Good Morning!

This week is one of those summer calendars where the events are not politely staying in one lane.

There is a free America 250 concert in Wentzville, St. Theodore’s summer picnic, a lobster truck in Lake Saint Louis, the Lincoln County Fair in Troy, live music all over Cottleville, two Wentzville VBS weeks kicking off, and a reptile expo in St. Louis with enough interested people on Facebook to make you wonder how many snakes can legally be in one room.

Which is not a sentence I expected to write, but here we are.

There is also a cave a little farther west where people were gathering, hunting, cooking, and leaving pieces of daily life behind thousands of years before Wentzville had traffic opinions.

Here’s what’s happening this week. 👇

Cousins Maine Lobster at Lowe’s Lake St. Louis
📍 Lowe’s, 6302 Ronald Reagan Drive, Lake Saint Louis
⏰ 11 AM–7 PM

Cousins Maine Lobster is bringing the truck to Lake Saint Louis for lobster rolls, chowder, tots, and the kind of lunch plan that makes a random Thursday feel like it made a real effort. You can order at the truck or use the app if you want to pretend you are the sort of person who plans lobster efficiently.

Wine Glass Painting
📍 Crystal Worthy Art Studio, 212 W. Pearce Blvd., Wentzville
⏰ 6 PM

Crystal Worthy Art Studio is hosting a two-hour wine glass painting class with all supplies included. You pick a design, paint a 13-ounce wine glass, and take it home with baking instructions so the finished piece can survive more than one enthusiastic rinse.

The Entrepreneur’s Path to Rental Property Wealth
📍 830 Waterbury Falls Drive, O’Fallon
⏰ 6–10 PM

Buyers Club is hosting Brad Evans of Evans Flooring for a meetup on building a business while also growing a rental property portfolio. It is more practical than picnic-y, but more than 140 people were interested, so apparently O’Fallon has a healthy population of people thinking, “Maybe my side hustle needs a side hustle.”

Trivia Night at Frankie Martin’s Garden
📍 Frankie Martin’s Garden, Cottleville
⏰ 7–9 PM

Think & Drink Entertainment hosts free Thursday trivia at the Beer Barn, with teams of up to eight and house cash for winners. Get there early if you want a table, because “we’ll just find seats when we get there” is a bold strategy at Frankie Martin’s in July.

Friday Events at the Lincoln County Fair
📍 Lincoln County Fairgrounds, 1 Fairgrounds Road, Troy
⏰ Fair events begin throughout the day; evening pull starts at 7 PM

Friday at the Lincoln County Fair includes junior livestock shows, the exhibit hall, Jesse Vaughn in the beer garden, and the PPL Summer Shootout Truck & Tractor Pull. Basically, Troy has taken the question “what should we do Friday?” and answered with livestock, music, fair food, and machinery making a point.

Lincoln County Fair Pull
📍 Lincoln County Fairgrounds, Troy
⏰ 7 PM

The fair pull brings the Pro Pulling League and Sancrest Western Series to Troy, with gates opening at 3 PM and the event starting at 7. General admission is listed at $30, with kids 5–12 at $15, which is the going rate for watching engines do something your lawn mower could never emotionally recover from.

Box of Chocolates at Frankie Martin’s Garden
📍 Frankie Martin’s Garden, 5372 St. Charles St., Cottleville
⏰ 7–10 PM

Box of Chocolates is bringing rock, funk, ’80s, and originals to Frankie Martin’s for a free all-ages Friday night show. The event description promises “a little bit of everything,” which is exactly what you want from both a band and an actual box of chocolates.

Saturday Events at the Lincoln County Fair
📍 Lincoln County Fairgrounds, Troy
⏰ Starts at 8 AM; demolition derby at 7 PM

Saturday’s Lincoln County Fair schedule includes junior livestock shows, horse show, exhibit hall, carnival rides, music in the beer garden, and a 7 PM demolition derby. That is a full-day commitment to the county fair lifestyle.

Holistic Vendor Faire: A 3-Year Celebration of Magic, Community & Gratitude
📍 The Chakra Healing Room, Wentzville
⏰ 12–4:30 PM

The Chakra Healing Room is celebrating three years with a holistic vendor faire featuring readers, crystals, handmade jewelry, intention candles, essential oils, aura photography, energy healing, and more. It is the kind of event where you may go in for a candle and leave having discussed your entire life path with someone holding oracle cards.

America 250 Concert Series – Breakdown Shakedown
📍 Wentzville Community Club, 500 W. Main St., Wentzville
⏰ 6:30 PM

Wentzville’s free America 250 Concert Series continues with Breakdown Shakedown playing today’s hits and crowd-favorite classics in Historic Downtown. Bring blankets or lawn chairs, grab food from the trucks, and prepare for downtown Wentzville to become a very organized sea of folding chairs.

Bad Habit at Cedar Lake Cellars
📍 Cedar Lake Cellars, 11008 Schreckengast Road, Wright City
⏰ 7 PM

Bad Habit is bringing a high-energy tribute-style show to Cedar Lake Cellars with pop anthems, dance-floor favorites, outfit changes, and big sing-along moments. The event says RSVP is free, which is a friendly phrase to see before a Saturday night starts making suggestions.

Sticky’s Glowy Hole
📍 Sticky’s Social Lounge, 9390 Veterans Memorial Parkway, O’Fallon
⏰ 7–10 PM

Sticky’s Social Lounge is turning Saturday into a blacklight night with neon gear, glow sticks, glow glasses, music, pool, indoor cornhole, pinball, air hockey, foosball, and drink specials. It is very possible this is the brightest O’Fallon has ever made indoor cornhole sound.

Wentzville Flea Market
📍 Wentzville Flea Market, Wentzville Community Club grounds
⏰ Starts at 7 AM

The Wentzville Flea Market is back Sunday morning for anyone who believes the best finds require coffee, cash, and a willingness to ask, “What is this thing?” It is also a useful reminder that sleeping in and treasure hunting are natural enemies.

Sunday Brunch with Johnny Chase
📍 Frankie Martin’s Garden, Cottleville
⏰ 11 AM–2 PM

Frankie Martin’s has Sunday brunch with live music from Johnny Chase, plus bottomless mimosas and Bloody Marys. This is the softer side of the Frankie Martin’s weekend, assuming brunch with live music and bottomless drinks can legally be called soft.

St. Theodore Summer Picnic - 2026
📍 St. Theodore Catholic Church, 2050 Grothe Road, Wentzville/Flint Hill
⏰ 11 AM–7 PM

St. Theodore’s summer picnic has family games, food, homemade desserts, adult beverages, live music, a Bubble Bus from 1–4 PM, and a climbing wall with a $15 all-you-can-climb option. The dinner menu includes fried chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, corn, green beans, coleslaw, and dessert, which is a strong argument for letting the church picnic handle Sunday dinner.

Ambassador Sunday
📍 Show Me Reptile Shop, 18 The Plaza, Troy
⏰ 2–4 PM

Show Me Reptile Shop hosts Ambassador Sunday with a chance to meet ambassador animals, ask questions, and learn about different species in a relaxed setting. It is a good option for curious kids, reptile fans, and anyone whose Sunday plans needed a little more “wait, can I hold it?”

Grow Night at Pillars Church
📍 Pillars Church, 1404 W. Meyer Road, Wentzville
⏰ 5–6:30 PM

Pillars Church is hosting July Grow Night with worship, a message from Pastor Justin, a church experience for kids ages 2 months through 5th grade, and free Lulu’s snow cones after the service. Come alone, bring a friend, or use the snow cone portion as the detail that gets everyone into the car.

Big Boy #4014 Hermann Whistlestop
📍 Starts at FastLane, Highways Z & N, Wentzville
⏰ Driver’s meeting at 10:15 AM; rollout at 10:30 AM

Ducking Jeeps SCMO is organizing a Jeep ride from Wentzville to Hermann to see Union Pacific Big Boy #4014, the world’s largest operating steam locomotive, during its scheduled Hermann whistle-stop. The group plans to take the Moon route to Lost Creek, head into Hermann, then finish in Jonesburg for food, which is a very specific and very Missouri way to spend a Monday.

Vacation Bible School at FBC Wentzville
📍 FBC Wentzville, 653 Luetkenhaus Blvd., Wentzville
⏰ July 20–24, 6–8:30 PM

FBC Wentzville is hosting Illumination Station for kids age 4 through grade 5. The free week focuses on discovering who Jesus is, with evening programming each night from Monday through Friday.

Kingdom Quest VBS 2026
📍 Wentzville Christian Church, 1507 Highway Z, Wentzville
⏰ Starts Monday at 6:30 PM; runs July 20–24

Wentzville Christian Church is hosting Kingdom Quest VBS, an adventure-themed week focused on discovering God’s kingdom. The event page keeps the details simple for now, but it already has plenty of families paying attention.

Drawl at Twilight Tuesday in Legacy Park
📍 Cottleville Weldon Spring Rotary Amphitheater, Legacy Park, Cottleville
⏰ 6–8:30 PM

Drawl is bringing country music to Legacy Park for Twilight Tuesday, with Kona Ice and Cluck Oink Moo Sliders expected on site. Bring blankets or chairs, grab dinner nearby, and enjoy one of those summer park concerts that makes Tuesday feel less like Tuesday.

Zero to Ninety - Jammin’ Concert Series
📍 Civic Park, O’Fallon
⏰ 6:30–9 PM

O’Fallon’s free Jammin’ Concert Series continues with Zero to Ninety playing ’90s rock. Food trucks listed for the night include Hog Call BBQ, Duchess Rose Royal Street Food, Udderly Moolicious, Beverly Ann’s, and the O’Fallon Mobile Concession, which is a lineup clearly designed to defeat the phrase “we have food at home.”

Music Bingo at Frankie Martin’s Garden
📍 Frankie Martin’s Garden, Cottleville
⏰ 7–9 PM

Think & Drink Entertainment hosts Tuesday night music bingo at the Beer Barn, combining bingo, Name That Tune, and enough short song clips to remind you how much music your brain has been saving without permission.

Panic At The Garden: Emo Music Bingo
📍 Frankie Martin’s Garden, Cottleville
⏰ 7 PM

Also at Frankie Martin’s, Panic At The Garden gives music bingo an emo-night twist. It is free to play, all ages are welcome, and prizes are for the 21+ crowd, which means you can relive the eyeliner era with slightly better parking.

Eat Drink Music
📍 Bristol Seafood Grill, 2314 Technology Drive, O’Fallon
⏰ 5–8 PM

Bristol Seafood Grill’s Wednesday music night brings local artists to the bar or patio, weather permitting. This is an easy midweek dinner plan for anyone who wants seafood, live music, and a reason not to cook on the one night of the week that always feels longer than it should.

O’Fallon Jammin’ Concert Series continues through the summer, with free Tuesday night concerts at Civic Park.

Wentzville’s America 250 Concert Series also continues into September, so keep a lawn chair emotionally available.

St. Louis Reptile Expo
📍 Machinists’ District 9 Hall, St. Louis
⏰ Sunday, July 19, 9 AM–3:30 PM

This one is farther out, but more than 4,600 people were interested on Facebook, so it gets the “worth noting” treatment. The Show Me Reptile Show brings breeders, vendors, reptiles, amphibians, invertebrates, supplies, and plenty of chances for someone in your family to say, “We are not bringing that home,” before immediately reconsidering.

Some hidden gems feel like they should require a much longer drive.

This one does not.

You just head west on I-70, keep going past the usual exits, and eventually you end up at a place where Missouri suddenly gets very, very old.

I’m talking about Graham Cave State Park, near Danville.

It is one of those places that sounds normal if you say it too fast.

State park.

Trails.

Camping.

Picnic tables.

A river.

All nice.

All useful.

None of that is the reason it belongs here.

The reason is the cave.

Graham Cave is not just a pretty rock shelter tucked into a hillside.

Artifacts found there show that people occupied the cave 8,000 to 10,000 years ago.

Eight to ten thousand.

That is so old it makes “historic downtown” feel like it happened fifteen minutes ago.

Missouri State Parks says the cave was used by hunter-gatherers during the ancient Dalton and Archaic periods, and the artifacts found there helped researchers understand how people were adapting after the end of the ice age.

Which is a very casual thing to be hiding not that far from Wentzville.

The cave was important enough that in 1961, Graham Cave became the first archaeological site in the United States to be designated a National Historic Landmark.

That is not “kind of neat.”

That is legitimately remarkable.

Today, visitors can go into the mouth of the cave.

Not deep into the cave.

Not on some dramatic headlamp tour.

Just far enough to stand inside the entrance, look at the interpretive panels, and feel the scale of what happened there.

Which is probably the right amount.

Some places do not need a big production.

They just need you to stand still long enough for the place to feel bigger than it looked from the parking lot.

There are interpretive exhibits along Graham Cave Trail that explain what researchers believe early inhabitants’ lives may have looked like.

There are more exhibits in the park office and visitor center.

And if you want to turn the stop into more of an outing, the park has 386 scenic acres, hiking trails, picnic sites, camping, a playground, glades, and a boat ramp on the Loutre River for boating and fishing.

So you can make it a history stop.

Or a hike.

Or a picnic.

Or the kind of low-key day trip where someone says, “Wait, people lived here ten thousand years ago?” and everyone gets quiet for a second.

That is the good stuff.

The part where a normal Saturday drive turns into a little reminder that this area has layers.

Deep ones.

Older-than-you-can-really-picture ones.

📍 217 Highway TT, Danville, MO 63361
📞 Park office: 573-564-3476

If you go, do the Graham Cave Trail and give yourself enough time to actually read the signs.

Not in a homework way.

In a “this was here long before us, and somehow we get to visit it on a weekend” way.

That is a pretty good return on a drive west.

That’s what I’ve got for you this week.

If you know of a local event, fundraiser, hidden gem, business update, or something people around Wentzville should know about, send it my way and I’ll do my best to include it in an upcoming issue.

As always, thanks for reading, sharing, and helping make Wentzville a great place to live.

See you next Thursday,
Skyler