This weekend I did something that many would consider Epic Cigar Fail. Before spilling my guts and confessing, let me first set the stage for this story. For the past couple of weeks my wife and I have been talking about taking a two and a half hour drive to visit my grandmother.

You see, my grandmother lives out in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. She is roughly a half hour further, for me, from where Cigarfest is held. She has seen dozens of photos of her latest great grandchild, but she hasn’t met her. My wife and I wanted to remedy this before in got into the snowy months.

The area where my grandmother lives is very peaceful and surrounded by woods and wildlife. I thought that I would pack some cigars to enjoy during our short stay. In my travel humidor I placed several Illusione Cigars, a Padron Family Reserve 45 Years from Jerry, a Davidoff Puro D‘ Oro, a Viaje Fifty-Fifty Red Label, and several other cigars that would make any cigar smoker drool with anticipation.

I tossed my travel humidor into my backpack along with my laptop, DSLR, phone charger, and other connivence items. Before calling it a night, I placed my backpack in the living room.

The following morning we got off to a late start and were in a scramble to get the baby ready and head out the door. Before leaving, I commented to my wife that our little one day trip was looking more like a week long vacation with everything being loaded into the car. We gathered up our bags, our daughter, and our dog (which we were dropping off before heading to my grandmothers).

A little more than an hour into our drive, it hit me like a freight train. I neglected to put my backpack on before walking to the car. May laptop, phone charger, and most importantly, cigars, were still in our living room.

Well beyond the point or turning around, I asked my wife to plug my grandmothers zipcode into CigarFriendly.us to see if there was a cigar shop relatively close. Unfortunately, the only result was a bar which permitted cigar smoking.

I handed my wife my phone and asked her send a message to Jason C. via Facebook. Jason lives a few minutes from the turnpike exit we were getting off of and I wanted to see if he was aware of any area cigar merchants. I admitted to the cigar smokers cardinal sin of forgetting my humidor as I walked out the door.

During last years Cigarfest, Mike and I had a chance to hang out with Jason and were absolutely blown away by his generosity. When my wife read me Jason’s response, my jaw hung open and I was left speechless. There were no cigar shops in the area, so Jason told me I that he would provide me with whatever I needed.

I didn’t know how to respond. I didn’t want to take advantage of Jason’s generosity and come off like a cigar weasel, but at the same time I didn’t want to be cigar-less. I decided to take Jason up on his offer, while feeling very cigar weasely for having accepted.

A moment later my phone rang and Jason was on the other end. The first words out of his mouth were “What kind of cigar smoker forgets his cigars?”, followed by laughter on both sides of the line. Going even further in his generosity, Jason told me that he would meet me at the turnpike exit to save me the trip out to his house (Ten minutes away in the opposite direction I was headed) in order to save me a little time.

When Jason and I met up, I was handed a bag of cigars, complete with humidipack. I looked down at the bag and was astounded. I told him that I was in a bind and would have been more than happy with a couple of General Cigar products.

In the bag:

• Humidipack
• Ashton San Cristobal
• Man O War Ruination
• Rocky Patel 15th Anniversary
• Liga Privada T52
• Opus X
• Padron 1926

Over past few years I have had the opinion that the bulk of cigar smokers are a special class of people. Conversing on Forums, Twitter, Facebook, and face to face at Cigar Events has allowed me to be a part of a simply amazing group of people. The generosity that Jason showed me went far beyond anything that I would have ever expected.

Spending Sunday morning in the brisk mountain air, sipping on a hot cup of coffee, smoking a Padron 1926, while watching a deer move about in the woods was absolute bliss.

Jason, I can’t thank you enough for the generosity that you showed me this weekend. You laughed when i told you that I needed your address to return the favor, but I really do want to repay you for helping me out. In my mind, you redefined the meaning of a Brother of the Leaf. Thanks again

Visitor while I enjoyed a Rocky Patel 15th Anniversary