Friday, after a couple of hours in the pool – as the ambient temperature rose to 102° - but, not to worry, there’s no humidity! I have developed a theory that it is the humidity that keeps our skin from being burned off – we drove over to a very interesting, almost turn-of-the-century (the last century) looking place called Big Sticks (1017 North Dobson Road, #106, Mesa, AZ 85201 – 480.668.6099 – www.SmokeMoreCigars.com).

With this ‘old fashioned’ look to it, this shop had all the amenities including a pool table, lockers, a walk-in humidor replete with everything you could thing of, from A to Z - and, by the way, that’s how it was arranged on the shelves – from Avo to Zino! The lounge area was very comfortable and the place had its, obvious, fans as it was well stocked with regular customers when Les and I arrived. The walls were replete with classic old enamelled metal signs and above the lockers were some fabulous cigar quotations that I, alas, did not make note of!

We sat for a couple of hours – smoking, of course – and chatting with one of the clients who had settled into the same lounge area we had chosen (There are a few distinct areas in which to congregate) before we rose and departed.

A quick stop at Cigar King (7830 East Gelding Drive, Scottsdale, AZ – 480.214.0238 – www.cigarking.com), found us in a small, well stocked refuge with comfortable seating, amenities (plasmas wherever you looked) and accommodating people such as Mitch, the owner.

We chatted briefly, enjoyed the conviviality of other patrons and smoked a couple of Espinosa y Ortega’s 601 Oscuro (Green label) Corona, and beat a path to our next stop.

Little did we know that our next and last stop on Friday afternoon would take us to the piece de resistance of tobacconists in the greater Phoenix area, and perhaps in a much wider geographic area!