Jim and Deb's RNB Luau Herf!!!! (6/24/06)

Jim (Alchemist) and Deb (Rose) hosted an RNB (Red Neck Bastids) Luau Herf on Saturday! The rained threatened, and on an occasion or two came through, but it didn't dampen the fun! I knew that Jim and Deb were planning quite an event, but I had no idea to what lengths they would go to make this a great time for all! There was food, food, and more food! Deb had been working for days on this project. There were several courses that seem to keep coming endlessly! They started with grilled oysters, then bratworst, then clam stew, then shrimp and scallop kabobs, then ribs and burgers! Got that? All this over a 5 or 6 hour period! Add to that all the side dishes that were present! Somewhere between all this food we managed to enjoy quite a few cigars as well!

On a side note, Ernie, who hosts the RNB board, was met with a nice surprise while at the herf. Earlier in the month Nate had asked people to consider sending a few cigars to Ernie as a way of saying thanks for hosting the RNB board. Well, I don't think anyone expected the response that was had! Nate kept handing packages to Ernie from people who could not be at the herf, and those of us who did attend gave him cigars as well. He must have wound up with well over 100 cigars!!!!

This even was held, as I said before, at Jim and Deb's house, which is in Mooresville, NC. It was about a 2 1/2 hour drive from Irmo, but well worth it. The bunch in my car consisted of Jim Massengale, Cheeze (Mark), Connie and I. Mead, from Florence, also drove up! It was good to see him again.

This was a class A event put on by a great couple! Thanks again for all your hard work!!!!

Jim spent the whole day over the grill! He was very serious about it, too!

Even the dog got into the act! Nice skirt!

My "gang" under the tent!

People arrived all afternoon! Here's Perfessor arriving!

CancerMan:

Cheeze trying to hide behind the umbrella! Good luck!!!!

Ernie with his "gift" cigars:

Here's a better pic! Wow! Nice haul!!!!

Rose and "helper"!

Mead, another SC boy, made it up for the event:
Rose had scheduled a hula hoop contest, and I don't think there was much participation, but I caught Connie giving it a try:

Bacardi Jim and Perfessor:CanAm Man:Kevin7:

Tobi wrestling Jim for a cigar!

Wouldestous:

At some point, Jim finally managed to enjoy a cigar!

All together, there were around 30 people who attended this event. Thanks again to Jim and Rose for all their efforts!!!!!

Torano event; 6/10/06

I was fortunate to meet Raul Rico and Felipe Sosa of Torano on Saturday. Raul, who goes by "Rico", is the sales rep for the east coast and Felipe is a roller who travels around to the events to roll fresh cigars! The cigars he rolled saturday were the Casa Torano's. He rolled mostly churchills.

The cigar shop holding the event, The Tobacco Merchant in Irmo, SC, was running a special where if you bought 3 of any Torano cigars you got the 4th one free, even a fresh rolled one! Pretty cool deal! They also had give away raffles, and I was lucky enough to win 5 cigars with 2 of them being the fresh rolled ones! Of course, this was after I had already bought 12 other ones!

Torano makes great cigars, no doubt about that, but I learned quite a bit about who they make cigars for! I learned that Torano makes cigars for CAO and Gurkha, also! Wow! I really like the Brazilia's that CAO sells and the Doble Maduro's that Gurkha sells, and they're both made by Torano! The new Torano Exodus and Virtuoso are two of my favorites, and they have similar flavor profiles to the Brazilia's and Doble Maduro's, and now I find out they're made by Torano! Cool!The shop should have done well with this promotion. I watched ALOT of people come and go all day. Most stayed around for the raffles.

Here's a few pics from the day:

Mark Lewis, me, Rico, Jack Porter:

Felipe Sosa, roller for Torano:

Felipe, me, and Rico: