All this week I’m traveling with the “Manufacturing Makes It Real” tour, which the NC State University Industrial Extension Service is running to showcase and celebrate the state’s products and the people who make them.
My job, leading up to this, was to plan the route and make sure the bus and tractor-trailer get from point A to point B to point C to … the end. “There and back again,” as Bilbo Baggins would say.
Yesterday we traveled to RLCB in Raleigh, Thomas Built Buses in High Point, and Polychem Alloy in Lenoir. I’m typing this from my hotel room — isn’t technology marvelous? — in Fletcher, where this morning we’ll visit ArvinMeritor before heading down the mountain to National Gypsum in Mount Holly and Tyco/Scott Health & Safety in Monroe.
It’s already been quite the adventure, between miscommunication on where to meet yesterday morning, a flat tire on the bus that had to be swapped out at RLCB, and extra cars that blocked our entry to one factory. (That, in a way, is a nice problem to have: so many people showing up that we had to ask some to move their cars!)
Our industry hosts have been fantastic, especially considering the much-needed rain that forced all our events yesterday indoors. And the manufacturers who have come seem to relish the opportunity to show off their products and praise their employees.
We’re traveling all over the state, so if you’re anywhere along our route or near one of our stops and you have a little extra time, stop by and see what’s going on! A quick walk through the display trailer will surprise you, in terms of the variety of different things manufactured here in North Carolina.
Hope to see you on the tour!
by 
