Better late than never?? Anyway, my wife and I hosted the Coulee Region Area Pipe Club's Summer Get-Together on Sat. July 27th.I always fear a brutally hot and humid day but we had the opposite with fall like, unseasonal cold with a few very brief light showers. Despite the weather we welcomed a full house/deck of 19 members/guests/spouses. We were honored with special guests Tony Soderman and The Reverend Rolf from the Great Northern PC and my Milwaukee Area Pipe Society bro/buddy John Schmidt and his beautiful bride but the star of the day was Carmen our club's Founder/President Adam Sheehan (Passion on the boards) and wife Tabitha's newborn baby daughter. We all had a great time holding and getting to know her.
We sat around visiting, enjoying coffee, beer/cocktail and snacks along with our pipes and a selection of tobaccos including two pouches of Balkan Sobraine white I got in Chicago last spring. Tony brought along some very old and umsmoked GBD's with silver bands and some very rare and unique unsmoked patent era Dunhill gadget pipes for our inspection. I had never seen anything like these pipes. Lorie and I served a picnic style buffet dinner. Charter club member Ryan K was our pit master for the day, he smoked up 8 racks of delicious pork ribs along with slow cooked beef au jus with rolls, tater salad, slaw, beans and a veggie tray. Every one seem to enjoy the food and I didn't have to many leftovers. With being so busy with the new baby Adam didn't have time to do one of his spectacular cake creations this year so we had to settle for a bakery cake. I had them copy some of the modern Dunhill shape chart in frosting including a donkey nut for John!
The gals went inside with Carmen probably to discus the joys of being married to a pipe collector, how they wish we would buy more pipes and how going to pipe shows really makes for a great vacation :wink: while we got down to bidness with the 2nd annual Coulee Cup Slow Smoking Contest!! Each contestant was gifted a pipe tamper I had made by Kevin Gantz (kevin's pipe tampers on Etsy) 2 matches and 3 grams of whatever tobacco they wanted in their own pipe.
It was breezy so I adjusted the rules to make it so everyone got a chance to get their pipes lit but then we were off and running! The first out was at 19:49, I made it to 30:03 2012 champ Pat Sheehan came in second at 38:37 and 2013 Champion Bryan Murphy brought it to a chilly close at 43:39. Along with the glory Bryan won an engraved GG pipe rack and two more of kevin's tampers!
We continued on with the fun, visiting, smoking till well after midnight. The next day a few of us went to breakfast and later drove to our MAPS brother Jeff who has a scenic vineyard out near me in Viroqua, WI for a wine tasting and a bowl together. Jeff and his wife couldn't join us because of a funeral but we had a lot of fun Sunday.
I wish the weather could have been warmer but all in all we had a good time. Here's a link to Adam and my photo's of the day. 8O
https://plus.google.com/photos/104611199703561251325/albums/5920965494548116289?authkey=CO6m3MeXjZGtowE
Proud father, Club Founder/President Adam and me holding the guest of honor Carmen.
The Coulee Cup contestants surround the 2013 Winner Bryan.
We sat around visiting, enjoying coffee, beer/cocktail and snacks along with our pipes and a selection of tobaccos including two pouches of Balkan Sobraine white I got in Chicago last spring. Tony brought along some very old and umsmoked GBD's with silver bands and some very rare and unique unsmoked patent era Dunhill gadget pipes for our inspection. I had never seen anything like these pipes. Lorie and I served a picnic style buffet dinner. Charter club member Ryan K was our pit master for the day, he smoked up 8 racks of delicious pork ribs along with slow cooked beef au jus with rolls, tater salad, slaw, beans and a veggie tray. Every one seem to enjoy the food and I didn't have to many leftovers. With being so busy with the new baby Adam didn't have time to do one of his spectacular cake creations this year so we had to settle for a bakery cake. I had them copy some of the modern Dunhill shape chart in frosting including a donkey nut for John!
The gals went inside with Carmen probably to discus the joys of being married to a pipe collector, how they wish we would buy more pipes and how going to pipe shows really makes for a great vacation :wink: while we got down to bidness with the 2nd annual Coulee Cup Slow Smoking Contest!! Each contestant was gifted a pipe tamper I had made by Kevin Gantz (kevin's pipe tampers on Etsy) 2 matches and 3 grams of whatever tobacco they wanted in their own pipe.
It was breezy so I adjusted the rules to make it so everyone got a chance to get their pipes lit but then we were off and running! The first out was at 19:49, I made it to 30:03 2012 champ Pat Sheehan came in second at 38:37 and 2013 Champion Bryan Murphy brought it to a chilly close at 43:39. Along with the glory Bryan won an engraved GG pipe rack and two more of kevin's tampers!
We continued on with the fun, visiting, smoking till well after midnight. The next day a few of us went to breakfast and later drove to our MAPS brother Jeff who has a scenic vineyard out near me in Viroqua, WI for a wine tasting and a bowl together. Jeff and his wife couldn't join us because of a funeral but we had a lot of fun Sunday.
I wish the weather could have been warmer but all in all we had a good time. Here's a link to Adam and my photo's of the day. 8O
https://plus.google.com/photos/104611199703561251325/albums/5920965494548116289?authkey=CO6m3MeXjZGtowE
Proud father, Club Founder/President Adam and me holding the guest of honor Carmen.
The Coulee Cup contestants surround the 2013 Winner Bryan.
