Fort Knox & The Patton Museum in Kentucky

Today Matt and I had to go to our bank which is about 40 minutes from the seminary.  We really like our bank so we don't mind the drive.  It was our first time having to go to the bank since we moved here, so it was kind of like a mini adventure.  The bank is in a city called Radcliffe, but what we didn't realize is that it is right next to Fort Knox.

I don't know why that I didn't realize that Fort Knox was in Kentucky, but as we were driving I saw the  building where they keep all of the gold, and I was so excited to see it, that I told Matt to pull onto the road that lead to it.  Then I realized that Fort Knox is an active army base.  So, we decided to see if we could go in.  We drove up to the gate, showed them our KY driver's licenses, gave them our SSN and they let us in.  We really didn't drive around too much on the army base, we didn't have a map so we did not know what there was to see.  It did feel kind of strange getting on to an army base so easy like that though.  On the way out of Fort Knox I got a few pictures of where we keep our nation's gold.  Then we headed up the highway back to Louisville.

As we traveled up the highway I saw one of those "brown" signs that said Patton Museum next right.  I was really excited, because I grew up with a father who was a General Patton fan.  Than I began to think, "why in the world would their be a General Patton museum here in Kentucky.  Patton was from California, and I don't remember him doing anything of any importance in Kentucky at Fort Knox."  So, as quickly as my excitement rose, it fell, because I figured it must be some other Patton from Kentucky who did something famous for Kentucky.  We decided that we would go in and take a look just to see what the museum was all about.  As we walked in the front door, this is who we saw:

For those of you who are not familiar with WWII history this is a statue of General Patton.  Once again I was excited.  I have been to the Patton museum in CA, but I had no idea there would be one here in KY.  It was a great museum, if you are interested in WWII history and Patton's life and part in this war. I couldn't resist getting this picture of Matt next to the general:

For those of you Patton fans out there, I'm sure that you will enjoy this picture of his actual four star general helmet along with his revolver.  An interesting fact about the helmet is that it was burned in the family home.  It was taken from the debris and restored but they could not restore the leather lining on the interior.  It was so amazing to see these items that Patton himself actually war during WWII.

At the end of the museum tour, they had the actual restored army issued limousine that was struck by the truck that eventually caused the death of General Patton.  Here is a picture of that car:

We had a great time at the Patton Museum in Fort Knox, Kentucky.  I can't wait to take my dad there, because as I said before he is a big Patton fan.  This will be one more reason from him to come and visit us here in Kentucky.  He also likes Muhammed Ali, and Kentucky has the Muhammed Ali Center in Louisville, this will be another reason for him to come and visit us.