Louisiana Day 2 Night

The town right next to the campground is Mandeville and it was having a Mardi Gras parade put on by the Krewe of Orpheus tonight. So we went down to the area where it is going to start and cased it out. It was organized in a shopping mall where we could park that night and a restaurant (Chili's) where we can eat and wait for it to start. Not a glamorous as the New Orleans floats but still pretty good.

So it's all planned out and at 5 PM we head down and park and go over to Chili's. It is packed but we find four seats at the bar and have a great meal (appetizer was fried onion strings and jalapenos - I've got to try them at home, they were good). Every thing worked out just like we planned - when we left Chili's, the parking lot was packed and we never would have gotten in if we came later but we just had to walk a half a block to where it started. On our way to find a place to watch the parade, it started early - we had an unblocked view and every float threw us beads as they headed out.

Here is the queen of the parade and you can see the Chili's sign where we ate in back of her - that's how little we had to walk.

Most of the floats were two storied jobs with people and loud music. This one threw a perfect ringer of some heavy beads around Carol's neck.

We got a lot of beads - I don't know whether it was the location (they were just starting and had plenty or was it the girls who were constantly flashing the floats and yelling "throw us something mister".

Look at the loot we took home.

Plus we had pockets full of cups, small animals and other junk.