Reed and Mollie brought pizza to our motel and we got a good chance to visit on Tuesday evening.  The next day, Mollie had to work while Reed got off early.  Meredith wanted to stay in the room to study.  We drove around Elizabethtown getting acquainted with the area.

Pam was certain I couldn't capture this photo while driving by and pointing my camera out the window.  Ha, ha.  We did not shop here.

We stopped for lunch at Cobbler's Cafe, housed in a 10-foot wide, 120-year-old building just across the street from the courthouse.  The manager, retired Army master sergeant Mike Robinson, was a walking, talking tour guide.  We shared a scone and promised we would return for lunch sometime.

Reed joined us for a delicious meal at another eatery in town, the Back Home Country Store & Restaurant.  It was the first time I ate fried green tomatoes.  They tasted like deep fried onion rings, except tomato-y.  Shock!  We especially enjoyed our waitress who called me "honey."  I love the Kentucky drawl and desperately wanted someone to call Pam or Mere "sugar" but no one did.

About 20 miles north of Elizabethtown is Reed's base, Fort Knox.  Currently experiencing growth pains, Fort Knox is almost entirely comprised of "legs" as Reed calls them--soldiers who do not jump out of perfectly good airplanes. It was at Fort Knox that Reed met Mollie, assigned there on the weekend Reed processed in from Fort Bragg.  Mollie is in the reserves and normally works as a pharmacy tech.  However on the weekend she met Reed, Mollie was assisting an audiologist with testing of soldiers' hearing.

Reed took us to the building where they met.  You may have observed he is already wearing his wedding ring; guess he couldn't wait.  He is standing in front of the audiologist's testing chamber.  That day, Reed tried to make small talk with Mollie but didn't seem to be making any headway.  He asked her where he would get his teeth checked.  Mollie, who was not really looking to meet a potential spouse, simply pointed at the sign directly in front of him.

Undaunted, Reed told her he was new to the area and wondered if she would be willing to show him around.  She was non-committal but did give him her cell number.  A few minutes after leaving the building, Reed sent Mollie a text and, to his delight, she responded.  The rest, as they say, is history.

Fort Knox is the home of the General George Patton Museum.  Reed had not visited it so we took it in together.  Admission was free.

One of the exhibits in the museum

Tanks from World War I through Operation Iraqi Freedom were on display.  The collection included a German Panzer and some Russian tanks, too.

Reed checks out a beheaded Saddam Hussein, or at least the head from a statue dismantled in Baghdad.

Reed explained some of the ways the bad guys detonate improvised explosive devices.  Suffice it to say, the bad guys are becoming more sophisticated all the time.  They first used wired devices but those could often be detected.  Then they switched to bombs which could be set off by radio signals or by receipt of a cell phone call.  Our military countered with technology which disrupted those signals.  The enemy countered with infrared signals.  Add to the mix plenty of buried bombs that go off when any pressure is placed on them, some decades old.  It is a nasty world.

On to happier things.  Next.