ATTENTION: CB Pipe Tobacco Review Bombing Run Version 2.0

[LandonColby]

I guess I'll toss in a little number. I love the idea of sharing stories, and more so that there are some being shared!

Number 3 - Brotherly Love

As with all things, the effects of time are inevitable. It's toll on my family is still in it's adolescence and I see us all drifting farther from each other, in both distance and heart.
But as any good guys or gals we try and set aside time every so often or when we can afford it, to get together and pretend as if nothing has changed over the years.

It was October, and for all the Colby boys that meant one thing...Elk season. The one time of year when the family back home in Minnesota, and the free birds that moved to California both travel to Colorado to set up camp, smoke good leaf, drink too many beers, and freeze their nuts off.
I grabbed a couple of tins, my beat around briars, and a couple handfuls of cigars, enough to satisfy both mine and my brother's appetite for a week or so. After making the 13 hour drive to Eagle and setting up camp in a complete white out blizzard, my eight other cousin's and uncles and I were puffing away on various cigars and passing around a bottle of Wiser's Canadian Whiskey with a salt shaker to do honkers in honor of the passing of my father's brother. Man, was it good to all be back together again.
The sun rose the following morning to reveal a crisp clear day with the high sitting right around 10 or 15 degrees...perfect day to track an elk. I lit my pipe and grabbed my rifle. Tipped my hat to my brother who was trying to light his cigar in the light breeze and headed off towards the treeline. Right away I found a nice set of tracks that I followed for nearly a mile, they took me straight up a ridge but when they dropped off to the left down into the gorge I decided to plant my ass in the snow and wait. It was a perfect spot, the trees gave way to a clearing that over looked the entire valley down below me and the sun shining off of last night's snow lit the whole place up like a blanket of diamonds and there was nothing except me and complete, dead silence. I lit a fresh pipe and settled into the snow up to my chest and with a large pine at my back, I waited. An hour and a half went by and still no movement. Before I knew it I was nodding off and then it all went black.
I woke up later to my brother giving me a shake and asking if I was alright, "yes, yes I'm fine" I replied. When my eyes adjusted I could see the sun just peeping through the trees on the far side of the valley, I was absolutely chilled and bitter cold. My brother produced a couple hand warmers and a silver flask and told me how he came looking for me out of worry when the sun started to drop, I left a clear trail up into the trees so I was easy to find. We sat there for at least another hour sharing the whiskey and laughing when I finally asked what had been plaguing my mind recently. "Do you think we are drifting apart?" He gave a slow, single nod while staring off into the ground showing that he understood. Then he looked at me and said "No. Only off to sleep". He gave a grin and slapped me on the shoulder and we headed back to camp.

I lost that pipe in the snow, as it must've fell out of my mouth when I dozed off. But it didn't bug me in the least because of the moment I shared that day with my brother. Since that day we have never been closer. I guess it's safe to say that sometimes pipe dreams do come true.