Mardi Gras / Fat Tuesday

24 hours without the heating coming on, must be summer.

We hung around the campsite for the morning then headed off to Orange Beach, about 15 miles away for their Mardi Gras parade. After some initial navigation error (due to someones overuse of the word assume) we found the parade route.

We managed to find a space in one of the shopping mall parking lots and joined the masses lining the parade route. All generations were represented, parents and kids, groups of teenagers and the more mature members of society!

The 2PM parade got under way about 2:30, by which time the younger kids were getting a little impatient. At the head of the parade was the only marching band, the local high school, all the rest of the participants were floats. The one thing that no one told us to do was to wear protective clothing. The “in thing” to do at Mardi Gras is “present” on lookers with bead necklaces. The presentation is in the form of people on the floats throwing one or more necklaces into the crowd, some you see…… some you don’t. I have no idea how many necklaces are presented, but Lyn got 20, and most people had way more than that.

Apart from necklaces, moon pies also get propelled from the floats. You can google the origins of moon pies, suffice it to say they are a choclate covered marshmallow centred sponge.

The parade lasted about an hour, and one of the floats was entered by our campsite. On the way home we drove beside an inland waterway, they were having their own parade with a flotilla of boats dispensing necklaces to the onlookers.

Back at the campsite, the sites entry in the parade was doing a lap of honour dispensing its remaining goodies.

At the Parade

Back at the Campsite