Hollywood Casino, near St. Louis, sent me free room nights so I made it into a half birthday celebration for Mari Ann. I am not a high roller but I think since they are remodeling, they are giving out rooms until it is all complete. The next day we headed out into St. Louis. We ate at Pappy’s Smokehouse, went to the Galleria, got a drink at the Silver Ballroom, and ate dinner at Hwy 61.
Afterward, we decided to head home around 6:30pm. Before we got out of the city I remembered that I wanted to take Mari Ann to the Big Bang Bar. They are a dueling piano bar and put on a great show. I decided to put in directions on my phone to the landing but I didn’t remember the name of the bar just then. I figured if we put in the Drunken Fish, at least that would get us to the landing. On the way, Mari Ann saw this really cool painted dumpster. I pulled a quick U-Turn and got out to snap some pictures. The sun was starting to go down and it looked great.
Apparently, either there are two drunken fish restaurants, or Apple just wanted to screw with us. Now we pull into a church parking lot and look up the name of the bar and put it in manually. We were off again and realize we are heading way out of St. Louis. We pull into a gas station and I look at the overview. It was taking us to the wrong place again. Now, I enter Big Bang Bar into Google maps and confirm that indeed we are on our way to the landing. With our route confirmed, surely nothing could possibly go wrong.
As we see the lights of the city once again coming into focus, some fireworks start going off over the river. Having the top down made this a really great experience. We are nearly at the landing only to see that it was closed down due to the fireworks display. We ended up on the MLK bridge toward Illinois. With the fireworks still going on, people are just stopping on the bridge taking up a lane of staffing. I stop at well but not wanting the unfortunate caboose; I get in the left lane and start again on my way. Then, I see a gap in the cars and say what the hell and pull to a stop again. Mari Ann and I watched the fireworks literally right above the river. As the not too distant shells burst against the buildings, and the water, we have the best seats in the world. It was as loud as a war zone and the finally was spectacular.