrong path.  The moment when Walt watches Jane die, for example, is one of the most powerful scenes because we see Walter making that choice to do nothing - of course, Bryan Cranston's acting is so phenomenal that it really helps, too.  By the end of the hero's demise, when he has lost everything (by the end, Walt can't even enter his own house; he watches from the doorway, framed just like John Wayne at the end of The Searchers as Walt Jr. comes home from school, then walks away).

I'm really liking Albuquerque and the Southwest in general.  Too bad the water is pretty much gone.  Severe drought, and people are still watering their lawns!  Insanity!  We could see from the balloon who was still watering and who wasn't.  Maybe America is the greatest Tragic Hero of all, or is that just the most pretentious thing I've ever written?