Puff Member and fellow BOTL 09FXSTB attended the 2012 Crush & Roll event at the fairgrounds in Paso Robles, CA last month and was kind enough to share his experience and some photos of the event with Puff.com.  Lets take a look at how things went in 09FXSTB's own words.

I attended the 2012 Crush and Roll event this year.  It was held at the fairgrounds in Paso Robles, CA, on Sept 14th and 15th. 

My father in law, and brother in law attended with me, and we all had a great time.

The Friday event was scheduled for the hours of 6 to 10 PM, and Saturday between 1 and 6 PM.

We arrived in Paso Robles at about 2 PM, and went to check into our Hotel.  It was hot, the thermometer in the car read 103 degrees outside.  I live in Monterey, and I was definitely not used to that kind of heat, but there was a breeze, and it wasn't completely unbearable.

We arrived at the fairgrounds, at about 5:30 PM.  As you walk in, they check your receipt, and give you a color coded wristband dependent on whether you were attending only Friday, or both Friday, and Saturday, as well as checked you into the Poker Tournament, if you were one of the players.  They then handed you a Crush and Roll wine glass.  Inside the wine glass was a dinner ticket, and 2 color coded tickets, which represented two cigar manufacturers which would give you smokes for the evening.

There were 4 different brands of cigars being passed out Friday night:

La Palina (By Cigar Man Andy no less)
Dignity
Lou Rodriguez
Camacho / Room 101.  If you received a Camacho ticket, you could choose between a Camacho Maduro, or a Room 101 Connecticut.

I received a cigar from Lou Rodriguez, and Dignity on Friday night, as well as a La Palina. (Thanks Andy)

I will admit to all of you now, that I am not a wine drinker.  Great wine is wasted on me, so I did not drink any wine, or visit any of the wine booths. 

Stone brewing, and Fig Mountain Brewery were both there Friday night, and I visited them often, as well as tried some absinthe from Manguin No1 Absinthe (not really my thing either, tasted like licorice.)  My favorite beer Stone had on tap was the Imperial Russian Stout, and Fig Mountain Brewery, had a very hoppy IPA called Hurricane, which I also enjoyed.





After walking around, and visiting the booths, I went and purchased some raffle tickets. They had a few drawings throughout the evening.  I won one of the drawings, which gave me a Torano Vault, an unknown Lou Rodriguez, and a silver single torch lighter, which actually works pretty well.





The auction then started.  They auctioned off different boxes of cigars, bottles of wine, and a trip for 6 days to the Dominican Republic.  I didn't bid on anything, but they seemed to be getting a fair amount for each item.  The auction proceeds benefitted Project Manana.  Project Manana is a non-profit humanitarian organization working in the Dominican Republic, and is dedicated to bettering the lives of impoverished children, their families and communities through nutrition, education, and guidance.

Following the auction the poker tournament started.  I won a few hands, but did not last very long. I wasn’t exactly sober at this point, and I didn’t really mind going back to relaxing, smoking and drinking.  The final table consisted of 8 players, each of whom won a prize.  I included a photo of the prize list but its small and hard to read.  The proceeds of the poker tournament also went to Project Manana.

While the poker tournament was still going on I met Mike Rosales, co owner of Roma Craft Tobac.  He is a very cool, and down to earth guy.  We talked about everything from cigars to football to cars and motorcycles.  Before we went back to the hotel for the night, he handed me and my brother in law each a pre-release Aquitaine Atlatl (A very nice looking Lancero.)  I then got to meet Matt Booth from Room 101.  We talked for a while, and I got a picture with him.





We  left the fairgrounds a little after 11:30 PM, and returned to our hotel.  All in all, Friday was a great time.