By Kathy Ahrendt

It's amazing that there are so many businesses dotted over the back roads of North Carolina. Who knew that just a few short miles away from our house there was a facility that repairs and fabricates parts for fire trucks.

A number of our member arrived at Anchor Richey on May 19 for a tour of their facility. One of our members, Dottie Ferguson, knows the owner and the family so we were able to get a hands-on tour of their fabrication, paint and repair portion of the site. There were many trucks in various stages of completion – some having engine work done, metal work for pump support, some body work (you'd be surprised how many accidents that fire trucks get into.)

Some of the trucks were having the complete body removed and placed on a different frame. There are some truly huge cranes needed to lift the portions of trucks from one place to another.  After seeing the way they move engines around our little engine lift seems like a tinker-toy!

Once we got done with the tour, we donned our new hats (Thank You AR) and had photos taken of the members, cars and some of the trucks. Those trucks make our LBCs look even smaller.

Dottie and Jim then took us on a scenic drive through Alexander County – twisty roads, a rock wall and some of the largest tobacco fields in the state – were some of the highlights of our drive. We ended up at the Yellow Deli in Hiddenite (home of the emerald mine) for lunch.

After a delicious lunch the skies started to cloud over with some dark clouds, so everyone said their goodbyes and beat feet home.

Thanks to our hosts for a great day out.