The Walking Dead Scavenger Hunt Begins!!!
So my most recent fan adventure began after I developed a
love for The Walking Dead. Now this and
Supernatural have to be the most uncharacteristic fandoms I've ever joined,
namely because I'm a chicken and have always hated scary things. Trust me on this, I don't do horror. Once my husband took me to see a scary movie
and his reward was to stay up with me all night watching Winnie the Pooh on a
constant loop until I finally fell asleep! Needless to say, I was very late to the game that is TWD,
having decided early on that I would never watch that show. Never say Never! After hearing so many friends say how good it
was, I decided to put on my big girl panties and give it a try. Thank goodness for Netflix, am I right? Here's my Facebook post from that fateful
night:
After that, I was constantly watching, despite the crazy
dreams that followed. I started having regular
chats with other fans, processing the trauma and excitement. My poor husband and son were so neglected
during my TWD binge period! Once I was
caught up, I started watching it every week, having online chats with my good
friend and fellow fan Suzie during the commercial breaks and found out that she
had done some Walking Dead related tours in the Atlanta area. The idea was sparked in me and I became
determined to spend some time in Georgia, looking for old filming locations and
hoping to stumble across some filming in action. I tried to talk some local friends into
joining me. Unfortunately that never
worked out, so I hatched a new plan…get my mom interested in the show. Well, that didn’t work out so well
either. She’s a very visual person, so
you can imagine the toll the walkers took on her!
But because she’s just a super-fun traveler who enjoys
adventure, she agreed to go along. This
trip was originally planned for November.
When the time came however, I was called to Chicago for work and a
lovely storm prevented me from flying home.
Heartbroken, we had to cancel the trip.
After much deliberation, we decided to try again over my son’s spring
break in March of this year, and allowed him to go with us. He was 13 at that time, so I finally broke
down and let him watch a few episodes to see how he would do. Some of you are probably thinking, “C’mon
mom, he could’ve been watching it AGES ago,” while others are probably secretly
shaming me for even considering it.
Truth be told, I struggled with the decision. But he seemed to do OK with it, so we watched
together via Netflix as preparation for the trip.
We left home the morning of Wednesday, March 30th
to begin our road trip to Georgia. It
was a long trip that ended up on the back roads of Tennessee due to Google Maps
detecting accidents and construction on the interstate. We had a few uneasy moments, but for the most
part it was a very pretty and scenic drive.
Everyone was getting very tired by the time we made it south of Atlanta,
but we opted to try and find just one filming location to get us excited for
the rest of the week. Our exit just
happened to not be far from the site where the very first scene of the pilot
was filmed. That’s right, the
intersection where Rick parks the squad car then walks down to the gas station
and encounters the little girl walker!
We drove along on the two-lane local roads, over hills and around
turnabouts until at we came up over the last hill and saw the Texaco
sign. All three of us squealed with
delight! It was our first major find!!
After pulling into the station, Payton and I walked up along
the road to get the best vantage point for pictures. My mom was standing by the car, stretching and
watching us, when a gentleman in a construction company truck came up beside
her and asked what we were doing. She
told me later that he had a knowing smile on his face as he asked the
question. The two of them struck up a
conversation and he shared how much The Walking Dead has done for this part of
Georgia and how he has done construction work on several locations for them, as
well as for many of the recent movies that decided to film in the area. It was such a neat experience for all of us.
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| First Stop, First Scene |
We loaded back up in the car and made our way to Peachtree
City, which would be our home-base for the trip. We opted to stay at the Hampton Inn, based on
the recommendation of my aforementioned friend, Suzie, and we loved it. The staff was great and the complimentary
breakfast was very good. It was also
really central to all of the locations we would be traveling to over the next
few days, and there was a Starbucks just across the way!
I’m going to continue sharing our adventure stories as well
as tips and recommendations based on our experiences so I hope you’ll stay
tuned. I'd love to hear any questions you might have about preparing for this type of trip or any others about our adventure. Please leave comments and questions below! In the meantime, here are a couple
of recommendations to start you off on your own The Walking Dead Film Site Scavenger Hunt:
1.
1. The
Walking Dead Locations Google Map/Facebook Page/YouTube Channel: Our greatest asset in the hunt was the TWD
Locations google map. Through the magic
of creating a Pinterest button, I was able to import it into my phone and
essentially it became our GPS for the trip!
All the locations are marked by different icons, making them really easy
to find. Pre-trip, I watched several of
their videos to get a better view of what we might be looking for, and to get
amped up for the trip. Now I like to go
back to them and relive the memories.
You can find them at the following links:
http://tinyurl.com/jdddm8t (the map)
2. 2. Hampton Inn, Peachtree City, GA & the
surrounding area: As I mentioned
earlier, the Hampton Inn was great. The
room was very clean, breakfast was yummy (& free!), and it was located in
this great little area filled with shopping and dining options. I would highly recommend it!
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