Burgers and Bingo at the Country Club

I feel the need to start this post by assuring you that yes, this is a real thing. Once a month the San Luis Obispo Country Club hosts a fabulous evening of burgers and bingo. And it just so happens that the California Drazsnzaks live within walking distance of the San Luis Obispo Country Club.

After leaving Prescott on April 19th, we headed to Mojave National Preserve, not far from Kelso Dunes. It was pretty there, and quiet, although a little windy.

We didn’t camp at the dunes because there really wasn’t any shade and none of the shrubs were tall enough to act as a wind break.

The rocks behind us actually made for a nice wind barrier. We had a quiet evening and then decided to move on to Keyesville Recreation Site near Lake Isabella, CA.

Keyesville has a lot of OHV trails and is a popular area on the weekends. Luckily we arrived on a Thursday and had our pick of sites. I found these huge pinecones all over the ground. After putting one up on a rock to take a picture, I realized I needed something for scale.

That’s a not-so-old but fairly beat-up stainless steel pint glass from Planet Bluegrass. That pinecone is pretty damn big.

We stayed at Keyesville until Saturday and then packed up and made the drive to San Luis Obispo. We passed through so many things along the way, it was kinda crazy. After passing through the town of Wofford Heights we went west on Highway 155. The road climbed steeply for about 15 miles, winding through tall trees, before opening up to some grand views to the west.

Those rolling hills of trees became rolling hills of green grass as we descended, which then became rolling hills of brown grass dotted with cows. As we continued to descend the landscape became flatter and the cows were replaced by oil derricks. Then the road was totally flat, with grapevines on the south side and citrus trees on the right. After a few miles of that, it was almond trees all the way.

And that was our tour of California’s central valley.

It was so wonderful to arrive in San Luis Obispo and see Jacques and Allison, and their daughters India (12) and Phoebe (9). India is already taller than I am.

April 23rd was the night. We walked over to the Country Club around 5:30. It’s a Country Club, so of course it’s pretty posh, but for some reason I was surprised that there is a dress code for men that involves collared shirts. Maybe part of the surprise is that there is no dress code for women? Well, Michael has a collared shirt so it wasn’t a big deal.

The evening started off with the requisite burgers, served up buffet style. Generally speaking I don’t do burgers much anymore – the bun is forbidden in paleo eating, and while I can get them wrapped in lettuce, it’s not really the same thing.

Anyway. I needn’t have worried, because the buffet had so many toppings that I lost track. There were the standards, of course, like mayo and ketchup and mustard, and lettuce and tomato and onion. But there was also BBQ sauce. And bacon. And guacamole. And pineapple. There was also salad, onion rings, french fries, potato wedges, and chicken fingers.

This was a Country Club sized buffet.

I was still finishing my guacamole-bacon-BBQ sauce-pineapple burger with no bun when bingo began.

I’m not sure if this is just because it’s the Country Club sponsoring the bingo (I have not played bingo in a long, long time), but they give out the “dabbers” that you use to mark your cards.

I guess they splurged on the good stuff. I felt pretty special using “the winner’s ink.”

Some of the dabbers looked a little (ab)used, though.

I was a little surprised to find that gone (apparently) are the days of straight 5-in-a-row bingo. Now there are patterns you have to make, like Diamond Outline, Kite, Layer Cake, and Block of Nine. (You can see what I’m talking about at NationwideBingo.com.)

Now, I know most of this was due to the company, but I had so much fun at bingo. My abs were sore the next day from laughing so hard. India and Phoebe are both very into bingo, and at the age when it’s fun to be dramatic about things. They were hilarious.

And then India won!

Of course, as the evening went on, our “Pile of Disappointment” continued to grow, but we still had a blast.

The last round of the evening was called Blackout Bingo. You have to fill up your entire card to win. And play continued until all the prizes were given away. Things were getting pretty tense around the table, with people calling out how close they were getting. Michael was being uncharacteristically quiet.

I was getting thisclose to winning:

When the announcer called G… 57 and Michael yelled BINGO!

It’s the quiet ones you have to look out for, I tell you.