Today was something else. I had to pick up an armored military wrecker from the Navy Weapons Station in North Charleston, SC. That place is always something of a circus as they ship and receive and lot of vehicles and equipment every day. I knew I was in for a long day.

The fact that it was raining only added to it being a pretty crappy day. Once I checked in I drove around to where you get in line. There was at least twenty trucks ahead of me in line. Wonderful.

Luckily, I had a good book with me and once I parked in line I put on my reading glasses and picked up the book. It really helped pass the time sitting in line and, every once in a while, moving up a few truck lengths.

I finally got to the loading point and saw the vehicle I was to load. It was a total wreck. While I waited for them to get around to loading me I spent the time strapping the doors shut so the thing wouldn’t be over width on my trailer, and tearing off the loose bits that would probably fall off going down the road anyway.

After about a total of seven hours on the base I was finally loaded, had my paperwork, and got off the base. We knew it was to be a heavy load as the thing is armored, so I went to the nearest truck stop and weighed the thing to make sure the axle weights matched up with the permits we had ordered ahead of time (overweight load). They did, which was a good thing. One less complication.

I then hit a local hotel and checked in for the night, called the office with the fax number for the hotel so they could fax the permits to me, and then checked the phone book for any local tobacconist shops.

I found one about six miles from the hotel that sounded promising, and headed over there. I wanted to pick up a new lighter as the Colibri I’ve been using has a very unreliable electronic ignition which has been frustrating me of late.

I was hoping they would have an “Old Boy” lighter. I was disappointed there, but they did have a nice Xikar lighter which I wound up choosing.

While looking around the place I found a 100g tin of W.O. Larsen 1864 pipe tobacco, which I promptly picked up, and there was this one Bjarne pipe that kept calling to me. It’s a beautiful pipe, a huge thing, and I really liked it. I know that the maker, Bjarne, passed away last year and so his pipes are rapidly becoming collectors items.

I looked at, handled, and returned that pipe several times. It was a tad more than I really wanted to spend. But in the end, I bought it.

I smoked it tonight over a cold beer, charged with the Larsen 1864 tobacco. What a great combination! I enjoyed that smoke so much, and the pipe isn’t even broken in yet!

I’ll be eating hotdogs and such for a week, but I don’t regret buying that pipe. It now takes it’s place as the pride of my collection.