Run With The Fishes

Hey! It’s Fat Tuesday!

Our original plans for this weekend had been to go camping but the weather was not cooperative. Instead we headed to Shreveport again. This time it was to watch one of the many Mardi Gras parades that have been going on the past month. It’s something we’ve talked about going to for the past several years but always seem to miss it.

When I started to look up information (you know, like time and place), I read that the road would be barricaded the night before and parking was not allowed until 7am. This was for a parade that started at 4:30pm. Not quite sure if that was a normal thing, or if it meant you should get their early we decided not to risk missing a place to park. We got there around 9:30am. The street was packed. Almost all areas were already staked out like mini camp sites. One group of ladies I talked to said they were in line outside the barricades at 5:17am. Almost two hours before the barricades opened and 11 hours before the parade was even supposed to start. It sounds like it must have been a little like the Oklahoma Land Run, only with trucks and motor homes instead of horses and wagons. This was our first sign that it must be one heck of a parade.

Such was our luck that it rained from about 10:30 until 2pm. Since it was our first time, we had only ourselves, a cooler with lunch and snacks, and our car. The five of us spent some quality time together in our ever shrinking vehicle.

People had their motor homes, tents, and canopies decorated for Mardi Gras with beads, masks and other crazy things. On some trailers, people had brought their own port-a-potties.

When the sun came out, so did the people. It was like a enormous tailgating party. BBQ and fire pits were fired up. Kids started playing catch, grown ups started drinking and cooking.

Even without the parade it was fun to just sit around and watch all of the people.

The parade made it our way at about 5:45 and lasted until a little after 7pm. It was the longest parade I have ever seen. Beads, cups, and some stuffed animals were tossed our way.

At one point, Allison had so many necklaces around her neck that she was having trouble jumping and dancing to the music.

It was worth the day of hanging around. The only thing to make it more fun would have been our friends there to enjoy it with us.