Tennessee
Going off mountain to the UPS store I headed for Kingsport. I had two reasons for this. One, there isn’t a UPS store on the mountain and two, I found a cigar store there I wanted to visit. I wanted to gift a good cigar to a member of my HAM group. Another story for another time.
Kingsport’s downtown is super cute and friendly. There is an industrial side, a strip-mall side and this great downtown with charm. Needless to say, the UPS store is not on this side of town.
Finishing up my chores and heading off to the cigar shop I got there around 3:20 pm. Unfortunately, the cigar shop doesn’t open till 4:00 pm. It is a sort of social club with a cigar bar where men go to sip whisky (or swill something), enjoy a cigar and natter on about daily things. I am sure they get a woman in there once in a while, unsure, but likely. After all, I went in there.
I used to enjoy one cigar a year with my ex at New Year’s. After the ball dropped, we would light up a cigar and think on the last year. New Year’s Day we would finish the cigar cleaning out all the holiday lights and decorations while speculating on the new year ahead.
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Hmmmm, should I wait or just come back another day. Being an hour and half drive each way, I decided to explore the town and see if I could burn up 40 minutes. As luck would have it, there was a coffee shop just up the road — The Crumbum…….
The Crumbum turned out to be a coffee house with local artist’s works on display. Actually, the place was huge and it had clean bathrooms, always a sign of a good place. đ
There were two large rooms of which three areas had sofa seating areas for comfortable group lounging. There were regular tables spread about with different walls dedicated to different local artists.
After purchasing a strawberry-hibiscus iced tea, a lemon-cilantro sugar cookie and a molasses cookie, I wandered back out onto the streets of Kingsport.
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There is a nice little seating area between streets. A metal butterfly looms over the space indicating how the city supports the arts.
Wandering down E. Market Street back to Matt’s Cigar shop I checked out the local shops. There is a restaurant called Posh, a couple of cannabis shops/bars and other friendly looking places to stop. It was quiet as it was Tuesday early in the day. I am sure the downtown is more a night spot having theaters, bars and restaurants.
Arriving back at Matt’s Cigar House, I waited with a couple of other eager shoppers. Shopper in my case, smokers in their case. đŦ
A friendly man asked what I was looking for and lead me into the humidor. This was a boon as it was 97 degrees and I was feeling a bit peckish after standing out in the heat. We chatted cigar chat and I found they were a bit low on stock. Also, they did not have the one I was looking for. âšī¸ The kindly man did direct me to a choice that might be a good alternative. I snatched it up and headed out to complete my purchase. As we exited the humidor, the gentleman informed me he was just a customer. This totally cracked me up. Everyone there was super friendly and seemed in good spirits even before having any.
The manager who might possibly be Matt, unsure, rang me up and gave me a cutter. He was a young man with the most perfect pompadour I have ever seen. It helped that he was attractive, but it was perfect. Not a hair out of place! I should of snapped a picture, but I was ready to get back on the long drive home where Circe most likely was doing the dance waiting on me.
I will go back and explore more, with a better camera, and revisit Kingsport in a later post. August is moving out and fall is rolling on in….. Hope everyone is well and enjoying the beautiful weather, wherever you are.
Redirection Road 
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