Long story (and may be repeated elsewhere around here... I forget):
Over the last several decades I've smoked a handful of cigars, usually whatever my brother or a friend handed me. It was always hit-or-miss, and being an ex-cigarette smoker, usually miss. Flash-forward to July 2015: At a dinner party, a good friend left me with an Avo XO Notturno Tubo; we hadn't found time to have an after-dinner smoke that evening, so he bid me "take it for later" and I did. A week later I got my 22 year-old son (visiting from Back East) a Montecristo White Label something-or-other at BevMo and off we went on the annual camping trip to Union Valley Reservoir for a week with my sister's family and friends. My intent was to smoke cigars with my son at some point during the trip.
On Monday the 27th, my son, my wife, and I drove over to Lover's Leap and climbed Bear's Reach, a 3-pitch, 420-foot gem of 5.7 difficulty. This is my favorite traditional rock climb, and I wanted to do it one more time before hanging up the proverbial rope. It was a bitch (I'm much older now), but we did it, me leading and belaying every mother-lovin' pitch. I was beat, they were both stoked and high on adrenaline (neither had climbed anything nearly as long or steep before), and we were all quite happy.
That evening, after dinner, my son and I celebrated by smoking our cigars by the campfire (my wife celebrated with Sangria). For the first time ever, I noticed how smooth the cigar tasted, and how it had it's own unique flavor. In hindsight, it was probably the first time I smoked a cigar correctly. Whatever the reason, everything clicked into place and I said to myself: "Damn... this is a really fine cigar. I must explore these things further." And I did, like a demon possessed.
