Set reportMy SO and I took off from Moab about 7:30, receiving text intel from Scot during the 2 hour drive down to Valley of the Gods. When I first looked up VOTG online, Google maps made it look like a much larger area. Once I realized there was only that one road through it, I felt much more hopeful. We found the turnoff, and followed 2 local sheriff cars in. They stopped at a helicopter parked by the side of the road. We later learned the crew were removing the camera that had been mounted on the heli. We then followed the crew and cop cars farther into the valley.
Then there it was. Off in the distance, a bunch of trailers and vehicles. Paydirt! We stopped our car before a van that seemed to be at the outer edge of the excitement, and got out to look. A friendly local (SLC) production team member informed us that we were discouraged from watching, but they would not force us to leave. He pointed to a camper on the other side of the action as some other civvies who were watching. So we stood by our car and started snapping pics. (I’ll post them this weekend, don’t have any image editing software on this netbook.) We were asked to back our car up a couple of times, and then the sheriffs took over traffic control for the short stretch of road they were using. First Karen got to do a scene where she ran along the road (twice!). Then they brought in the vintage Jeep Cherokee with two men in black suits. They did a couple shots of the vehicle zooming up and down the road (right past us after they got over a little hill), then closed the road for several takes of Karen running again, this time away from the road on a short path toward the trailers, and the Cherokee and a Jeep Wrangler zooming up behind her, skidding to a stop, and the MIBs getting out with guns drawn. In one take, it looked like Karen was stopping short, as if she was about to run of the edge of a cliff before she caught herself.
By this point the cops had asked the camper and another civilian Jeep that were on the other side to come back to our side of the shooting, so we met the rest of the gang: Tara and her husband David, and Lindsay who had driven over from Eagle, CO, starting at 1:00 AM and confirmed the location. Awesome people! A lot of fun to hang out with. Tara has her own TARDIS and a DW tech manual FULL of autographs. Two guys from LA (one originally from London, his name was Matt Smith, but not that one) then joined the crowd, along with some unsuspecting tourists who had to wait for a break in the action before being allowed through to the rest of the valley drive.
After a bit of watching the same thing over and over again, my partner and I decided to continue our own drive. The rest of the who-hunters were heading back to the staging area north of Mexican Hat, so after the beautiful drive through the valley, we met up with them again. Arthur Darvill was sitting being interviewed by some American guy across the road from where Tara and Lindsay were sitting in camp chairs with the “just want matt smith’s autograph” sign. The interviewers had to shush us informal viewers. David was the perfect host, feeding us turkey sandwiches and lemonata, yum, and even offering the use of their portable facilities. T & L spotted Alex Kingston there at the lunch table across the highway, but we didn’t see her.
We got tired of this after a good amount of time, and pretty clear attitude from the crew that we weren’t particularly welcome or cherished. So my partner and I headed into Mexican Hat, then ended up wandering down toward Monument Valley on the advice of our spies. We passed a large parking area with a sign saying “Base Camp” that already contained several of the production vehicles. A little further along, another pulloff had more vehicles. We went on down to Goulding’s, where it was rumored a night shoot might happen. It was cool down there, sort of reminiscent of Delta and the Bannermen, but then we turned back. And are we glad we did!
On the drive back up toward Mexican Hat, we passed a sheriff’s car with flashing lights at the side of the road, and then approached a vintage school bus at the side of the road, with a big film crew around it. I whipped out my zoom and sure enough, we got our first glimpse of Matt Smith walking across the road, donning a cowboy hat, and walking back. The local crew then let us through past the filming. We drove through, and saw Alex and then Matt standing at the side of the road. They weren’t more than 6 feet away from me as we drove by. I think I squeed myself just a little. Without really thinking I called out “Hi Alex!” and “Hi Matt!” but I wasn’t smart enough to have been taking a video as we drove through. So we came north past the northern sheriff, flipped a u-turn, and went back for seconds. This time we saw Matt and Alex standing together. I waved, and they smiled and waved back. Then we looped back around for a final run through past the bus. This time we were kept waiting about 10 minutes, and they seemed to be wrapping up. The bus was on the opposite side of the road as before, and appeared to be high-centered. Remember this if you ever want to loan your bus to DW: make sure it’s insured.
Generally it was a lot of fun meeting the other fans who came such a long way to try to see something. The few people from the crew we interacted with were nice. We talked quite a bit with the Sheriff at the VOTG shoot, and he told us Matt had flown in Tuesday night at midnight to Blanding, and his entourage had been disappointed that nothing was open. Guess they’ve never been to a small town before?
After that excitement, we headed back up to Moab, where we have a hotel room. It would have been easy to keep trying to follow the production around, but we are also here on vacation, and I didn’t want to get so carried away that we forgot to have some R&R, too. So tomorrow, we’re not going to Page. We might still go to Goblin Valley, not because we think they’ll be shooting there, but because it looks cool. And Friday we’re heading home, with our memories and lots of excitement for season 6 to start! (We were there! we will tell anyone who will listen.)
Thanks again to everyone who helped today be a day we will never forget!
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