Before we get in the MOMSTER and leave Jackson to head for
home via St. Louis, a quick (or not) little admin note: Readers might notice that there has been a
distinct lag between actual road events and the reportage of same. We arrived home last week, but then there was
a Beer Fest to work with, and “the class”.
As you might remember, I developed a class on flutter (by flutter one!) for the Navy’s “Flight
Test University”. The spring session had
been scheduled for 22 and 23 May, and of course with the graduation trip and
other distractions, I was stone cold on the class material. So cramming took place into and over the
weekend (which also contained my all day presence at the Beer Festival), and Monday. The first class session was Tuesday morning,
followed by the wrap up yesterday morning.
I enjoyed teaching it this time (the first time was a bit rough) and
there was a good group of students. Will
live in that thought until the comments are processed!
Anyway, back to Jackson. You will recall the breakfast at
Miss Muffins, and after that everybody split up and went their own way. Our way was to wend ourselves up to St. Louis
for Monday meetings with various people who are managing our funds. We also were to have dinner with wife of FOJTE
Monday evening before pointing the MOMSTER to Maryland.
So with time on our hands, we decided to take “back roads”
for the relatively short drive up to St. Louis.
Plusses for two lane rural roads are that you get to see the country at a more leisurely pace,
and the negatives are that there are people who don’t care at all for your
leisurely pace. We have
taken to finding turnouts and let the little pickups speed on their way, and I think some even waved at us, although it wasn't with all fingers....
I love to go through these little towns and see what places there are
to eat . They are
quintessentially “local”.
One wonders if products from the sign on the left show up in
the sign on the right! Other various form of advertising..
Fun to see, but have no idea of the quality of the food and
we didn’t stop. And off the big roads
you can see things you might not on the whizzing interstates. have no idea what this is or is supposed to be. kind of reminds me of the tower houses we saw in Ireland, but doubt these have been here since the 11th century...
Eventually buildings got closer together, strip malls
appeared along with the plethora of chain restaurants and we found ourselves in
St. Louis, more accurately in St. Charles, a little to the west where FOJTY has
his digs.
That evening we decided to eat in the room, and went to a
nearby Dierberg’s, one of the big grocery stores in St. Louis. Along with Schnuck’s they are a local “chain” but
they both have been there a long time.
Unfortunately we were too far from a Straub’s to get any of the best
chicken salad in the world. Dierberg’s
"level" is in between Schnuck’s and Straubs, but the newer ones try to be more like a
Whole Foods. So there are lots of “grab
and go” items, salad and soup bars, ready made sandwiches, and so forth. Nosing around the deli department I made a
startling discovery !!
Beechers is sort of a Seattle based product, and we were shocked to see it, but pleased none the less! So of course that became dinner (well, cocktails) followed
by some quite nice soups. Not a bad meal
and one of the benefits of “livin’ in the city”.
So the next morning I used the “Find Starbucks” app in the not
so smart phone, got a coffee and we went to our meeting with the financial
guy. In reality the money is doing its
thing and the real reason we meet is so we can go to lunch. He is a lover of good food (Italian
preferred) and so he tries to show us good places (livin’ in the….). This time he selected Sugo’s a newer offering
of the long time St. Louis restaurateur family, the Del Pietro’s. There are a few scattered about the region
there, but this one was in a little strip mall near Plaza Frontenac
It was a lovely day, but it was unanimous we eat inside. It is another of those places that is quite informal,
and try to be “rustic”, kind of like that place we ate in Del Ray in Washington,
although obviously this was built to be that way. It was quite pleasant, with rustic
furniture. The menu was quite simple,
salads (inslata), pizza’s, pastas, entrees.
I am not sure if they have same menu in the evening. We had a nice glass of wine from a serviceable
wine list arranged by white and red, then by “body” (light, medium, and full
(reds)) leaning toward Italian wines. I
had a pasta dish, “Funghi” (mushrooms, roasted garlic, spinach, mushroom broth),
our friend had a chicken spedini, and MFO, had, well, something.. It was all well prepared, tasty, and nice
luncheon portions.
After lunch a short visit to the “tax man” and then back to
the hotel for a rest before meeting our DIL at a small place in the historic
district of St. Charles called “The Vine”.
Being a very pleasant evening we decided to do outside
dining (acceptable after the sun goes down).
It is a very nice place for people watching in the restored area of
town.
We ordered a bottle of wine and a shrimp appetizer. (note, this has been sampled before the picture!)
It was quite nice and appropriate for the
place and time. Since your plate (and
maybe stomach) is getting full, I won’t dwell on the food. I had a pecan encrusted salmon dish, MFO had quite
light and nice seafood crepe and our DIL had a steak risotto dish. Once again chatting with family was
paramount. Meanwhile, FOJTE was eating
hotdogs at the state golf tournament with his player. We were kind enough to send him a picture..
We certainly will go back to The Vine and you would enjoy it also. Only small bother was our server who checked
us endlessly.
So next morning, into the MOMSTER, and I64 here we are! Drive nine hours ending in Beckley W(BG)V and
stayed at our normal Fairfield Inn.
Tired of road food we decided to get dinner at the Outback that is right
next door. Although I don’t eat at an
Outback hardly ever, I have thought them to be a cut above the normal chain fare. After finding out they were out of Stella
(with tableside apologies from the manager), I ordered a steak and shrimp
combo. It always looks so good on their
commercials. Here’s the reality exactly as it was set before me...
Real appetizing eh? Also the "steak" was tough and the shrimp rubbery. So there.. shrimp on the barby a bit too long??
A shorter leg the next day brought us back to Southern Maryland and the digs. So ended a very enjoyable trip seeing family from both sides
of the aisle so to speak, and we genuinely enjoyed being with them, our sons and wives, and
our grandson. Final congrats to FOJTY
and wife for their accomplishment..
And thank you for traveling along with us.. stay
DFD
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