|
|
Post by Legend Lover on Dec 15, 2018 12:17:14 GMT -5
I feel like I'm there with you. Awesome.
|
|
|
|
Post by kxg on Dec 15, 2018 13:48:56 GMT -5
Thanks Dino! We have a warped sense of history in the US, where our time here is relatively short, except for the Native people whose history we mostly manage to ignore. 1000 year old buildings are a treat.
|
|
|
|
Post by trailboss on Dec 15, 2018 14:28:41 GMT -5
Wow... and they pay you too?  Glad that the company does such a great job in the travel arrangements. Do they do it in house, or do they contract with an agency? |
|
|
|
Post by bonanzadriver on Dec 15, 2018 21:31:08 GMT -5
Wow... and they pay you too? Glad that the company does such a great job in the travel arrangements. Do they do it in house, or do they contract with an agency? Charlie, this was a business trip, primarily visiting our factories in Italy, Switzerland and Germany. Although the factories made some of the hotel reservations, the travel for me and two of my sales engineers were all made by me. About 1/2 of the excursions and activities were coordinated by our hosts, the rest was done by either me or my guys. Despite a few glitches, things worked out very well. |
|
|
|
Post by trailboss on Dec 15, 2018 21:41:14 GMT -5
I was aware that you had long days of work, you did a great job on doing all that in your downtime.
I asked, because my brother typically had a similar schedule traveling all over pretty much every continent when he was a senior engineer in a telecommunications firm. Time constraints and schedules required that he outsourced the planning, after a lot of trials, he had a gem of a gent that really did a great job in that regard.
Conversely, I have a buddy that works for a point of pay company, and the person tasked with setting the itinerary, schedules it with an extremely hard driving schedule.
Glad that you are able to do such a trip to strike a nice balance with your colleagues... traveling that much in spite of it all is pretty demanding.
|
|
|
|
Post by bonanzadriver on Jan 23, 2019 22:27:12 GMT -5
It's been an interesting week.
Chatroom member Lee (Gary) flew into NC this weekend from Tucson. I picked him up Saturday and the odyssey began...
First we drove down to Pinehurst and saw the sights.
Then we had dinner @ the club.
After that we found our way to the local B&M and had a cigar.
Then it was dinner @ my house and cigars and pipes in the Mancave.
Sunday we drove to Mooresville for the monthly pipe club meeting @ Jr's. Met a lot of fellow patchers and a couple of famous folks in the community.
That evening it was dinner @ my house again and pipes in the Mancave.
Monday we drove down and got a great VIP tour of the entire operations of SmokingPipes.com The staff was outstanding, as well as few minutes with Sikes himself.
We then went down to Cornell & Diehl for a tour of their operations. Again, fantastic staff and very accommodating.
That evening we enjoyed a pipe on the deck of my long time buddy Jim's beach house in Ocean Isle and had dinner down at Pelicans.
The next morning, Tuesday, it was up to the airport, RDU, where Gary and I had lunch, I caught my flight to Binghampton NY and he flew home to Tucson.
It was a whirlwind weekend, but a truly memorable and enjoyable one.
Sorry, no pics, we were too busy having a good time. ;-)
Which leads up to this week.
My flight from RDU was supposed to take me to Binghampton. Unfortunately the weather caused us to divert to Syracuse, where I picked up a rental car and drove to Binghampton.
This afternoon we drove down to Stony Point, where after dinner @ a nice Japanese restaurant, we walked around the corner to Dad's Cigar Warehouse in Nanuet.
Great place with a fantastic selection of cigars and accouterments, and a humble selection of pipe tobacco.
I picked up a tin of Crumble Kake English #1. We made our way to the lounge, enjoyed a couple of Scotch's and I enjoyed my first ever bowl of the Crumble kake.
It was so good I picked up another tin for my cellar.
Now I'm back at the hotel, headin to bed.
I'll try to take some pics for the next outting.
dino
|
|
|
|
Post by bonanzadriver on Jan 30, 2019 20:20:41 GMT -5
Some good news and some bad... The good news? I found a great Cigar Bar, Shop, Pipe tobacco joint in the Biltmore Village area. The bad? I didn't get any pictures. The place is Casablanca Cigar Bar... www.casablancacigarbar.com/As is normally the case, I GTS (google that sh!t) pretty much every town I travel to, looking for pipe shops and cigar bars. This place has only been there a couple of years but has a fantastic cigar selection, fair pipe tobacco selection, good Scotch selection, Great Bourbon selection, nice coffee & espresso and plenty of club chairs, big screen TV's and good ventilation. James, the tatoo'd bearded gentleman that works there is very cordial and accommodating. He's a relatively new piper and was very receptive to input on his pipe tobacco and even shared a bowl with me. I strongly encourage anyone traveling that way to stop by... You won't be disappointed. |
|
|
|
Post by skeeter456 on Jan 31, 2019 2:21:30 GMT -5
Neat pics! Thanks for sharing
|
|
|
|
Post by unknownpipesmoker on Jan 31, 2019 2:42:48 GMT -5
Some good news and some bad... The good news? I found a great Cigar Bar, Shop, Pipe tobacco joint in the Biltmore Village area. The bad? I didn't get any pictures. The place is Casablanca Cigar Bar... www.casablancacigarbar.com/As is normally the case, I GTS (google that sh!t) pretty much every town I travel to, looking for pipe shops and cigar bars. This place has only been there a couple of years but has a fantastic cigar selection, fair pipe tobacco selection, good Scotch selection, Great Bourbon selection, nice coffee & espresso and plenty of club chairs, big screen TV's and good ventilation. James, the tatoo'd bearded gentleman that works there is very cordial and accommodating. He's a relatively new piper and was very receptive to input on his pipe tobacco and even shared a bowl with me. I strongly encourage anyone traveling that way to stop by... You won't be disappointed. I didn't know "gts" was even a phrase. What I get for not having children. A lot of cigar folks are coming over to pipes lately. Cigar prices have just gone sky high lately. |
|
|
|
Post by bonanzadriver on Feb 14, 2019 22:07:11 GMT -5
Another road warrior week comes to an end. This week had me leaving Pinehurst Sunday afternoon for Pittsburgh. After meetings Monday morning I was on a flight to JFK. Spent most of the week out on Long Island, but finished up yesterday in the City... Manhattan to be precise. The first place we went last night was Nat Sherman's...    After visiting with the fine folks there, and picking up a couple of tins of Key Largo, as well as a few cigars, including some Lost Cities. :-) It was time to head over to Carnegie's Cigar Lounge.   Enjoyed a couple of cigars and a few Single Malt Scotch's. After that it was a great steak dinner @ The Blue somethin or other. Finally home, had dinner with Blondie and am now up in the cave enjoyin some ol Margate in an old Hardcastle, sippin some old bourbon. ;-) |
|
|
|
Post by PhantomWolf on Feb 14, 2019 22:17:33 GMT -5
Switzerland is so beautiful and everyone there is so happy... I now hate Switzerland. hahaha
That architecture is astonishing. Thanks for sharing, Dino. Very cool.
Justin
|
|
|
|
Post by bonanzadriver on Apr 26, 2019 1:07:33 GMT -5
Wow, can't believe I haven't posted here since Feb, despite the fact that I've been travelin all over the place. ;-) I also realize I've been remiss in taking pics of the various places I've found to smoke my briars. Last week for instance, in Hartford CT, I found a great cigar lounge that was owned by three active or retired police officers. The cigar selection was nice and they welcomed me and my pipes with open arms. This week I've been all over parts of PA, MD and DE. Night before last I was in Harrisburg PA. Found McGrath's pub.   This place was great. John the bartender kept the ashtrays emptied and the scotch glass full. ;-) Also met a couple of young Marine recruiters enjoyin the evening. Fantastic young men and true American heroes. |
|
stone
Full Member
Posts: 996
First Name: Jeff
Location:
|
Post by stone on Apr 26, 2019 5:35:38 GMT -5
A few more travelin pipe pics from back in May... Here's a pic out on the deck of a pub somewhere around New Brittain CT...  Here's a couple of shots of a Mickey Blakes Cigar Club in Southington CT...   I've been to this club in Southington Connecticut. Great place! Outstanding story, thanks! |
|
