After getting ready we headed to downtown Jackson to get coffee from a local coffee shop called LuLu's. LuLu's has a seperate Stranger Things menu for fans as well. I was able to try four different drinks from the menu during the time we were there. The coffee shop also features Max levitating inside the coffee shop. As my first pick I got the Will Byers themed coffee, and Kellie got the 011. To go along with the convention Kellie was dressed in Season 5 Mike clothing. The Will Byers coffee had coconut and vanilla flavoring and was made with coconut milk. The 011 drink had cinnamon and maple syrup flavoring. We also had bagels with our coffee.
After eating our bagels we headed over to the Stranger Tours building for our walking tour. The front room of the Stranger Tours building is meant to look like a Blockbuster, and had a Stranger Things themed pinball machine. If you walk down the hall of the Stranger Tours building there is a room made to resemble the Byer's house living room. It has a couch with the alphabet Christmas light wall, a small TV with 80's VHS tapes, a kitchen table with board games from the 80's, a hot wheels track on the floor, and an Atari with different games. You could spend a lot of time in there, and we definitely would of if we could. Across from the Byer's themed room was a rainbow room themed lab for making slime. Kellie played Stranger Things pinball while we waited for our tour to begin.
Our walking tour started in a WSQK room in the building. You weren't allowed to go into the room unless you were doing the tour. For the walking tour you were given a viewfinder that had pictures of what the scene looked like during filming and how it looks now (without the viewfinder.) We learned during the tour that the signs that they had in the show were being remade by a local colleges art department. They were also putting together a Mac Z scene to match Season 5. The signs had been put up, but they were still finishing up the Mac Z scene. The convention didn't technically begin until the next day, but the town had already been putting on special events starting that day. It was fun getting to walk down the alley where Steve and Jonathan fought, and quote and think about the different scenes being filmed in the exact places we were now standing. (I've begun rewatching Season 1 since getting back from our trip, and it hits different after being to some of the sights, and comparing it to what we saw.) The tour concluded with some Stranger Things trivia at Hawkins Headquarters. The trivia questions were pretty easy ones with 5 from each season. If you got all the questions right for a season you got to pick a prize. The prizes were shutter glasses, 80s themed tattoos, and different candies like candy bracelets. Since we were in Hawkins Headquarters after the tour I put on a Hawkins letter jacket from the costume closet to pose with the Hawkins High School desk/wall. I also put on Will's Season 5 jacket and posed as if I were attacking a Demogorgon. The costume closet also had a basket with cardboard cutouts of the actors and actresses faces. I couldn't find Noah's (Will's actor) but I guess it was in there. (I saw another fan using it a few days later.)
After the tour there was a someone with a merch table selling handmade Stranger Things items. I got a Season 3 themed Scrunchie, and Kellie got a Squawk themed tote bag. One of the people sitting by the table was dressed like Season 3 Steve after he gets beaten up by the Russians. There was also a very convincing Murray in a bathrobe that walked by. We got ice cream at Buddy Blu's after visiting the table. Buddy Blu's has a giant mural of the Stranger Things characters in their front rooms. I was hoping they would have more Stranger Things options, but they only had two. We drove the route of the 5k happening the next day that we had both registered for. I hadn't trained so I would only be running part of it, while Kellie would try and run most of it. It seemed long while driving the route so it made me a little nervous about actually doing it. In the past I had done different charity walks, and those had felt fairly long. We also stopped at the church that was used heavily in Season 4 and 5. We drove back to the hotel afterwards due to Kellie having another work meeting. After a little bit I walked over to downtown Jackson while Kellie finished her work meeting to check out the different stores we hadn't been to yet. I also played Stranger Things pinball in the Stranger Tours building and chatted with the employee there. It turns out she was in her early twenties, so she had really grown up with the kids in the show. One of the shops had wine slushies, and that's when I met back up with Kellie. We took pictures inside the surfer boy pizza van before sitting outside on the grass by the library. A Hawkins police van was parked outside the library with a Hopper cosplayer. We saw people taking a ride in the van, so we decided to ask for a ride when they got back. It turns out the Hopper cosplayer had only seen parts of Season 5. His wife ran the Stranger Things Escape rooms and had gotten him to dress up and even redo his car. He was chatty and even asked us if we wanted to go anywhere else. We declined and he drove us back to the library. Apparently the county doesn't put a lot of effort into their tourism even though they could literally easily pull Stranger Things fans. The county where Jackson is, is called Butts County, and people do at least make puns with the name including the water tower which read "Welcome to Beautiful Butts County". (I'm sure the Stranger Things actors had a field day with the name.) There was even a T-shirt for sale that said "Big Beautiful Butts right in the Crack of Georgia" with the outline of Georgia and a peach on it.
We checked in to our 5k that would be happening the next day, and were given our race numbers and T-shirt. We got dinner at a restaurant called Bradley's which was located in the filming location of the Hawk Theatre. Inside they were playing the Season 5 finale. It was really surreal seeing the library on film when we could see it from the restaurant as well. We both got appetizers as we weren't super hungry despite not eating much that day. The town was putting on a costume contest in front of the Hawkins Library so we walked over after eating. People really put a lot of effort into their costumes. There was a lady that looked exactly like Winona Ryder that had missing Will posters in her hand. There was also a girl dressed up like Ms. Driscoll from Season 3, fertilizer bag, and rats and all. There was a costume contest for the kids and the adults. For the kids a boy that looked exactly like Season 5 Dustin after he had gotten beaten up won with a little girl dressing up as Max as 2nd, and a boy dressed like Henry that got 3rd. For the adults a girl dressed like Season 5 Finale Mike won, but it was probably due to the fact she had an vintage bike as a prop. 2nd place went to a guy dressed like Eddie and his dog with the demogorgan petals around it's head. In 3rd place was a guy dressed like Henry mid-transformation into Vecna with a tree-like hand. There was also someone dressed as Season 5 Holly, finale Steve, and finale Dustin.
We went to 80's themed bingo to finish off the night that was being put on through the county. As snacks for bingo there were mini eggos, trail mix, pizza rolls, and different candy. There were also themed cocktails you could buy throughout the night. I got a cocktail called Vecna Venom which was made with blue curacao, lemonade, sprite, and grenadine with a cherry. They did a mini costume contest at Bingo as well and Ms. Driscoll won that time thankfully. There was a lady who looked exactly like Karen Wheeler, and I was almost convinced that maybe the actress that played her was hiding out. She wasn't even dressed like Karen, just looked a lot like her. I went up to her and told her so, and it turns out no one had ever told her that before???? There was a total of 10 Bingo games, however Kellie and I did not win any of them, It was still a really fun time. Twice throughout the night we had a karaoke break where everyone sang along to "Sweet Caroline" and "Don't Stop Believin" (the classic white people karaoke songs.) We were given glowsticks which people used to sing into. We made a friend who was sitting at the same table as us named Caroline. Caroline had made magnets with different scenes from Stranger Things on them. I got a magnet of Season 1 Will.
We met up with Caroline after Bingo and walked around Jackson Square (downtown Jackson.) The art students had finished up the Mac Z scene by then, and the glowing lights of the entrance to the Upside Down made it look even cooler.
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