The Carolina Cigar Crawl

Schedule
11AM Motorcoach departs The Days Inn Hotel in Thomasville, NC with 30+ crawlers. Smoking will be required on the bus.:-) As each crawler enters the bus, they will be given a fine cigar to begin this journey.

11:30 AM First stop. Lunch & Cigars at Greensboro Wine Warehouse. Wine and port tasting too. Cigar distributors will be offering cigar samples and doorprizes.

1 PM Board Bus - Each crawler recieves another cigar to help them enjoy trip to next shop.

1:45 PM The Smoke Shop, Lexington, NC. Large walk-in humidor, good selections. Great prices on accessories. 10% Discount on Box Cigars. Doorprizes. Cigar Distributors will be on hand with samples.

3 PM Board Bus - Each crawler is given another fine cigar to enjoy on the trip to the last and biggest stop.

3:45 PM JR Cigars, Statesville, NC. What can I say. We will tour the world's largest humidor. We will be given a special tour of both the retail and mail-order distribution sides of this massive operation. Our contact at JR's tells me that it will take about an hour for this complete, behind the scenes tour. When the tour is over you can spend the next hour or so shopping and smoking, believe me, time flies in that place. I know we'll have to drag a few people out and force them to get back on the bus! But it'll be worth it, because . . .

6:30 PM Black Angus Resturant, Statesville, NC. A fine dinning, cigar-friendly(like we'd go anywhere else!) establishment, recommended specifically by Lew Rothman to us for this crawl. As with the JSCC, we will have doorprizes, a cigar exchange and a cigar raffle during dinner. This would also be an excellent time to work out trades with your fellow cybersmokers.

8:30 PM Sadly we must board the bus for the return trip to Thomasville, NC, but you will have the company of yet another fine cigar for the approximately 45 minute trip.

9:15 PM Arrive Thomasville, NC. For those still willing and able to herf one last cigar, my deck and pool are available and located nearby.

CLICK HERE FOR GREENSBORO, NC WEATHER

Who's Going To Crawl

Here's the names and states of all confirmed crawlers:

Don Payne, Tania Payne, Dave Galloway, Nicholas Allen, Ray Bates, Sondra Soloman, Simon Soloman, Scot Catlin, Brian Holland, Jim McGovern, Jeff Flaum from NC.

Frank Baker, John Freeman, David Adams from SC

Robert Armstrong, Jeff Hucksold from IL

Marc Goldstone, Adam Goldstone, Paul Dougherty from NJ

Mike Benevento, Lisa Falco, Shawn O'Hea from NY

Bob Curtis, Craig Stone, David Poore from FL

Rob Heming, Matt Lucotch from PA

Dave Clark, Tony Ettore, Glenn Brooks, William McClendon, Mac McClendon from GA

Roger Farnsworth from CA

Alan Discount from MN

Tom Lindsay from WI

Part-Time Crawlers: Marc Schneiderman(cigarbaron) from PA is planning on flying himself in Sat. morning, taking a cab to meet us at the 1st stop, have lunch and smooze, then he has to turn around and go home. Bob Daniels from VA and his brother Russ Daniels from MD will be meeting us at JR's and will also dine with the full-time crawlers. I appreciate the extra effort the three of you are making just to smooze and have a few cigars with everyone.

Email Don Payne at drpayne@mindspring.com to let me know that you want to attend. The cost. Of course, in true ASC spirit, this is a non-profit operation. I figure the cost will run somewhere around the $100 per attendee range. Could be a little more or less depending on how much I learned from Moochmaster Marc. I'm not in this to make a penny, I just don't want to lose my shirt.

Sponsors

We've already got several fine humidors to give as door prizes. One huge humidor has been gifted to the crawl by Lew Rothman of JR Cigars. For those who have the Holiday '96 JR catalog you can see this humidor on page 9. It's a ten drawer Burl Cabinet with glass doors that is listed at $1,500. One lucky crawler is going to take it home with them in the doorprize drawing. Our thanks go out to Lew, Brenda and the fine folks at JR Cigars.

Another humidor is being custom commissioned especially for this event. It will be approximately 24" X 12" X 8" and will hold approximately 400 cigars(you provide the cigars, well most of them:-))

Eric at Green Mountain Unlimited has sent 2 boxes of his fine Mayorga Churchill cigars in support of the crawl. By-the-way, I understand that they make a fine humidor as well. And Eric has donated one of these fine Limited Humidors to the crawl, and is providing everyone with a Mayorga T-Shirt customized for the Carolina Cigar Crawl.

Hugh Hughes of The Juan-Carlos Marti Humidor Company of Canada is sending the crawl The Little Juan. This nice looking humidor holds about 25 double conrona cigars.

The folks at Jose Diaz in Miami have sent a 10-cigar sampler pack of their multi-country blend D'Raymond Cigars.

CLR has donated a HumiJar. It's a glass humidor, etched with golfer with a perfect swing. The lid has it's own humidification unit and at the bottom is a piece of spanish cedar. It makes a great additional (2nd, 3rd, 4th, . . . you can never have too many) humidor.

Larry Krams at Creston Cigars is sending us a box of his finest cigars. Creston Premium Cuvee Cigars - The Best Kept Secret About Ultra Premium Cigars.

Francis K. Leger of International Cigar Club is also sending a select box of fine cigars.

Mark Tinnerman of Cyberstogies has offered to be a sponsor. More later, as details are worked out.

I've also just heard from the Fuente/Newman folks and they've agreed to be a sponsor. I'm not sure what they are sending but if it comes from The CigarFamily, it has to be good.

Tobacco Times of Crystal, MN is giving us a box of Don Tomas Special Editions.

Crawler Alan Discount is giving each crawler a "Forever Cigars" Gift Package that includes an etched glass ashtray, cigar cutter and a premium hand rolled cigar to promote his future web site www.forevercigars.com. This non-commercial cigar forum is due out in about a month.

Vincent Caruso of City Cigars has sent a box of Don Tuto Churchills form Costa Rico and CAO Robusto sampler pack, 2 Agua-Dor 7072 humidification devices, and five "cuban" refillable lighters.

Larry Haggerty of Robali Cigars is sending 2 boxes of his Costa Rican cigars.

Juan Escritor representing The Cigars of Armando Ramos is sending a sample package of Urbando de Habana, Costambar and Campesino cigars for each crawler. He is also providing a box of very limited edition Barbarossa Select Churchills rolled personally for Armando Ramos and his oldest son and aged for 5 full years.

Rob at Cigar Express will once again show his support of ASC and be a sponsor of the crawl.

Milt Fitterman of DHS has provided each crawler with a Disposable Humidfication System. Finally, an inexpensive, effortless way to maintain your cigars worry-free! This hi-tech system will maintain 72% humidity in your Zip-Locks, travel cases, Tupperware containers or anywhere you store your cigars.

Emile at CigarSource.Com is donating 2 CD-ROM's "The Worlds Best Cigars" and 1 video "Cigars: Behind The Scenes."

Dan Rudd of MPS Cigar Capsules is also a crawl sponsor.

Thanks to Crawler John Freeman, who contacted Wally Bishop of Carolina Cigar Company in Greenville, SC who is donating some of his Exodus cigars to the crawl.

Bobby Holstein at Fuji Cigar Page who sent an email saying "Where do I send this stuff?" is a sponsor.

Jeffrey Ruddy of Humidor Corporation is sending an Exacto Package Hydromist.

Bob Gabbard of Palmetto Discount Tobacco in Columbia, SC is sending enough La Gloria Cubana's to give one to each crawler. His associate David Adams will also attend the crawl.

Many ASC'ers are also gifting the crawl some fine smokes for the cigar raffle.

More to come . . . .

Hotel Info

I've got a good group rate for us at the Days Inn in Thomasville, NC. This is where we will meet the bus. It is located close to my house and my country club(pre-crawl dinner and golf if you arrive early enough). Days Inn's phone number is 910-472-6600. Ask for James, the general manager. He is the only one that can take you reservation and receive the group rate. Just tell him you with the Don Payne's Carolina Cigar Crawl group. If he is not there, leave your number and he'll return during normal business hours. The rate is $39.95 + tax for a single and $45 + tax for more than a single (double, triple . . . you figure it out). This is a fairly new, nice hotel . . . it's not a super-premium hotel, but you not going to be there much anyway.

Pre- & Post-Crawl Activities

After my experience at the Jersery Shore Crawl, I'd recommend that, if possible, you attend the Pre and Post Crawl activities. Pre-crawl will consist of dinner at my club (ribeyes and beverages) and golf for those interested who can arrive early enough. The cost will be only for your dinner and whatever drink deal I arrange. Figure on about $20-$25 for that. Bring your own favorite cigars. The post-crawl party will be BBQ from Lexington, NC at my house and pool on Sunday. It's a great way to wrap up the week-end, setting by the pool, enjoying good cigars and company. Food and drinks provided for a nominal cost(think $5 or so)

You may consider arriving early and staying late! If you're gonna crawl, crawl it all!

Email me now, and claim your seat on The Carolina Crawl!

Your host,
Don in Thomasville, NC
Director of Crawl Activities