Well I am finally back at the hotel after my last day at the show. I woke up and went over to the show. It was a very busy day with several appointments. I started off with Altaditis which was a waste of time and then stopped at a couple of smaller boutique manufactures that were a bit interesting for me. I made it a point to hit Rocky's booth again to get something to eat before smoking. Here are a few of the highlights and notes.

My Father Le Bijou 1922 will be out in November and the Leaf will be among the first shops out to get it. I booked a tenative date for a Don Pepin My Father event but am not sure yet if we are getting Pepin himself or the national sales manager with a roller.

I made my stop at the Tatuaje booth and took a look at the new packaging for the Drac and Tubos. They were pretty cool. I just hope the cigars are as good as the packaging.

I made my visit with Dion and his boys at Illusione. They are all a great and interesting group of guys. Nosotros, the cigar that Dion and Jonathan Drew did together, is shipping in October and the Leaf will again be among the first shops to get it.

Savinelli reblended the R&R cigar to smooth out the flavors and make it a bit more powerful as if it wasn't already strong enough.

I made my stop at the Drew Estate booth. I got to take a look at the new Joya de Nicaragua Antano Dark Corojo and the Liga Privada T52. I imagine you can expect both to be at the Leaf. I met Jonathan Drew later that evening and he is a very nice and interesting guy.

I met with Allen Rubin today at Alec Bradley. He told me the Mundial story. It seems that the cigar was smoking fine until it hit the 75 day period of aging time and something seemed off to him. He is now reblending it so the launched Prensado instead. There also is a new size of Tempus out with a 58 ring guage.

Carlos Torano has a new 1958 Exodus 50 Years cigar that looks great but I have yet to try it.

Over the course of the day I ran into several other local B&M guys so we got to compare notes a bit. Then I ran into my friend Mike at Leaf & Ale and we made plans to meet up at the General Cigar Party later in the evening.

I was tired but after the show I took a walk down to the New Orleans Cigar Factory. They had set up all show attendees that came in with a complimentary cigar and beverage. They make a really nice cigar so I picked up a couple and then went back to the hotel to prepare for the evening.

The evening's first stop was the the General Cigar Party. I met up with Mike and his manager. They are both great guys and I enjoyed the evening with them. We stayed at the party long enough to get dinner, enjoy a cigar, a beverage and take in this hypnotist act. We got a cab and headed back to Don Leoncio's  for the Cigar Press party.

It was an amazing event. Dion, Pete and Jonathan Drew hosted the party with the help of Abe at Pinar Del Rio. Each took a turn DJing the party from their Ipods. There was free Presidente beer for awhile and Dion had me set up smoking Illusione all night. It seemed like anyone who was anyone in the cigar world showed up at that party. Carlos and Carlito Fuente, the hosts of course, Nestor Miranda, Ernesto Padilla, Christian Eiroa and many more that seem to escape my memory at the moment as it is pretty late. It was a great time and I made many a contact to hold on to. Here are my pictures from today. I can't believe the taxi to take me to the airport will be here in about an hour and 45 minutes. Looks like I can kiss sleep tonight goodbye but I will be home in Chicago soon.