March 9th, 2017

First of all, a huge ‘thank you’ goes out from me to Cigar Weekly’s BigJohn, who pointed me in the right direction. John, I definitely had a great visit to Cuba![Glad you enjoyed your Smooth Draws's tour!!]

About eleven of us gathered at Miami International Airport on a Sunday morning. There, we met Nick Syris. Nick had our visas and boarding passes all ready. The company he’s with is responsible for Smooth Draws, a radio program that broadcasts out of Atlanta.

While I’m from Dunedin, Florida, some of the other people I met – Amy, Lane, Don, Susan, Carmen and Edwin – were all from Denton, Texas. Also onboard were Don and Sandy from Virginia.

In anticipating a recent trip to New York City, I had two concerns before I got there – one, that the Anti-Smoking Nazis would have taken the joy out of traveling away from home and two, that if, if, IF N.Y.C. had a private cigar club, it would be some membership place with steep initiation fees, which would inhibit out-of-towners.

Low and behold, I used my app from Cigar Aficionado, called ‘Where to Smoke’, plugged in Manhattan, and looked for places on the East side, Mid-town.

Our (I was traveling with my spouse) quest was rewarded, and then some! In addition to the great Carnegie Club (a place I've previously reviewed), we found Club Macanudo at 26 E 63rd Street, New York, N.Y. 10065, located at the corner of Madison Avenue and 63rd.

The reason we went to Cabo the first time was because of Cigar Weekly. CW used to hold contests that determined a 'Member of the Month'. And from those winners, an annual 'Member of the Year' was then chosen. The 'grand prize' was a week's stay at one of the then owner's timeshare there.

I never actually won MOTY. But the late and truly great Toje (Steve Faccenda) did. He won the week in Cabo from Cigar Weekly, but gave it to me, even though our friendship was only through CW and we had never met face to face. Never having met him in person before he passed truly remains one of my life's regrets.

So my wife and I went to Cabo. We loved it so much that we bought a place of our own there, and have been going pretty much every year since for the last fifteen years.

Editors Note:

This content/article is submitted by Jason Breeden, aka @gun_carry on twitter. Jason is a cigar smoking, gun toting follower of ours in the social media space, and has offered this article up as his first submission. Cigar life is not just about cigars, but also about the other things we enjoy with, before and after our cigars - as you've probably already noticed by all the spirits, beer and food articles!

The article's original title, "Covert Media Day", has been changed here to "And Guns Too" to fit the theme of Cigarweekly. (The original would have been confusing given the title of our magazine.) This article is edited for our format. To read the article in its original format, please see the link at the bottom.

Covert Media Day 5/28/15 Charles City VA 

One of our firearms industry media contacts recently received an invitation to a private range event to take a look at a new Remington 700 configuration from American Built Arms Company, called the Mod X. Other products would also be represented. And while my general point of view is that of a CCW pistol user, the event was close by and still worth a look. To provide a rifle shooter/hunter perspective, I thought bringing my father along would be a good idea.

As it turned out, the Covert Media Day was a hive of innovation that sparked interest in many unexpected areas. Also, the name was fitting as we were originally given coordinates for the shoot rather than an address.

This past Christmas, my buddy and I came up with an idea. Get together with a group of friends, and road trip to Estes Park, Colorado. Our reason? To stay at the historic Stanley Hotel.

The building, designed by Freelan Oscar Stanley, opened for business on July 4th, 1909. Many notable dignitaries, musicians, actors and writers have stayed at the Stanley throughout its illustrious history.