“Nothing could finer than to be in Carolina in the morning…”

The weather was absolutely glorious as we congregated at the Hilton Executive Park Hotel in Charlotte, North Carolina prior to embarking on the 2008 Carolinas Mill Tour. On day one, our first stop was EastCoast Moldings for a tour of their plant. Afterwards we headed to Asheville via Old Fort where the folks at Ethan Allan Furniture arranged for us to have lunch at Little Sienna restaurant prior to touring their facility. Getting to see the furniture-making process from start to finish was an eye-opening experience and the amount of hands-on detailed work gave everyone a better understanding of why furniture is expensive. To cap off the busy day, we went to the Biltmore Estate Winery and Farm before heading to the hotel for the evening.

Tuesday morning, we headed back to the Biltmore Estate for a visit to America’s largest home. If you have never been to the Biltmore, be sure to add it to your list of places to see. Before leaving the estate, we had one last stop for an exquisite lunch at the Deerpark restaurant before heading to South Carolina.

On our way to Charleston, we stopped at a harvesting site where we were presented with a certificate recognizing the group as Honorary Professional Timber Harvesters and Supporters of Sustainable Forestry by the South Carolina Timber Producers Association.

Tuesday evening we arrived in Charleston… so much to do, so little time. Charleston is a great city for history buffs, shoppers, and lovers of good food. With all the historic buildings and preservation laws, the millwork industry in the area is a thriving business. Wednesday morning we visited two family-owned lumber yards that specialize in millwork: Berlin G. Myers and Southern Lumber & Millwork. We witnessed new technology and old fashioned hand-made mouldings, shutters, doors, and more. At Berlin G. Myers, we were treated to a barbeque and met the Mayor of Summerville, 91-years-young Berlin G. Myers. Wednesday afternoon we concluded the day with a carriage tour of historic downtown Charleston where we learned all the fun facts of the city where the Civil War began.

Thursday was a day of industry tours to Grant Forest Products and Collum Lumber Mill. Grant Forest Products recently built an oriented strand board (OSB) plant that is state-of-the art, enormous and very impressive to see. Collum’s Lumber is a family-owned operation that runs a saw mill, supplies poles to utilities, treats lumber and also had state-ofthe- art equipment.

Thursday evening we had a group dinner at Mama Brown’s Barbeque, a local restaurant, so people could experience true southern cooking.

Our last stop was to visit Patriot’s Point naval museum where we explored the WWII aircraft carrier USS Yorktown, a destroyer, a coast guard cutter and a submarine.

We had a wonderful time on the tour and the group was fabulous. Charlie, our bus driver, did an excellent job of chartering us around town and we really experienced Southern Hospitality at its finest. I look forward to next year and hope to see some new faces along with the usual suspects.

Planning for the 2009 Spokane/Coeur D’Alene and 2010 Germany tours is underway. Dates of future tours and other information will be sent and posted on the web site as soon as it is available.