XIKAR’s “The Craziest Place I’ve Smoked a Cigar” Contest

As a former CEO of the American Lung Association of Indiana, I proudly smoked several cigars (Hoyo de Monterrey #4) poolside at the international ALA/American Thoracic Society conference in Orlando, 1995. No artwork survives, but needless to say, I didn’t stay in the good graces of ALA for long after that. My argument - I didn’t inhale!

-John G. Smith

Did Bill Clinton enter your contest? I just want to know if I have a chance to win. -L.E.

The photo that is attached is me right before lighting up a JM’s Robusto, while riding shotgun in an official U.S. Army Humvee. At the end of this past January, I took a Warfare class at my college and our professor was able to get us a very personal, behind the scences tour of Fort Irwin, which is the home of the Army’s National Training Center. We rode in the Humvees all day at high speed throughout the desert; the Humvees were open so the wind was rushing through the entire time. Before we began for the trip back out of the des-ert, the Private, who was driving offered me some of his chew and I in turn offered him a cigar he declined and wanted to remain on his chew, but loved the idea of me smoking a stogie in his humvee and so I did. He chewed and I smoked for about 15minutes and we chatted as everyone else was having lunch, we talked a lot about cigars and then his home town, he then told me that he was to be retired from the Army within the month, I insisted he take a stick to celebrate, and so he did. We then floored it back to the main part of the base, it was quite difficult to maintain my cigar in the open backed Humvee, but boy did it make me feel like a cowboy, a man, and on one hell of an adventure. -Jeff McDowell

I once fired one up while riding my motorcycle on the Blue Ridge Parkway dressed in a kilt on the way to the Grandfather Mountain Highland Games. A tad breezy, but one hell of an afternoon.

-Goat Herd

My name is Marshall Posey and I am writing from Kabul, Afghanistan. I am working here for several years on two different Information Technology projects as project manager. In the picture labeled Marshall_Cigar, we were sitting in a small courtyard at the Maple Leaf Inn in Kabul. As we were enjoying CAO Brazilias (6 x 60), a military C-130 cargo plane flew low overhead and begin shooting out chaff and flare (this is to avoid missile attacks). This was one indicator we were in a not too friendly environment. Nothing stops us from enjoying a good cigar at the end of the day, so we kept going. The second picture, Marshall_Jobe, is at the same Maple Leaf Inn in Kabul. My friend and co-worker, Jobe Soloman was there as we were enjoying Cohiba Siglo VIs. Since security is very tight, a good cigar is one of my greatest pleasures.

-Marshall K Posey

This picture was taken last year after the Cigar Heritage festival in Ybor City- After a several rounds of mojitos we decided to head to Kmart to buy a karaoke machine, except I was unwilling to put out my Rocky Patel Old World Reserve. To my surprise not a single person said a single word about me smoking, including the employee we asked for directions at the customer service desk and the clerk that rang us up. I again tested this at Wal-Mart almost a year later (unfortunately no photographic image) with the same exact result. Not a single word.

-Anthony Capuano

Hi Kurt. My name is Rick and I’m from Oakville, Ontario up in Canada. I was not going to let the elements of winter stop me from enjoying a good smoke so I set myself up a little outdoor lounge. This is my 8’x10’ shed. When I packed away the furniture for winter, I realized I had enough room to set up a small lounge area. I have two chairs set up along with part of my patio table. I also have a table top heater with a 20 gal propane tank to supply heat. Inside I also have a light and radio to enjoy as well. I have 3 big cans of 3 varieties of bird seed so when I go out to refill the feeders, I make a point of spending some time out in the lounge enjoying a nice cigar. The heater and light allow me those after dinner smokes as well when the sun has gone down. I spent one winter without. Not anymore. Thanks and I have included a couple of pictures of my lounge. -Rick Marszalek

Kurt and other Xikar friends, I love your products and hope to continue our newly established relationship in the future. The craziest place I have smoked a cigar was this year on Spring Break in Montego Bay Jamaica. I am a college student from Bryant University who went on a trip with 31 good friends to Jamaica. On our second evening of the trip we decided enjoy Cuban Cohiba’s on the distant rocks. It took about 5 mins to walk to the rocks because of the sea urchins and sharp rocks we had to walk across to get there, but we made it. 10 of my friends and I enjoyed cigars with water crashing on us during the sunset at Montego Bay. This was a great experience and probably the wildest place I and my friends have smoked a cigar. Attached are a few pictures of our experience. I hope these few photos will do justice for our story.

-Kristofer E. Hart

The funniest and or craziest place I have ever smoked a cigar would have to be in a Portal John. I was in this thing puffing away and the Superintendent of the job started trying to pry the door open thinking someone had fallen out from the smoke and fumes from the John. This was so funny when I opened the door to show him I was OK he threw water on me. I had a few choice words for him to say the least. This was on a work site that NO SMOKING was permitted within 1000 feet of the facility. The John was about 1/4 mile from the actual equipment site so no danger there. Needless to say I was escorted to the perimeter and was told not to come back. That was about 20-25 years or so ago and I still remember it like it was yesterday--Thanks for the Contest!

-Paul R. Montgomery My friends and I were enjoying a fun, but unusually hot weekend this past summer on my boat at Pickwick Lake in Tennessee. Of course, we are never without our cigars when on any outing and this weekend was no exception. The challenge however was in keeping cool while enjoying our stogies. Naturally, being in the water seemed to be the answer to the keeping cool problem and with a bit of care we were able to enjoy our cigars too. As you can see in the attached photo a good time was had by all. Take note of the long ash on my cigar. No challenge is too large when it comes to enjoying a fine smoke!

-Ron Hutchison

In 2003 I was a maintenance officer in charge of special operations helicopters out of RAF Mildenhall UK. We were entered Northern Iraq before anyone else did on opening night of Operation Iraqi Freedom. So early that my guys and my helos had to evacuate our air strip so the 173rd Airborne could do their combat

jump into the airfield! Well the first thing my Senior Non Com and I did after we secured our perimeter was to dig a 10x12 pit and cover it with camo net and wheat from the fields so we would have somewhere to light a stogie without drawing sniper fire or mortars. Let me tell you something- after 72+hrs of tension and no sleep that first Partagas Series S tasted like heaven. Later on when we were utilizing the Kurdish forces as our perimeter defend-ers, I was asked to go out and meet with the Kurd officers. Knowing that they would not only have me drinking loads of tea but also offer me their clove cigarettes I took out a couple of my cigars to prevent me from having to be rude and say no to their hospitality (cigarettes). Well they were so impressed with my large cigar they invited me back the next night and asked me to bring enough cigars for them which I did. But try as I might through gestures and interpreter I couldn’t get them to understand that you don’t inhale a cigar... god love em they smoked those Churchills down to the nub and inhaled the whole time! They were like martians they were so green! And they asked me to come back several more times to smoke cigars with them... all the while inhaling like they were cigarettes... Anyhow that’s my cigar story.... Cheers and smoke em if you got em! -Major Rob Fleming

September 24 2007. Here we are (I’m the one on the far right) in the middle of the French Quarter of New Orleans. This is in the heart of New Orleans Saints Fan Country. This is the year after the hurricane hit and the Saints were back in their dome. The Place is alive with energy for the Monday night foot-ball game that we all went down to attend. To this point in the season, the Saints were 0 and 4 for the season. Every time we turned around, Fans were hollering at us ‘WHO DAT!!!’ (the Saints fight phrase), knowing that we are all Tennessee Titans fans. Undeterred, we partied on, even though in the minor-ity. While there, we stopped in at the cigar shop where they hand roll cigars on the spot for you. What a treat! Smooth smoke! As you can see in the other pictures, we all had fun, including the girls. In the last picture, I’m partaking in a smoke and Jager Shot! As far as the craziest place, this has to be it! That night the Titans won and yet we went back down to Bourbon Street and smoked and partied on!

-Currie Gieg

For me, hands down, was at the bottom of the Grand Canyon. I was on a business trip to Las Vegas and

took a helicopter trip past the Hoover Dam and over to the Grand Canyon. We had this great Pilot (Brock) and we asked him if we could land right in the Canyon. The way he explained it was that there are very few licensed Transportation Companies allowed to actually land in the Canyon (and that was to be short lived if the Conservationists had their way)...and as luck would have it (and wallet too!) they were one of them so we decided to go. I was excited like a kid at Christmas...cruising along the endless brown desert terrain waiting to come up to the Canyon. I kept wondering what would it look like. Would it be a giant hole? Would you see it from miles away? The trip from the Hover Dam to the Canyon seemed to last forever as we were traveling very low to the ground, nothing but little bunches of desert grass along the way as I stared below us...then suddenly there was no land underneath us...we were over the Grand Canyon! How cool was this? We flew along one of the outer edges looking for a place to land and Brock said he knew of a spot a few miles away. Seriously, I couldn’t believe my eyes. The decent was spectacular as we went straight down along the canyon walls until we found a flat open area that would accommodate the helicopter’s spinning blades. Once the dust had settled from our landing, we got out, looked around, and saw things I only glanced at in my Social Studies books when I was a kid in Grammar School. Then, as the whining of the copter’s engines finally died down, the sights and sounds were unbelievable, like Nature just came alive. The fresh smell of the mist coming off the Colorado River coupled with the faint sounds of the rapids as they rushed over the rocks was a memory not soon forgotten. We hardly spoke at all, we all just took in the natural beauty and knew this was a once in a lifetime opportunity. The only animal I saw was an eagle flying overhead, circling as if one of us was a potential course for that evenings meal, his squawking echoing within the Canyon’s walls. Well, being the adventurous cigar smoking traveler that I am, I just happened to have a Arturo Fuente Opus X handy, gave it a snip with my trusty bloodstone red (travel version) Xi2 cutter, charred the tip with my lighter, then picked up a piece of stick off the ground, lit that and proceeded to light my cigar with some vegetation grown in the Grand Canyon!. Maybe it was a little over the top ritualistically speaking, but hey...it’s a once in a lifetime experience...so I went for the whole enchilada! The smell of my cigar coupled with the scents of the dry desert air made for one classic memory. As hot as it was, the further down I descended, it got surprisingly cooler with a nice steady breeze. I took a little hike down river where the water was much calmer and just sat there on a little cliff, feet dangling, overlooking the river, puffing away, listening to the sounds of the Grand Canyon, taking it all in. Again I took out my trusty camera, propped it up on a rock, set the timer, stood proudly and got a picture of me and The Canyon. When it was time to leave, I slipped off the band and ceremoniously buried my cigar under a few rocks and some gravel, so as to leave my mark for all time (sic). It was a very memorable cigar journey. Here are just a few of the pictures I took of that day. I hope this is what you folks had in mind for this event. So that was my most memorable cigar smoking moment to date.....as for the craziest?...well that had to be

on the dance floor of Studio 54 in NYC, sharing a Macanudo with Andy Warhol and Gilda Radner back in ‘79 or ‘80...not quite sure about the date, those years are a bit fuzzy now....and thank God there were no pictures of that night!...although someone told me a few years later that one showed up on the wall of the Club taken by the roaming photog that was always there.....but that is a story for another day.

-Gary Roberti

I believe the best tasting cigar that I’ve ever had was on top of Mt. Shasta in No. California. I guided a group of emergency room physicians on a two day climb to over 14,000 feet. The first day I got snow blind and had a somewhat miserable night half way up. The second day we made the summit and I pulled out my portable humidor and each Doctor (believe it) enjoyed either a Padilla Hybrid or a Greycliff Gran Cru. My lighter failed to work at altitude, but we made do. As I said in the first sentence, looking west toward the “Alps” after that climb at 14,100 feet my cigar (Gran Cru) was fabulous. -Raymond Smith

Come ON GUYS!!!

The strangest place you’ve smoked a cigar? Come on, how can anyone expect to win that if Bill Clinton enters????????? Love your products but I don’t stand a chance in this contest ;^D

-F. D. Fleming

I don’t know if this is the craziest place I smoked a cigar but it was certainly one of the best. A few years ago, my cousin and I ventured to Yosemite for some R&R. This was going to be some hiking and then off to Tahoe for a little casino action. We booked a little cabin in Yosemite and prepared for our day on the trails. On our first day we set out on the Muir trail. We took the Mist Trail under Vernal Falls and continued on past Nevada Falls and ultimately to Half Dome. Like any weekend hiker we decided to scale Half Dome using the cable access to the top. Since we got off to an extra-early start in the morning there were few other hikers around. Our ascent of Half-Dome was easy enough for us 50-yeaqr olds and believe it or not energizing. Upon reaching the plateau at the top my cousin and I sat and marveled at the valley floor below. As I reached into my small back pack, I took out two Padron Anniversario 1964s and handed one to my cousin. I then took my Xikar which I had just purchased at a cigar kiosk in the Pleasantville, CA mall. Lighting the cigar was a bit challenging due to the wind but the feat was accomplished and the cigar and the magnificent views of the Yosemite waterfalls in the distance made it an unforgettable experience. Again, I don’t know if I can say this was crazy but certainly memorable.

-Gary Schwartz

Where is the craziest place I’ve smoked a cigar? Up in a tree with binoculars watching falcons deplete the surplus pigeon population.

-Thomas Canino

During a Phish concert on New Year’s Day, 2000, in the very middle of the crowd of about 80,000. It was a Cuban Romeo y Julieta, that I lit up right after the fireworks display that went off at midnight. I remember some of the little hippies giving me nasty looks since I was stepping on their buzz. I don’t have any photos of that. In 2003 we were at the IT Festival in Maine. We tried to break the World Record for the most people wearing Groucho glasses and even the water tower had them on. Our whole group enjoyed smokes, and attached is a photo of my wife and I getting ready to light up. We smoked many different brands that weekend. -Nick Holmes

The craziest place I’ve ever smoke a cigar is the Al Faw Palace in Baghdad Iraq. I served for a year on the staff of Multi National Force-Iraq. The smoking area was up on the second floor outside the Judge Advocate General (the lawyers) office. Great view of the surrounding man made lake; in the evening you could watch the star shells light up the sky.

-Jim Whittington

I just got back from a trip at Oxford University in Oxford, UK. A couple of my buddies and I got a walking tour of about 5 of the 39 colleges that make up the University. Of course, we took the opportunity to light up the cigars and enjoy the history of a 900+ year old University. Attached is a picture of a couple of us smoking at the Gates of Trinity College. We toured Exeter, Trinity, Brasenose, and the front of All Souls Colleges as well. We also had a great smoke at the Turf Tavern pub. This pub is famous for a couple of things: 1 it is built in the old moat surrounding the original city wall of Oxford and 2 it is the place where a Former US President smoked, but did not inhale while attending Oxford...yep, President Clinton. So we sat on the same patio as he did and smoked, but did not inhale, our cigars. A great trip and fantastic cigars both steeped in history. Cheers!

-Scott

This probably is not so crazy, but it’s the best I can come up with. For many years I was a commercial pilot flying bank checks four nights a week. I smoked a couple cigars per night in the cockpit of the Mitsubishi MU2 prop jet aircraft. One LaGloria Wavell would last me from St Louis to Chicago to Minneapolis. Unfortunately, there are no pictures of me smoking in the airplane.

-Deneal Schilmeister

After a long day walking around Florence, Italy...decided to drive to Pisa and check out the inclined tower. Friends, Pablo (left), Cayetano (middle) and me, Mauricio...smoked a great cigar, while wifes climbed up the tower...don’t know if cigar tasted great; because it was great or because it saved us from going up the thousands of steps.

-Mauricio Arias

The Craziest place I ever smoked a cigar is also the first time I was exposed to top quality handmade cigars. I was working in the insurance business and we had a particularly good month in our office. To celebrate, the manager decided to take us out for the evening for a couple of drinks. Well this turned out to be at Kahoots a local “Gentlemen’s Club” which at that time still allowed one to enjoy the pleasures of a fine cigar along with your adult beverage and female entertainment. As we were imbibing our boss suddenly asked “who wants to join me in a cigar?”. I had actually been considering indulging in this pastime which has become a passion so I and a few others took him up on the offer! It was wonder-ful!! I truly enjoyed that smoke though what it was exactly now escapes me but it seemed to be the perfect companion for a night of camaraderie, celebration of accomplishments and all around good times.

As I sat there with a scantily clad young lady next to me, a Kalhua and coffee in front of me and a fine handmade cigar in my hand I looked across the table at my good friend and said “you know we are ruined for any kind of real job after this, don’t you.” To which he heartily agreed.

Was this a crazy place to have a smoke? Were you looking for something more daring or perhaps smoking somewhere “inappropriate?” I don’t know but I thank you for the opportunity to share a moment of my life made brighter by my choice not to listen to the “conventional wisdom” but to enjoy my own form of self expression.

-Matt Hooks.

Cigars are my passion, my blood and life. Every time I light up a cigar, I conjure up memories of cigars past and the events that took place with that cigar. One of the more memorable is setting on the shores of Lake Taneycomo smoking cigars all day with my father. We were on the porch of the Forsyth Hotel where the likes of Harry Truman and Al Capone have set and smoked. Cigars are the one thing that has really brought my Father and I together. So when I really look back on that day I remember the conversations with my father more than anything…. it was a great day I will never forget.These are the kinds of places and stories that make my passion for cigars even stronger. Not only do I enjoy cigars for their tastes and complexities but the bonds that they create are stronger than any other I know.

-Joel Dawson

Well, I don’t know if it’s crazy enough, but here’s my FAVORITE place to smoke a cigar.

When my submarine was operating on the surface, I would arrange things so I would get to stand watch in the sail at night. With the stars over my head, the luminescence in the water, the salt air, the feeling of power having a nuclear submarine under my feet, and a good cigar in my hand, all combined, it was the best feeling I’ve ever had in my life.

-George Jacobs

This email is a response to your request for stories of ‘crazy’ cigar smokes. While not crazy, this seems like sure what a good place to do so. I’m sure there are more people who would love to do the same.

The attached picture is of my brother, a chaplain in the US Army. He is currently stationed in Japan. He and some other men made the trek up Mount Fuji back in August ‘07. He had this picture taken while he was up on Mount Fuji smoking a Gurkha X-Fuerte Torpedo Grande. Here is an excerpt from an email he sent me after the occasion:

“I had a friend take this photo so you could see me smoking a cigar on the top of Mount Fuji. It was an excellent cigar! I’m sitting on a little hut on top of the mountain. Everyone purchases a bowl of Ramen noodles there, and it’s the best Ramen noodles you ever eat! “

For what it’s worth, I hope that my brother’s picture and story can be taken as my entry.

-Jeff Wallace

Years ago, when I was still in high school I worked as a janitor of a local golf clubhouse/bar. I use to smoke at least two cigars a night when working my 6-8 hour graveyard shift cleaning the place. The clubhouse had locker rooms for their members and it was my duty to make sure they were clean for the following day. I recall smoking cigars in the women’s locker room, inside the bathroom stalls (next to the little trash bins) while cleaning the toilets and moping the floors. -Fred

I am a certified Hot Air and Gas balloon Pilot ( only a couple of hundred gas certified pilots in the U.S.). In 1999 my flying partner, he is now passed on, lit up after we got into the air flying a gas balloon (Helium) from a small airport in Denver competing in the Remax Cup a gas balloon race to Qualifier for the Gordon Bennett gas balloon race the oldest air race in the world. We were under control by Denver international airport air traffic control as we passed through their air space, what a hoot here we were at 8000 ft drifting northeast as the air liners were routed around us some so close we could make out the human shapes in the windows puffing our stogies. There were about a dozen gas balloons competing so there were 3 or 4 in the Denver air space at any given time. Sorry the take off was at night so no pictures but the cigars were some Cuban Cohibas I got from a friend. What makes this story is that we were leaking

gas and had to make a night landing, 2:30 AM, there was a new moon so it was very dark. The landing was about 60 miles east of Cheyenne WY. close to a small town called Kimball NE. As we passed over I-80 we had stowed the position lights and were using only a 1 million candle power hand held landing light, the trucks started to pull over as we approached the highway from the south all they could see in the night was a huge round object with a bright beam sweeping the ground and no sound, gas balloons are quiet. We landed about 2 plus miles north of I-80 in a pasture and after taking a GPS position hiked back to the highway to meet our crew who were following us. The next morning we found a deputy sheriff who went with us to get our equipment and verify our landing after telling him about crossing low over I-80 and the trucks pulling over he told us about the UFO calls the department had received that night. Great smokes great fun and sweet life. -Don Weeks

I always like to associate cigars with some sort of celebration. I’m not quite sure what the (craziest) place for me to enjoy a cigar would be. Perhaps on top of the mountain range were our cabin is in between the Big Belt and Elkhorn mountain range, in western Montana. Or enjoying a cigar with busi-ness associates in club Macanudo on 63rd in Manhattan. I guess I’m not that wild to really know what this means. Many years ago you could enjoy a fine cigar at 35,000 feet in the air of our airline carriers, but the pleasure police have taken that pleasure away from us. So maybe just after a collegiate football game when your favorite team have just won the big game. It just seems to me that cigar smoking is always assoiciated with some sort of celebration, call me crazy, but that is just my thoughts on this sub-ject. Thank you.

-Lawrence Debnar

Attached is a picture of my son smoking a cigar outside a local Starbucks. While the location may not be all that uncommon, the size of the cigar caused quite a commotion, not to mention a number of humorous com-ments. My son Ryan will be leaving in June as he’s enlisted in the United States Marine Corp. Blessings,

-Dorothy Gass

My name is Peter Johnsson and I live in Sweden, in the capitol, Stockholm. Well, since the government in Sweden decided to prohibit all smoking in Restaurants and all public areas (indoors) I have smoked my cigars in many strange places. I am not a cigarette smoker so basically I do not have a problem with this, but sometimes I am longing for a good cigar and I think that the knowledge that I am soon going to smoke a good cigar is a good part of the enjoyment. We have a country house in the very South of Sweden in the County of Skane, we use this house for leisure and this Easter we went there for a relaxing week. I do not like to

smoke my cigars inside the house so I have invented “Cigar Walk”. At the occasion on the picture you can see me enjoying a nice Cohiba Siglo IV, of course lighted with my newly bought Xikar Lighter, in front of our house that is located very close to the church. In the fairly strong wind and the beautiful “first of the season” sunshine this as close to 100 Paradise as you can come! Best regards from Sweden! -Peter JohnssonPS The Cap is carrying my favorite Soccer Team Logo “Hammarby IF” DS

I do a lot of traveling for my company and in the course of my travels one of my goals is to have a cigar at each of my destinations. By far the craziest (and scariest) place I have lit up a robusto was in Neman Russia which is in the region of Kalliningrad. I was on the night shift crew for a paper mill with a few other people.

I walked back to where we were staying roughly around 4am to get something I had forgotton. I decided to stop and enjoy a cigar on the sidewalk of this very dark, very quiet street near the hotel. The whole town had this very somber and anticipation like attitude that no one could put a finger on. Joking aside, the garage across the street had bullet holes all across the door. Well, a gentleman came out of the hotel and we tried to talk as best we could (he spoke very little English and I spoke little Russian). He did manage to tell me he was a general in the Red Army and showed me several bullet wounds below his knee. He was interested in what I was smoking and I loaned him a puff or two. I will tell you, for one brief moment, the planets aligned, and two countries seperated by decades of tension, war and fear came together in perfect harmony. The tension and fear melted away, and we were just two guys smoking a cigar together. THIS IS A TRUE STORY. It was a life changing moment! -Bob Short

Last year my wife and I, some family and friends went on a Caribbean cruise to Honduras. This is me on the beach and the beginning of my second degree sun burn. Quite attractive, huh? Honduran Cigars

bought right on the beach on the island of Roatan. It may not be the craziest place, but there’s not much more exotic than smoking domestic cigars in Honduras. That’s Paradise. I enjoy and appreciate the high quality of Xikar products. It makes the smoking that much more pleasurable. Thanks, -Jon Rissler

Not too long ago was the year Floridians call “The Year of the Hurricanes” - I think we had four hurri-canes nail us in one season. The routine has been to “batten our hatches” and ride out the storm, and since my wife and I have a treaty that forbids smoking in the house (we both smoke, but we don’t want the furniture to collect the odors), we usually choose to fore go smoking while sheltered, but as Hurricane Charley was taking aim for my neighborhood, my stress-level kept raising. Charley turned into a near miss for us, but with each passing hurricane, the stress grew. Finally, I gave in and allowed myself to enjoy my favorite sticks... but I’d be damned if I was going to hurt the furni-ture (that was for the hurricanes to do, if they could). No, I did the more crazy move...I stepped into the storm to smoke a Churchill. Sheltered by a corner of my house from the worst of it, I stood there and watched debris fly by, calmly drawing on the stick. I had to shield the cigar from the wind, lest it burn too quickly and steal away my full enjoyment, so I cupped my hands around the end and because I never got the trick of rolling the cigar with just my mouth, I got into this rhythm of roll-cup-draw-exhale/roll-repeat until I managed, after roughly an hour, to finish my “leisurely” smoke. My wife watched me from inside, shocked, but when I returned, she admitted I was much more relaxed. But she didn’t dare to copy my act. And I’m not sure I’d want to do it again! -Alan Frayer

Hi Y´all at Xikar

Here´s my little contribution. I hope you will enjoy the pictures.

Going back to the family “homestead” way up in the northern parts of Sweden, we went on a fishing trip.

Pic 1 Me with the fish.Pic 2 Enjoying a Rafael Gonzales Panatelas Extra. In the mountains the right equipment is essential and my Xikar gear didn’t let med down. My X1 cutter did a great job as always. And the torch flame on my Executive lighter worked as a charm even in the slight breeze on the mountain top.Pic 3 Some raindeer grazing on the hill side. These are free range live stock kept by the Laplander, the native people of Sweden.

All and all a great fishing trip and a great cigar, with a little help from the folks at Xikar! Best regards,

-Henrik Gistvall, Uppsala, Sweden

The craziest place I have smoked a cigar is in the swimming pool of a cruise ship headed to Jamaica- mon.

-Reade Fulton

My name is SSG Weilemann and the craziest place I have ever smoked a cigar is a hard choice to make. I am in the US Army and have smoked cigars on frozen lakes in Alaska to mountain tops in California while at the National Training Center to swamps of Louisiana during training there, to the flat deserts of Kuwait and all over Iraq. The best one would have to be Halloween of 2003. I was in Mosul, Iraq and our headquarters was in an old Baathist Party Head Quarters for the Northern Iraqi province of Nineveh. I had gotten a package of “Strike” Cigars in the mail and without thought shared them with my squad. We went to the top of our Command Post to smoke them. We sat on the roof in lawn chairs our wives and girl-friends sent us from the states; looking over the Tigris River just smoking and drinking our non-alcoholic beers that we had laughing and having the best time we could in war. At the time it didn’t matter that we were in a combat zone, we just talked about the time when we would all get to go home. Lucky we all got to go home and since then we have gone on to different units. Sorry, I wish I had some pictures, but at the time we didn’t have any cameras and it would have made for a great picture on the wall and would have shown a bunch of guys doing what guys do best, making the best out of a bad situation. -SSG Weilemann, Michael J