Newbie in Michigan

[JohnMosesBrowning]

Greetings,
I am a (very) new pipe smoker. I'm eager to learn as much as I can from all the experience collected and gathered here. I have lots of questions but will do my best searching and lurking before I annoy you with things already answered a hundred times over throughout the site. I'm looking forward to learning from, and conversing with, the gentleman scholars of the briar.
I currently have two basket pipes, both billiards, one straight and partially rusticated - the other bent and smooth with a nice (to me) matte finish. My local tobacco shop is more of a cigar focused establishment. They have their own bulk blends in glass jars but do not sell any tinned tobacco. I'm currently researching online sources for tinned tobaccos to order so I can being a) training my palate, and b) learning to distinguish the major categories/varieties of blends.
Cheers.
JMB

 

[mikethompson]

Welcome John,
There are several online tobacco vendors that sponsor the site and have a great selection and prices (especially compared to prices here in Ontario). Don't worry about asking questions, we generally like to repeat ourselves!
Focus on your packing and breathing methods first, find what works for you and go from there!
Enjoy the journey!

 

[bouwser]

Hi John. Welcome. I too am pretty new to the briar and am also from Michigan. Whereabouts are you from? I’m in the Grand Rapids area. You’ll learn lots here.

 

[mso489]

Welcome aboard! My dad's family had a little summer farm, no electricity or running water, 1920's and 30's, in a tiny town, Holton, northeast of Muskegon. I camped there with a friend in the 60's, and swam in a crick that froze your blood. The house was still standing, later torched. My father finally sold it to a Christmas tree farmer.

 

[pilotage16]

Lake house in the Port Austin Thumb area. You can’t beat Michigan in the summer.

 

[homewaters]

Welcome!

 

[cwpiperman]

Welcome to a fellow Michigander! @Pilotage16 you're right, you can't beat Michigan in the summer. It was July 27th this year. VFR all day.
CW

 

[timt]

Welcome from Minnesota!

 

[puffy]

Welcome

 

[scloyd]

Welcome from Northern Illinois. We spent many summer weeks in Michigan when our kids were young. From Copper Harbor to White Fish Point traveling the southern shores of Lake Superior. Spent some time on Mackinac Island, Traverse City and Holland. Some of our fondest memories are from our travels through Michigan.

 

[mso489]

White Fish Point -- I think that's where they have the monument to the sinking of the Edmund Fitzgerald. My late wife and I ate pasties as a picnic there.

 

[scloyd]

That's right Tom. White Fish Point Lighthouse and Shipwreck Museum.
The legend lives on from the Chippewa on down

Of the big lake they called 'gitche gumee'...

 

[mnewb1]

Welcome, also a Michigander

 

[witchofthehollow]

Welcome to the forum :D

 

[JohnMosesBrowning]

Wow! Thanks for the warm welcome. This is going to be a long and enjoyable journey I can already tell. I'm "downstate" from all the nice places mentioned above - halfway between Ann Arbor and Detroit to be exact. I have a place on 100 acres up north and love getting up there in the summer and doing some snowshoeing in the winter. Mentioning "pasties" and the UP made me laugh though, I have many find memories of spending summers up there with my grandfather and he loved getting pasties and watching the freighters go through the locks at the "Soo" (Sault Saint Marie).
Currently I've got two "basket" briars - one straight and partially rusticated marked as made in France, the other smooth and matte and marked as made it Italy. Paid about $35 each for them at local b&m tobacconists. I have three blends from said tobacconists, an unknown non-aromatic blend, a "golden cavendish," and a heavily cased vanilla of some sort or other. I'm excited to get some tins in the mail so I can know what I'm getting/tasting and begin building my palate. I'm still struggling however with getting my pipe too hot and suffering from tongue bite...looking forward to seeing some improvement on that soon.
Thanks again!
JMB