Omar The Bourbonian

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Omar deserves "The Most Dedicated Bourbonian" award for everything he went through to make it to Bardstown from Miami. It's a great story that demonstrates Omars' passion for bourbon, but I'm not going to steal his thunder - I'd like him to tells us in his own words of his ordeal.

HUZZAH for OMAR!

Linn Spencer

Have Shotglass. Will Travel.

[bourbonmed]

Linn and all,

To use your words: thanks for the flowers. The fact is, everyone on this forum is passionate about bourbon. You and Vicky drove down from Virginia, Chuck from Chicago, the Giammarcos from New York (after they turned around in W. Virginia to check on their loved ones in Manhattan), Bill from Kansas City, John Roberts and the young couple from Maryland -- just to name a few.

And there were some German and Japanese people who couldn't fly into the US, so they drove across the border from Vancouver, beyond Seattle to Oregon and somehow got a flight to Kentucky. And don't forget the British folks from Whisky Magazine.

That's a lot of ground and air miles in pursuit of our passion!

In these days of shock, when tears sting our disbelieving eyes, I am glad we all made it to the festival. We can't allow a group of unspeakable bastards terrorize us. I'm proud I was on the first flight out of Miami and found a tiny prop plane to take me when all connecting flights were cancelled.

As far as I'm concerned, this forum is an extended family now. The Lipmans offered their Cincinnati home when my return flight looked iffy. Vicky lent me some extra luggage so I could get my bottles on the plane back home. Greg and Jo Kitzmiller drove me around the Kentucky back roads and saved me time and headaches.

I went in search of bourbon and distillery tours. I got so much more.
I got real friends along the way. God bless you all.

Omar

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Omar, it's great to know you got home alright. Thank you so much for all you've done, and all you've inspired. You can't imagine our surprise the next day, as Chuck Cowdery was driving Bill, Linda and I in his car to the Four Roses event, when you called on my cell phone to say you were only moments away from there yourself. And seeing your smiling face as you walked up to us was a high point of the festival (one of many) for me. We're REALLY glad you made it.

That's Omar in the photo attached to this message.

Folks who have discovered this forum in just the past year may not realize this, but Omar (Bourbonmed) had never attended a Kentucky Bourbon Festival before. He had (to the best of my knowledge) never set foot in Bardstown or maybe even anywhere else in Kentucky. Omar joined the Straightbourbon.com forum in the Spring of 2000 and he didn't attend last year's Bourbon Festival. But around the middle of January this year, Ken Weber came up with the idea of having a special tasting for forum members. Omar and Mashbill (who had just joined here himself last October) immediately saw that as a golden opportunity and shortly thereafter, Omar just took the ball and headed for the endzone. Poor guy, with no prior Bourbonfest experience and no idea what would be scheduled and what days people could make it he just dived in and worked with Ken (yet another Festival-virgin I believe) to put the whole thing together via email and long-distance telephone. I remember how we all jumped all over his first scheduling suggestions. And it wasn't just the "Intimate Tasting at Buffalo Trace", either. During the seven months before the festival, Omar communicated so much with festival executive director Pam Gover that when we met her at the Four Roses event you'd think they were old friends who grew up together. That was instrumental in gaining access for Straightbourbon.com members to the press event, since we were without our nominal leader (Jim) to vouch for our press pass credentials. Again, Omar came through for the gang.

Linn had nominated (Mash)Bill Legge as <u>Most Generous Bourbonian</u>.
Bill's got my vote, but I'd like to split the honor between him and Ken Weber.
And I'd like to nominate Omar (Bourbonmed) Montejo as <u>Rookie of the Year</u>.

=John=
<A target="_blank" HREF=http://w3.one.net/~jeffelle/whiskey>http://w3.one.net/~jeffelle/whiskey</A>

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Omar you are too modest. You deserve the biggest bunch of flowers money can buy. Anyone else when faced with that much adversity would have just given up. You perservered and overcame those obstacles through sheer determination coupled with what is known as 'field expedieance' - which is to say you used whatever you had on hand to get the job done, and to get it done right. You're a winner my friend! We are all better Bourbonians for having met you and both Vickie & I am proud to call you our friend! Well Done. HUZZAH!

Linn Spencer

Have Shotglass. Will Travel.

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John,

Omar's no rookie! He maybe new to us, but he set up a first class experience for all of us at BT.

However the Rookie of the Year award is a very good idea! Therefore I hearby nominate Chris and Kristin ******** as The Rookies of the Year - 2001! HUZZAH!!



Linn Spencer

Have Shotglass. Will Travel.

[kgiammarco]

Hello to all our new bourbon friends!
I'm sorry not to have posted sooner, I really wanted to log on as soon as we got back. We are just getting settled back home, and trying to get back into some routine. We want to sincerely thank everyone for showing us a wonderful time in Kentucky last week. It was such a pleasure to meet you all in person and share the bourbon and fun! We are very glad we came. The Buffalo Trace visit was awesome, even though we're "rookies" we appreciate the fact that that it was a very rare treat! Omar, did you make it back home with all those bottles ok? We hope so!
See you online, until next year!

Chris & Kristin
P.S. See attached picture

[vasshopper]

Omar!
Congratulations to you! I finally got around to reading all the posts and was glad that everyone had a great time. THANKS to all fellow BOURBONIANS for promoting bourbon, seems like everyone had a wonderful time. Life is Good---den

[bourbonmed]

Thanks, Dennis!

Keep that stash of old Missouri bourbon in a safe place and bring it next year to the fest.

By the way folks -- we should NOT wait a whole year to get together again. I hear there's an annual BBQ fest in May that draws more than 80,000 to Owensboro, KY (about 2 hours west of Bardstown).

May and September reunions. Now, doesn't that sound good?

Cheers,
Omar