My family and I will be heading back to the States for leave in Dec and I was wondering if anyone could give me a heads on hobby/model shops and related stuff in the Augusta, GA or the Louisville, KY area. I plan on taking the boys to the Ft. Knox museum if the wife will let us go #:-), but I'm also looking for other stuff so I don't stay trapped at the in-laws #:-) #:-)

Mark

I was in Louisville (Low-ville to the locals) a few years ago. There were a couple good hobby stores there. I checked the yellow pages upon arrival. As far as the Patton Museum, my wife has been twice now and enjoyed both visits, and she can barely tell a tank from a bulldozer. You get to paly tour guide as well. You'll be like a kid in a candy store with a $10 bill! OOOH, look an 88mm Flak! Wow, a Panther! OMG! There's Patton's .45 and .38! There are many fascinating displays, such as a Tiger or KingTiger cutaway showing the thickness of the armor and several where youcan look down into the fighting compartment. It'll amaze her at the cramped quarters. She also gets to see the depository building from the Dixie Highway if she joins you. Just make sure they are open. I was there on 10 September 2001 and they were quite lax, even to driving onto the base in rental car. I'm sure much of that has changed. Can't help with Georgia.

Don't forget to tell her that they have a decent PX there. Any Army wife likes to visit the various PXs around the world. There is also a mall, Target, Wal-Mart, K-Mart a few miles south of Knox on 31W (Dixie Hwy) in Elizabethtown (E-Town). That might convince her to go down that way.

They sell models at the Armor School bookstore (near the BK at the center of post), some at the main PX, and a few at the museum. A little more expensive here though. The local hobby shop wasn't there any more the last time I visited the in-laws. There used to be two in town (Radcliff). One was mainly RC, it was near the Shoney's on 31W. The other was below the pharmacy around where Wilson Rd and 31W met. This one had closed, but I do not know if it relocated. Didn't have time to look around. It was a reasonably stocked shop with mostly armor and some a/c there.

Armor vehicles are at about every corner, big joke is to tell someone to take a turn at the tank. Better know your MBT-70 from an XM-803. There is an M103 in the center of Radcliff, just before you get to Lincoln Trail Blvd.

Other things just south of there are the Mammoth Caves (too cold at this time), Corvette Factory (couple hours south on I-65 in Bowling Green), and Abe Lincoln's birthplace and boyhood home in Hopkinsville. About 30-40 miles away from Knox is Bardstown, KY (take the Bluegrass Pwy east from E-Town). There is the KY state shrine, "My Old Kentucky Home" and the Jim Beam distillery.

By the way, locals call it Luv'vul. Sounds like one word. Wife's from the area and has a heavy Kentucky accent. So heavy it's effected my New England accent.

One thing that you can go see is Glacier Girl. She is at the Bell county airport in Middlesboro, KY. The also have a good selection of goodies in their gift shop. You can get directions and a map from http://www.thelostsquadron.com


Hope you guys have fun.

Thanks y'all,

Sabot, my wife's from L'ville and I constantly give her a hard time about "warshin" the dishes and "r'nin" the clothes. She also gets PO'ed when I tell her that she got her first shoes and brand new clothes when she enlisted in the Army . The last time I was there was before I got back into modeling so I really wasen't looking for sources. I did however go to the Jim Beam Distillery where I picked up huge wooden ageing barrell for $16 #:-) .

Mark

My father-in-law worked at Jim Beam since the age of 13 until his retirement several years ago at the age of 65(?). With the exception of a draft service in the Army for 3 years, he spent almost 50 years working there. He moved barrels. That's it, old barrels of whiskey to the front, new barrels to the rear for aging.

Bardstown also has a very nice and quite extensive Civil War Museum with numerous artifacts and uniforms from both sidesof the conflict.

There is a Hobbytown USA in Augusta:

Anderson Plaza
592 Bobby Jones Expressway #5
Augusta, GA 30907
(706) 855-5003
Store Hours
Monday: 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Tuesday: 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Wednesday: 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Thursday: 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Friday: 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Saturday: 10:00 AM - 8:00 PM
Sunday: 1:00 PM - 6:00 PM

It should not be to hard to find.

Hope this helps,

If you get to Atlanta, be sure and stop at AAA Hobby Supply. Phone # is 770-973-5666, ask for Rusty or James. There's also a huge Hobbytown USA off Barrett Parkway in Kennesaw, but it's just a real big Hobbytown. AAA Hobby is a real plastic model hobby shop. They advertise in FSM. Good luck and welcome to "God's Country.

Tom

Al, where's this? I was married in Bardstown (in the big gray stone Calvary Baptist church on Main St.). There is a small toy soldier museum on Main St. that recently (within the last few years (1999 or 2000) reopened. It had been closed since I started dating my wife in late 1991 until one of the above listed summers. I went to the reopening. Didn't compare to the museums here in Virginia, some very nice ones around Richmond.

Hey Mark, does your wife use terms like "Go get you some" and "you ain't right"? My wife's always "f'in" to go do something. She and my sister-in-law listen to Jeff Foxworthy shows, look at each other and say the same person's name that reminds them of the joke.

http://www.bardstown.com/~civilwar/

310 East Broadway
Bardstown
Which, if I remember right, wasn't far fromthe Stephen Foster Old Kentucky Home. My wife's college roomate lives in bardstown, so I get a periodic chance to visit Down South. I think I remember there being a big churs in the downtown section. I checked the toy soldier museum when we were there in 1990, but I was not that much into figures at the time. It was closed on Sunday when we were there last September.