I just got back from a visit down the Jersey Shore, yes the Jersey Shore. Specifically Seaside Park, right next to Seaside Heights where the TV show Jersey Shore is filmed. Lots of clones there, girls with big hair and guys with wife beaters and tilted baseball caps. Nice to look at from a distance, but one doesn’t want to get close enough to hear them speak.

I went down with my niece Corinne and we visited her sister Meghan and her husband Rob. It was a late start and we got down there later than expected but it all worked out in the end. The water was 72° and the beach was crowded. Not at all like Sandy Hook where some space could be had away from other people. Still it was nice to be able to swim in the water and not look up and see Manhattan in the distance.

Then a walk on the boardwalk where the gelled hair set started to come out once it started getting dark out. Nice slabs of beef roaming around but like I said, one doesn’t want to get too close. The four of us devoured a very large pizza on the boardwalk, then checked out some rides, but didn’t get on any.

A storm was approaching and since Corinne and I were driving back, along with Corinne’s puppy Brady- we didn’t want to get caught in the rain. Luckily the storm was passing to the south of us and we didn’t get any rain. Still it gets quite dark on the Garden State Parkway and I didn’t want to keep Corinne out too late.

Yesterday was quite out of the ordinary. I traveled to Poughkeepsie and then onto Millbrook. I was representing the cigar shack at a rifle range. They were having a shootout, different teams skeet shooting or clay pigeons. Prizes went to the best score in each group.

I was out of the apartment at 8:30AM and headed to the Path train. I was hot and sweaty when I got to the Path and got on an air conditioned train, standing all the way from Hoboken to 33rd Street. From there I walked over to Grand Central Station.

Another crowded train but I at least was able to sit from Manhattan to Poughkeepsie. I stared out the window, looking at Harlem, the Bronx all the way up the Hudson Line. When I got to Poughkeepsie I found a taxi, a van actually. I told him where I wanted to go and he said he knew where it was. Halfway there he pulled over and asked me to call the rifle range and ask them where they were.

Once I got to the rifle range, I was fed and set up with 270 cigars to hand out. As soon I was set up, about 30 guys lined up all wanting a cigar. I would ask if they wanted a mild, medium or full bodied cigar and gave each to whomever requested one. Then I was set up in the woods under a few trees situated at a crossroads where various rifle men would stop by and get some more cigars.

I networked, handing out cards for the cigar shack and enjoying a couple of cigars myself. It was great to be out of town, in the woods and getting paid for it. Yes I was working, but at least I wasn’t in the shack. A good crowd of men, the agreeable type all enjoying the cigars and the camaraderie that goes along with smoking cigars. The brotherhood of the leaf.

I was able to secure a ride back to the train station after that, in time to catch the 6:40 train which was actually the uncatchable 6:35 train. I was able to have a pint in a nearby pub and killed some time before catching the 7:40 train. I was home around 10:45 and quite happy to be there.

Bill came home a few minutes after me and I was so happy to see him. I love him so.