On Tuesday March 31st we decided to take a side trip from our hotel in Chattanooga to Atlanta and see their zoo & pandas. It made sense since we had our hotel for three nights and Atlanta was only about 90 minutes south. It was a decision we would not regret. Just six minutes from the zoo was a location setting used in the AMC show, The Walking Dead, “Terminus.” And, just like those zombie apocalypse-worn characters, we were determined to find it!
On Monday, March 30th we spent the day at the Nashville Zoo before walking the streets of the city like Rhinestone Cowboys. Neither of us is particularly keen on Country music so most of the local flavor was lost on us as we strolled right past the numerous amateur crooners (who seemed to be every twenty feet) in search of a prognosticating Elvis I found via Roadside America. Unfortunately, by the time we located the animatronic, fortune-telling “King of Rock n Roll” we discovered it was broken and had to settle for just a picture.
Both of us Daves are huge fans of Quentin Tarantino’s GRINDHOUSE films; Planet Terror and Death Proof! Though the majority of movie-goers didn’t quite grasp the whole concept, these films were a pitch-perfect homage to the cheap, drive-in movie exploitation films of the early ‘70s. Aside from that, both movies are the kind we both can (and do) watch multiple times even though they’re very different in terms of content. While searching for interesting stops on our 2015 road trip, I discovered that one of the black 1971 Chevrolet Nova SS 396’s used in the film would be only minutes away from the hotel we were staying at in Jackson, Tennessee. Consequently, we would become as obsessed about seeking it out as Zoe Bell’s character in the film was for a 1970 Dodge Challenger!
On Saturday March 28th we checked out of our hotel in Chesterfield, MO before seeking out some weird St. Louis sights. Thanks to awesome books such as the “Weird” series (specifically “Weird Missouri” in this case) along with online resources such as Roadside America, we were able to find some fun things we could seek out in between our main attractions. We had two spots flagged for our brief visit in St. Louis; one a gas station shaped like a giant flying saucer and the other a giant eyeball located in a sculpture park.
Dave: Doug Scharf (a.k.a. Doug Graves) arrived at the studio and this was a big deal to me. I’d watched him accompany Svengoolie during his musical numbers since I was eight years old as well as participate in various skits and viewer mail segments. He settled in and I was particularly happy to see that he’d brought his horn with him which meant I’d get to see him play two instruments for two different numbers! As soon as he arrived, he and Sven hunkered down Sven to discuss their segments.
On Friday March 27th, we headed out to Chicago to do something we’d dreamt of doing since first becoming Terror Daves five years ago; being present for a Svengoolie taping at the studio! I’d been there before back in 2013 and had the honor of throwing chickens at him during the beginning & end sequences of The Leech Woman and Dracula along with getting to see some of my favorite props such as Tombstone, Durwood, & Kerwyn. At the time, the studio rules were pretty strict and I wasn’t allowed to share that experience on social media nor on this site which was pretty painful since I was so excited about it that wanted to shout it from the roof tops. Happily, I’ve now been given permission to do so as well as share our experiences during this visit (provided we waited until those shows aired and didn’t give anything away in terms of content). Here are some shots from my first visit in 2013…
Terror from Beyond the Dave 