I felt like getting out and doing a little something today so I found a couple of tobacconists in the local phone book. Was is located in downtown Charleston and I thought "that'll be fun". I'd go check them out and see what kinds of pipes and tobacco they might have as well as just do a bit of sight seeing.
I didn't count on there being some sort of crafts fair going on downtown. The place was crawling with people and vehicles. There was no way in the world I was going to find a parking space for my tractor on the narrow little downtown streets. I wasn't even able to get closer than 2 blocks from the tobacconist's shop due to the heavy crowding.
I finally gave up and made my way back to the interstate. I had seen another tobacconist listed that said it was located at the mall, and I had seen an exit for Mall Road on my way in so I decided to try that. Malls have nice big parking lots.
Well, it seems the mall is being rebuilt. Nothing there but an empty lot and a few outbuilding. *sigh*
I returned to my hotel room and again consulted the phone book. Ok, there's one located a few miles away in Summerville. No problem, I'll try that one.
What a disappointment that place was. It was a very small shop with a pathetic selection of pipes and an even worse selection of tobaccos. I plucked one bag of English blend out of the jar thinking it would make a nice morning smoke with my coffee. The stuff was so old and dry it was literally crumbling in the bag as I handled it. Yuk.
They had all of four meerschaum pipes to choose from and all of them were way over priced for what they were. The least exxpensive one was $100, and I can order the exact same pipe (same brand and design) off the internet for $39.
They did have an interesting white clay churchwarden pipe. I asked about it, the price was right ($20), and was going to buy one as I had never tried a clay and was curious how they smoke. Turns out they were out of those (the display one was just for looks, not actually smokeable). I bought a couple of packages of pipes cleaners as I had run out (they were also over priced) and returned to my room.
Oh well, it was nice to get out and about for a couple of hours anyway.
I'm looking forward to going back through Florence, KY and picking up that Calabash I was admiring.