The long road home...

Hey blog readers...here I am in my navigator position again(or Navaguesser...Absofab). Currently on the GPS it says that 534 miles to go and we should hit "The Bend" around 7-ish.

Cigarfest 2009 was a great success. We scored 60+ free cigars, a very nice cigar cutter, humidor, ashtray and duffel bag. I purchased a few things too...some cigars for F.i.L. and myself. A new lighter and t-shirt were also acquired. I was also able to track down a case of Yuengling for the fridge...but sorry, no Black and Tan in that town.

Here is a simple run down of the weekend...

Friday we went out to the bar in our hotel. There we partied with Rocky Patel. It was really cool, live band and about 300 cigar smokers all getting to know each other. We were all there for the same reason and why not get to know the people that are sitting around you. That really suited me just fine. We met a couple of Navy Chiefs that picked Eric out of the crowd due to his Navy pull over. They were a hoot. They are your typical career military types...full of stories and one liners. They bought a couple of rounds and handed out some cigars...so we decided to hang with them. During that party we also had a chance to hang out with Nick Perdomo. He crashed Rocky's party...it was awesome. He gave out a couple of cigars, took some pictures and then took a few minutes to get to know us. He was a really an approachable guy and a lot of fun to chat with. We closed that party down...it was a chatters dream, so you know I was in my element.

Saturday we woke up and headed for the "Big Show"...we were warned by our friends "The Chiefs" that we should get there early. So we did. We were the first ones in line. It wasn't long, and the line was almost wrapped around the convention center. Now they let you in based on your ticket type. We had what is called the Cigar Nut ticket. Then there was the VIH and then general admission. We got in at 11 am and got to have breakfast on the show floor. At Noon they let the VIH holders in and then at 2 they let everybody else in. We went around immediately upon entry and collected our free sticks and got the lay of the land. Then we made the drop in the car of the freebies and headed back in to enjoy breakfast and some live music. The rest of the day we spent hitting the different booths to chat some more and have our pictures taken with the various Cigar Calendar girls that were around (Pictures to follow, not enough bandwidth on the cell phone tether). It was a really nice day to just smoke stogies with 2,500 of our newest cigar buddies...and wander around. We did slip out for a couple hours to catch a cat nap and breath some fresh air. Speaking of fresh air...we were in the mountains and our resort was roughly 1,500 feet above sea level and the air was glorious and clean(much needed after being in the convention hall with all the second hand smoke).

Saturday evening we hit a couple of after parties and collected a few cigars and got a couple more pictures, but our bodies pretty much had told us we had breathed enough second hand smoke and consumed enough nicotine for a while...so we headed back to the hotel so we could get a decent start on our journey home. So now, here I sit in the passenger seat hurling down the road at 70 mph pounding out a blog...good times.

Well that is pretty much the weekend in a nut shell. It was a blast...I originally thought this was going to be a once in a lifetime type experience, but I am pretty sure we will make another migration to this event.

So I should probably have another update from the road here later...(currently 503 miles to go, elevation 1270 ft. above sea level)

Until next time...

Be Kind, Be Safe...

Shalom my Peeps!