Just ducky!

7:29 am - Sunday - April 29th - St. Louis, MO - 43º F, 50% humidity, wind 4 mph out of the east.....clear blue skies with a forecast high today of 65º F, which we will not experience, because we are rolling our wheels in about 3 hours!

We've been running all over St. Louis and surrounds for several days now, but had ignored cool stuff right near where we were staying, such as the Jefferson Barracks, The Jefferson Barracks Civil War Museum, and last, but not least......the Jefferson Barracks Telephone Museum!  All of this was less than 4 miles from us, so we set off in the VW to explore a little history about 11 am.

The history of Jefferson Barracks dates back to 1826.  It was, of course, named for Thomas Jefferson, and is the oldest operating military installation west of the Mississippi.........barely west of the Mississippi sitting right on the western banks of same.  During the Civil War it served as a large military hospital treating wounded from both the north and south.  Over the course of the war they treated over 26,000 wounded soldiers.  Many were brought from battlefields up the Mississippi on hospital ships.  Today it houses the Missouri National Guard.

Just down the street from the parking lot is something you might not expect to be on the grounds of a military base.....the Jefferson Barracks Telephone Museum.  It occupies a restored 1896 building and is run by the Telecom Pioneers.  While the museum occupies probably less than 2,000 square feet, it is the most complete telephone museum I have ever visited.....

......we saw several telephones we had actually owned at one time.  The price of admission is $4/person if you are over 60 years of age.  Next up was the Jefferson Barracks Missouri Civil War Museum.   This museum presents the history of the Civil War from the Missouri perspective, and is well worth the senior citizen entry fee of $6/person.  We are not normally willing to pay to get into museums, but both of these are well worth the price of admission......

.....Missouri, naturally, was at the center of the 'Missouri Compromise of 1820', which prohibited slavery above the 36th parallel.  This compromise enabled the admission to the Union of Maine, a 'Free State', and Missouri as a 'Slave State', and helped maintain the balance of power between North and South.....

....it was ultimately repealed by the Compromise of 1850, which changed all the rules and led to wide spread unrest, and ultimately was an instigating factor in the outbreak of the Civil War......

.....with the election of Abraham Lincoln to the Presidency all hope of avoiding a Civil War was lost.  I found the two floor exhibit quite informative, and I learned a lot more than I knew before about the beginnings of the American Civil War.  There are several small theaters within the Museum with 5-10 minute videos which we both thoroughly enjoyed.

By this time it was going on 1:30 pm, and time to explore another restaurant.  A week, or so ago we were watching 'Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives (aka: Triple D) and one of the segments featured a small local St. Louis eatery called 'The Shaved Duck' which specializes in BBQ, and has a few duck related items on the menu.  On the show they featured an entree called Smoked Meatloaf, and we just had to have some of that!!  We arrived just after 2 pm and found the restaurant about 90% full.  We were quickly shown to a window table and placed our drink orders......

 This place was featured on 'Triple D' last week (Diners, Drive-ins, and Dives)

 I had a pint of the Heavy Riff - Brown Ale

.....I ordered a pint of their Brown Ale, and what a great choice it was.  Next up we ordered one of their appetizers....Burnt Ends......OMG......I cherished every single bite......

 Smoked Ends appetizer slow smoked for many hours, served with with Black Isle BBQ Sauce....OMG!

 We ate there the other night

....for our entree we ordered a serving of their 'Smoked Meatloaf' to share.  The meatloaf was so savory, with many layers of flavor....I took small bites to make it last as long as I could....

Smoked Meatloaf with a root beer glaze.....triple OMG!!!

.....it was well after 3 mph before we paid our bill and walked lazily back to the VW still talking about the amazing Smoked Meatloaf.

We made a stop at the local COSTCO to pick up a few things, and were home just before 5 pm.  A nice nap was on the card for me, and TLE read away the rest of the afternoon and early evening.  It was a great last day in St. Louis with us having checked everything off our list of things we wanted to do this time around. Time to continue our journey to Maine!

Thanks for stopping by!

When you shop Amazon, please use our link (below) to access their website.......we will appreciate every purchase you make using our Amazon Affiliate link, and  remember, using our link will not add one penny to your purchase, plus we will receive a small commission which helps defer the costs of producing this blog each day.