'Walking Dead' may close for season but tours will not

Season 5 is ending! How will we survive?

            Once again the advent of spring brings sad news to “The Walking Dead” fans. The 90-minute finale of the most popular show in television airs Sunday, March 29, and will disappear for months!

            But it doesn’t have to mean the end of Rick, Carol, Daryl and the rest of those heroes until fall rolls around. You can visit film sites in Georgia and recreate the dark apocalypse all year long.

            Atlanta Movie Tours offers Big Zombie Tours that includes the hospital where Rick, our favorite sheriff who’s gone off the deep end this year, was first seen when the series debuted. There’s also the Center for Disease Control (it really didn’t blow up), downtown Atlanta and other location hot spots.

            The Southern Hollywood Film Tour also offers a Dead walk and includes the town of Harralson where 17 episodes from seasons 2-5 were shot.

            A lot of the series was filmed in Senoia, a small, quaint town outside of Atlanta that’s now being doubled as a film backlot. Fans can call Senoia “Woodbury” since it was the location for the Governor’s cozy little enclave, but seasons 3-5 of “The Walking Dead” were filmed here. Senoia — if those of you dead heads care — was also the backdrop of films “Drop Dead Diva,” “Fried Green Tomatoes” and many more.

Well, maybe not everyone is friendly.

            The Georgia Merchantile tours Senoia film locations, and guests can pick up some Georgia-made products at the same time. A great place to s"pend the night is The Veranda Bed and Breakfast where its believed author Margaret Mitchell interviewed Civil War veterans when she was doing research for “Gone With the Wind.” And don’t miss shopping at the Woodbury Shoppe, which sells “Dead” paraphernalia such as a Daryl Dixon claimed banner and “Walker Bait” caps as well as books on where the series was filmed so you can do your own touring. You can even become a member of The Woodbury Shoppe and be first in line for autograph sessions with cast and producers of the show, discount on products and other special privileges.
            One of our favorite stops in Senoia is the Senoia Coffee & Café, which not only serves up a mean cup of java, such as the Zombie Dark, but a tasty menu too — try the Senoia fried green tomato BLT!

Cheré Coen is an award-winning travel writer specializing in the Deep South. She is also the author of “Forest Hill, Louisiana: A Bloom Town History,” “Haunted Lafayette, Louisiana” and “Exploring Cajun Country: A Historic Guide to Acadiana” and co-author of “Magic’s in the Bag: Creating Spellbinding Gris Gris Bags and Sachets.” Write her at cherecoen@gmail.com.