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carnival time
Feb. 15th, 2004 11:09 pmJust got back from my first parade of this Mardi Gras season. So much fun! Though things did get off to a bad start - namely it was two hours late! Apparently right when it was supposed to roll, the first float broke down. Took them forever to fix it. And it was freakin' COLD out there. It's always colder downtown with the wind blowing off of the Mississippi river. Lisa was smart and had longjohns on under her jeans, and she wore two pairs of socks. I was not so prepared, though I did at least have my LSU baseball hoodie. We took temporary refuge inside the lobby of the Bank One building until the security folks kicked us all out.
There was quite a big crowd turnout but not so packed that you were squashed or had to struggle to catch beads. We were standing next to a friendly couple, Larry and Cory, who gave us free beer and cokes! Once the parade started rolling we quickly forgot about the chill. This was the inaugural parade of the Krewe of Jupiter which had a very nice theme of Baton Rouge history. The Huey Long float was good, and so was the one of the Old State Capital. The best though was the St. Joseph's Cathedral one which looked outstanding. Plus I got the special bead from them with the cathedral's replica on it. I playfully made the sign of the cross to the riders and that gave them a laugh so I got the good beads.
There were lots of good throws in this parade. Much more so than the Spanish Town parade which has gotten so huge recently that it's harder to catch stuff. I got lots of the big fat long beads, plus some doubloons, cups, and even got a tomahawk from one rider. Got some really long beads handed directly to me from Bryan Kinchen the local guy who was on this year's winning super bowl team. Lisa caught a cute toy stuffed alligator with a Mardi Gras hat on its head. And Stan caught a huge handful of the really unique beads - my favorite was the Mardi Gras smiley face one. We got these goodies after the parade had finished on our street and we headed back a block to catch it again on it's last street. Stan caught that big batch from the last float in the parade - they get a lot more generous as things wind down at the end.
What a fun evening. :)
There was quite a big crowd turnout but not so packed that you were squashed or had to struggle to catch beads. We were standing next to a friendly couple, Larry and Cory, who gave us free beer and cokes! Once the parade started rolling we quickly forgot about the chill. This was the inaugural parade of the Krewe of Jupiter which had a very nice theme of Baton Rouge history. The Huey Long float was good, and so was the one of the Old State Capital. The best though was the St. Joseph's Cathedral one which looked outstanding. Plus I got the special bead from them with the cathedral's replica on it. I playfully made the sign of the cross to the riders and that gave them a laugh so I got the good beads.
There were lots of good throws in this parade. Much more so than the Spanish Town parade which has gotten so huge recently that it's harder to catch stuff. I got lots of the big fat long beads, plus some doubloons, cups, and even got a tomahawk from one rider. Got some really long beads handed directly to me from Bryan Kinchen the local guy who was on this year's winning super bowl team. Lisa caught a cute toy stuffed alligator with a Mardi Gras hat on its head. And Stan caught a huge handful of the really unique beads - my favorite was the Mardi Gras smiley face one. We got these goodies after the parade had finished on our street and we headed back a block to catch it again on it's last street. Stan caught that big batch from the last float in the parade - they get a lot more generous as things wind down at the end.
What a fun evening. :)
