On Saturday, at some ungodly hour that distinctly precedes dawn, Susan, Ted, Bill and I leave for the airport to head out to Las Vegas for this year's IPCPR show. This'll be my eleventh year of RTDA/IPCPR goodness. We'll spend Sunday before the show and Monday morning of the show working on pipe stuff, but then we'll break into groups to work on pipe tobacco, cigars and accessories.

IPCPR is very much a cigar focused event. In our little pipe-filled bubble here at Smokingpipes.com, it's easy to forget that the cigar industry is many dozens of times larger than the pipe industry. IPCPR is a pretty clear reminder of that. It also means that I know far less about the product than I'm accustomed to knowing. Frankly, aside from having a handful of cigars that I like, I really think my cigar knowledge is pretty lacking. Fortunately, the guys in the store and Bill the store manager know a lot more about cigars than I do so we have expertise at the show, but it still means that I feel a bit like a fish out of water there.

And speaking of fish out of water, whose bright idea was it to put a major tourist and conventioneer destination in the desert? And then, who decided that the IPCPR show should be in late July? I know I'm in the minority here, but give me the humid heat I know over the dry heat that feels like being in a pizza oven any day. Better yet, I think the IPCPR should hold the show in, say, Anchorage if they really insist on doing it in July. I'm from the South; hot and wet is what we do. As a fellow southerner once observed to me, 'you can't really trust air you can't feel'.

Disagreeable climate aside, I am really excited about the show. We'll get to see friends we rarely see. One night, we're having dinner with Brian Levine, our previous fearless General Manager before he took off to head up Brigham's US operations. I told him it was only ok that he was leaving because it meant that I'd be his customer again, which meant that he had to buy dinner when we got together. He's making good on the promise.

Of course, as always, everything here will run as normal, since just four of us are gone. Hopefully we'll also have some blog posts from the show and some videos to edit and get up on the site when we get back.

Today's update is of particular note too. There's a little Japanese invasion, with four great pipes from Tokutomi and a half dozen pieces from Tsuge. You'll also find pipes from Benni Jorgensen, Claudio Cavicchi, Poul Winslow, Randy Wiley and others. Check 'em out. Oh, and yeah, we released G. L. Pease Lagonda yesterday. You really should give that a try too.

 Sykes Wilford: Founder/President