Bingo!

Well, we did it. We stayed up past midnight. Every month, Fort McDowell Casino has lunar bingo at midnight. Some might even call it an "event." A couple of months ago, some friends of ours went, had a good time, and suggested we all go in the future. In all the years we lived here before and since our return, we've never gone inside the casino, and it's only 2 miles away. We attended the Pow Wow last April. That's it. We're not big gamblers, and the all-you-can-eat steak or crab legs won't work for vegetarians. Would we make it until midnight? I have no problem staying up if we're already out and about and simply lose track of time. But to actually go out at 11 p.m. is tough! Of course, that's why we were determined to do it. We're always up for a challenge. Time to see what the late-night crowd is up to.

First up, we wandered around the casino's first evening outdoor "mega" yard sale, which ran from 8pm to midnight. I'm kind of surprised more people don't do this. It's hot during the day! It makes complete sense to move various activities into the evening hours. It's still hot, but it helps not having the sun bearing down on you. The late night/early morning temps have been in the mid-80s lately. Quite pleasant.

After a Diet Coke to give me a caffeine boost, we headed into the bingo hall to meet up with our friends and get our cards. You have two options - physical cards/markers or a machine that will do the work for you. The machine was $15, I think. According to most sources, including the directions given to us, it's a $5 buy-in for the manual cards, but Michael & I were told to pay $10 each. Um, okay. We had enough sheets to play 13 games, but on each sheet we could have up to 6 cards (so we'd have to play 6 cards at one time). It seemed simple enough, but it took us quite a while to figure out what the heck we were doing once it all got started. We even missed a game. Hrmph.

Before the first number was called, lots of free glow sticks, flashing rings, tiny flashlights you could wear on your finger, and some larger glittery sticks were handed out. I love glow sticks... You want to get up to the goodie table quick because a really long line forms. Really long.

Each game sheet is a different color, and each game that goes with that color has a different pattern you're aiming for. Our 3 companions had sprung for the machines so didn't have to do squat until the screen showed them that they had won and told them to yell Bingo! Which one lucky person in our group got to do. That was $300 dollars there. Wahoo!

Meanwhile, we were struggling to hear the caller over the DJ (shhhhh until the number's called, and how about turning up the volume on the caller's mic? Sheesh). A ball is shown on a monitor, but it's the next number up, not the one being called. It was really confusing at first. Eventually, we found another place the called number was blinking, but if you got behind, it was kind of frustrating. We've got the hang of it now though, so if we go again, we'll skip the clueless moments. We might also just get the machine and have it do all the legwork...

The whole thing is 2 hours long, with a 10-minute intermission where they give prizes like T.V.s out to raffle ticket winners (a ticket comes with your bingo package). We were with smokers so were in the smoking section, but there is another area behind glass for non-smokers. The casino has bingo every day, starting at 6:45 a.m., for you diehards, but it just wouldn't be the same without the glow sticks, $1 Rolling Rock/$2 Bud Light beer, and boogie music. The next lunar bingo is August 16th.

We were pretty hyper afterwards so didn't fall asleep until around 4 a.m. Of course, right on cue, I was up at 5:30 a.m. for the day. Michael sleeps on as I write this. Oh well, it was worth it.