Welcome fellow Virginian. At 18 we will all assume that you do not have an unlimited budget for pipes or tobacco which, if you start out like many of us, is likely not to change any time soon. Probably a good idea to have 3 pipes to keep the pipes on rotation and "rested" between uses. As you no doubt have already noticed, there are a dizzying number of tobacco blends out in brick and mortar (B&M) shops, and more so online. If I had one piece of advice to give it would be to shop at online stores where they list the tobaccos used in the blend, the relative strength of nicotine and the room note, OR if you live in one of the few regions in Virginia to be blessed with a B&M store get to know the proprietor and learn from him/her. That will keep you in the ballpark for experimentation. As many threads on this forum have noted, pipe tobacco is relatively cheap but that does not mean that you can't get into dept trying new stuff (pipes, tobacco and accessories). Good luck on your new journey! [I had more time to compose this one...]