It's All Relative

My sister and I are in Cincinnati for our annual trip to visit relatives and get our local food fix. My mom still has 2 sisters and 1 brother living, and since we are the only branch of the family tree to plant new roots outside of Cincinnati, lots of cousins reside in this area. Our cousin Gene and his wife Rita are kind enough to put us up (or put up with us, perhaps) when we come to visit.

This year on our way over we went stopped at Fort Knox, Kentucky where my dad was processed for discharge from the Army Air Corp in WWII. Fort Knox is about 35 miles south of Louisville, so it really wasn't too far out of our way, and I wanted to take some photographs to add to the book I'm writing about my dad's service years. I had read online that the Patton Museum is located on the base, and it's free and open to the public. The museum was very interesting and contained memorabilia from all wars beginning with the Civil War. Patton's truck, which served as his office and his sleeping quarters, is there along with his personal papers and uniforms. It was interesting to see all the tanks and jeeps as it really brings home the scale of the vehicles.

Upon inquiring if there was any place that one could take some photographs of the base itself, a soldier brought out a map and showed us how few buildings remain on the base from the earlier years. But the church, water tower and hospital are still there. He said we could go down to the next gate to the visitors center and get a day pass to enter the base. Cool! We stopped at the center, and while I was getting together my driver's license, insurance card and vehicle registration, Kathy went into the visitors center. She quickly returned with a guard who informed us that no, you can't just drive around the base and take photos. He didn't know why the other soldier would have told us that. He did allow me to photograph the tank located with the "Fort Knox" sign, after giving me detailed instructions on where to stand and at what angle to shoot the photo. He then proceeded to watch me take the picture, basically for security purposes. He wanted to insure that I did not photograph the gate entering the fort.

We then headed north towards Cincinnati and stopped at Fort Thomas, Kentucky, which is where my dad was inducted into the military. There is a museum located in an old house here as well, but it had closed at 4:00 and we didn't make it to Fort Thomas until 4:30. I figured it was worth stopping anyway to see if we want to time our return to St. Louis to coincide with the noon opening time on Monday. The area is very historic and I was able to photograph the exteriors of the gymnasium, dining hall and water tower. This fort is only a few miles from Cincinnati, so I can see the museum on another visit is necessary. I think I got the pictures I need for the book.

Our first stop in Cincinnati is always Skyline Chili. Gene is on a golf trip this visit and Rita doesn't particularly care for it, so we told her we would just come to their house after we ate supper. We went to the Skyline near their house in Cleves, and we walked in to find Rita, her daughter Carrie and Carrie's 3 year old Jake eating there! What are the odds? Carrie is in town for a shower, and Rita explained that when she asked Carrie where she want to go to eat Jake said, "Well, we could always go to Skyline!" A boy after my own heart. When I went up to pay after eating the manager asked me how everything was, and I told him that I had driven 400 miles to have Skyline for supper. "Really?" he asked. I told him I was a fan on Skyline's facebook page and that I had been doing a countdown until I got to eat it. I had taken a picture of my meal and said I was going to post it that night. He reached down and gave me a four pack of Skyline in the cans as a gift. Isn't that awesome?

Saturday 15 of us met at the Golden Corral for lunch, which lasted from noon until 4:30. We always meet there when we come to town because first of all everyone can find something they like to eat, and second the retaurant never minds when we stay that long. This morning just four of us met at Price Hill Chili for breakfast, so Kathy and I could have our goetta. Yum! Tonight there will be a group of us that meet for supper, and then Kathy and I will head home tomorrow. Where I will promptly go on a diet!