Well another trip to St. Louis, another adventure. This time the trip was business and pleasure. After a day of work I linked up with friends. We had a nice dinner together. It was a crock pot meal perfect for the type of very cold day it was in St. Louis. At around 8:30pm and after visiting with friends, Eric and I headed off for downtown St. Louis. I lugged my photo gear all the way from DC and needed to come back with something to show for the trouble. Plus it's a great way to spend time with my friend. The trek to our chosen location always seems to allow ample time for conversation. I determined I needed a shot of the St. Louis Arch with the Mississippi river in the foreground and the St. Louis skyline in the background. This means one thing; East St. Louis! Eric's friend and neighbor did not think this was a good idea at night; She is a St. Louis native so she offered us the only safe way to satiate our need to be in East St. Louis at night. Her solution; the well lit and heavily patrolled Riverboat Casino. It is positioned directly across the Mississippi river from the Arch. Not only was this a perfect location for the shot I desired but she most likely saved our lives that night. The rest of East St. Louis is no place for a couple of out of towners. Well it was very cold that night. My fingers literally became useless at one point. Eric and I walked all over the property looking for the ideal location. The more we walked and looked the more we really wanted to go to the casino boat to take the picture. Because Eric and I believe we know every thing and agreed no photographic equipment would be allowed into the casino we tried every place on the property but the casino boat. Frozen and weary our better judgment left us and we decided to see if the casino employees would notice us if we walked through the casino with the photo gear in bags. We hoped we could. Once inside the plan was to traverse the casino floor and exit to the outside walkways of the river boat to take the photograph. We warmed up inside and made our way through the halls and lobby leading down to the river boat. As we came down a very long hall there was one final turn before we reached the casino. We rounded the corner.... Bam! Straight into a security check point! It looked like a full blown TSA checkpoint with uniformed guards and metal detectors. So close, yet so far. But wait as it turns out Eric and I actually do not know every thing. The security guards looked into my ridiculously stocked gear bag and then at the tripod case Eric was carrying and said 'enjoy your visit gentlemen' . OK, this isn't Vegas... They expect tourists will go and do exactly what we thought we had to sneak around to achieve. Well, I mentioned we had ample time for conversation right? So the rest of the story is we had free run of the exterior of the river boat and got the shot we were after. I like this particular shot because of the coal barge passing by. The rest of the evening was spent with more good conversation and enjoying Scotch provided by Eric; a brand recommended by the proprietor of the local liquor store (and DC expatriate), thanks Jim!

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