Things to Do in Wentzville

Flying at 30 miles per hour over forest canopies may seem like an unconventional way to tour the wilderness, but the staff at Eco Zipline Tours wouldn't have it any other way. Bright-green leaves paint a picturesque backdrop for more than a quarter of a mile of cables that zigzag through the trees in New Florence to create 6 individual ziplines that cover 1,800 feet. Staff members lead groups of up to 10 through three different tours that range from the Easy Rider, which covers four lines, to the High Flyer, which rockets patrons down all 10 lines over a mile of ziplines at heights up to 225 feet.

Eco Zipline Tours’ founder, Mike Seper, not only brings a passion for his hobby and Missouri wildlife, but he also brings expertise drawn from as far away as Hawaii. Eco Zipline tours upholds rigorous safety standards, including daily cable inspections and braking tutorials, and provides each patron with the required gear. Children aged 5 and older are welcome to zip, provided all minors are accompanied by a parent on tour.

Battle Creek Paintball's six fields see prismatic warfare in the form of recreational woodsball to fast-paced speedball year-round, rain or shine. On any of the five outdoor woodland fields, squads of players mimic firefights with flanking maneuvers and extended periods of playing dead. An indoor urban-assault course captures the adrenaline rush of room-to-room fighting, and the speedball course matches competitive-level excitement with mirrored bunker layouts and closely refereed games. With normal admission, the staff provides Tippmann 98 markers and all the protective equipment needed to survive a mural to the face.:m]

Knights, cowpokes, jousters, and dedicated patriots all find good reason to journey to Boster Castle, a permanent Renaissance village that also functions as a film studio and year-round festival space. The castle hosts elaborately staged annual festivals, transporting visitors to eras of the distant past. Patrons may find themselves in the midst of a Wild West frontier town—where costumed cowboys play games of Texas hold’em and banjo players entertain ears with the Top 40 hits of the Gold Rush era—or in a storybook Renaissance town populated by archery tournaments, turkey legs, crooning minstrels, and live comedy shows. At each fair, attendees peruse vendors boasting authentic weaponry, period costumes, and the latest in chain-mail formalwear. The castle also hosts monthly themed socials in which revelers can sit for entertainment and fare surrounding mythical cultures, fantasy worlds, or storied periods in history.

At Fulton Bowling Center, patrons pummel pins across 16 lanes and fuel up with pizza, sandwiches, and drinks at the Ten Pin Cafe. Tournaments and leagues facilitate competitive rivalries or guests can angle cue balls on pool tables and quell a hunger for blinking ghosts at the arcade. The alley welcomes all kinds of people, including herds of field tripping children and bands of adults attending leisurely office get-togethers or bands of adults playing hooky from work.

Beneath the looming curve of a balloon rippling from the heat of a 12-million BTU propane burner, FAA-certified Lighter Than Air pilot and mechanic Layne Wolters takes hot air balloons soaring into the Missouri skies with the skills only years of experience can build. Possessing more than three decades of involvement with the larger-than-life balloons, Wolters mans daily flights at Hard Times Ballooning, ascending at sunrise and 2 1/2 hours before sunset for the best views of superheroes flying to and from home in their street clothes.

The astronauts deftly dodge the oncoming trickle of rocks and debris from the meteor shower, and as the rubble clears they see the Moon up ahead. It is at this site that they’ll soon establish the first permanent human base. Though it sounds like science fiction, novice astronauts attempt this feat daily at Challenger Learning Center-St. Louis. Part of the Challenger Center for Space Science Education—a nonprofit founded by the families of the astronauts who died in the 1986 Challenger space-shuttle mission—the center educates visitors in science and teamwork with its space simulators. Whether navigating a spacecraft or abetting astronauts at a Mission Control modeled after NASA’s Johnson Space Center, student, community, and corporate groups must maintain a cooperative spirit while rocketing to Mars, assembling a probe, or stealing one of Saturn’s rings.