DIY Walking Dead Tour: Planning

I recently found myself in the great state of Georgia, with a car, one week, and a native husband willing to put up with my interest in tracking down filming locations from "The Walking Dead."

Prior to the trip, I was only dimly aware that this was a "thing" that "people do."  I suppose it never occurred to me as something I myself might do, because... well, wouldn't that be kind of geeky?  Notwithstanding the fact that I have a pretty geeky TWD blog, I mean.

Long story short, I did some Googling in order to put together our tentative agenda, not really expecting we'd visit much (if anything). 

Because we were passing through Atlanta, I first came across Big Zombie Tours, a full-blown tour company who will shepherd you between downtown Atlanta-centric sites.  This is probably worthwhile if you don't have your own transportation, and/or don't know the area.  I am from Oregon, so the expansive highway system and aggressive driving of native was terrifying to me.  I seriously considered putting down $85 per head, until my husband reminded me we'd have a rental car -- thanks to GPS, all he needed were addresses and we could DIY.

This led to searching for those them addresses.   You apparently cannot swing a dead cat without running into a full-blown blog about these locations:  the aptly-named Walking Dead Locations.   

Now, I respect the work of its author, but by the time I really committed to this tour, we were already on the road, in Atlanta, in a puny red Hyundai that could barely roll up a hill.  All I had was my iPhone, which meant that navigating this wealth of information just wasn't gonna happen.  There's just so much!  Windows kept popping open, which stretched my phone to the limits of its strength.  And I became quickly aggravated by pages like Morgan's House.  I just wanted an address to plug in.  I just wished for a map that showed what was close by to where I already was, given that I had absolutely no idea where I really was in this strange, large city.

Which brought me to Thrillist, which I actually stumbled upon via Pinterest.

This big-ass infographic was perfect, in that it gave us a decent idea of scale and a "top ten."

I have my suspicions that Dave Baldwin, author of the Thrillist "Walking Dead Road Trip" article, composed his list based on Google mapping, rather than actual visits to the sites.  I know, shocking!  I could be wrong, of course.  But because I wound up dependent on this list... believing in it, if you will, I was a little wounded every time I encountered bad directions and dead ends.  Which is why I'm following up in my own little blog (for me and my audience of six human beings, I presume).