Kind of a natural fight or flight reaction, and flight usually wins. This time, away from people. The desert because it's closest. The San Bernardino Pass would be a parking lot, and they think it will be a short term disaster that they can wait out.

 

I think most people would have a general plan about where to meet and some supplies they may need no matter how freaked out and thinking of other things/people. They probably don't go to the mall and say we leave at three and I'll just randomly find you then. Not much thought went into that it was more very weak writing a real disappointment.

 

I was confused about that at first as well, but I decided to give them the benefit of the doubt and decided that they did indeed have a house in "the desert", which is not as unusual as it might seem. "The desert" in SoCal usually means the Palm Springs area, and there are LOTS of vacation homes out there. Even on teachers' salaries, one or both of them could conceivably have a second home out there. And since everything's apparently going down during the regular school year, the weather might not be intolerably hot.

 

I got the sense that they had an unspoken place in mind as well, because Travis was pretty confident about finding Maddie in the desert even though he knew phone service could very well be down by then. Maybe they use 'the desert' as a term to mean a known location the way a family might say 'let's go to the woods this weekend', when they are talking about their cabin. Maybe he has connections to a small village far from the city or something.

 

I thought it was a bit more general then "At our place in the desert" but more specific then "anywhere in the entire desert" like a favorite camping/hiking/rock-climbing spot.

I assumed they didn't pack because all the simple tasks went badly.

 

They're probably thinking the desert because they think there would hardly be any people there. But they're not even stopping to think if others might have the same idea and it will end up just as bad as the city.

 

Like every single person in LA simultaneously running to the desert, and then looking at each other and going "dammit". And every single one running back into the city and going "ok, this is getting legit annoying".

 

Don't forget to factor in a bunch of them with bites who have no idea the bites will make them turn and before you know it, death valley.

 

And every time they run back into the city just to turn around and run back out there is one old demented man in the window of his nursing home going "HI EVERYBODY!!. THANKS FOR STOPPING BY!!"

 

They probably just plan on calling each other. Although there have been a few phone issues at this point, they probably don't expect a mass collapse of the phone system

 

I imagine though it is something we will never find out. THey are shooting the show in Vancouver and as far as I know there aren't any deserts in the pacific northwest. They will probably spend season 1 around where they are at right now and if they leave to someplace else in season 2 I would pick the mountains.

 

Mountains would be good. I'd love to see walkers trying to walk up the mountains.

 

Going to the desert is just lazy writing from people who have no clue about SoCal traffic.

 

My ex girlfriends family who lives in the LA area has an emergency bunker out in the desert so the whole desert escape plan was totally natural to me.

 

The 14 going up towards Palmdale/Lancaster would be a more direct-ish route to the upper Mojave as opposed to getting swamped and possibly gobbled up on the 210, 10, 605 and 60 meeting up with the 15.
And as bad as the Glen Helen choke-point is now prior to hitting the Cajon Pass, you might as well have a bicycle and a bug-out bag stashed in the vehicle to continue the climb up towards Hesperia in this shows universe.

If anything, the desert would probably be safe once you got past the Antelope and Victor Valley desert communities and into Death Valley or any of the number of communities along the CO river.

As far as the Vancouver BC filming goes, I wonder if they took into consideration that SoCal forests look nothing like those in the Pacific NW?
Moss and ferns everywhere!!

 

I have a bad feeling it will be a while before you need to worry about that.
I do not see them leaving the city anytime soon.

 

I rewatched it and they seem to all know what it meant so my guess is now they have a familiar spot. The thing that throws me off is Tobias said the desert too and unless it was part of a conversation we have not seen he likely would not know that about them.

 

I just watched again too and the thing that throws me off is that I did not see Tobias mention the Desert?
I looked for it too after your post.