A Country Parade

Life is full of rhythms.  A continuous cycle of repeated events.  Like the sun rising in the east and setting in the west, like taxes on April 15th, or like the mail box primarily containing junk mail. You can almost set your watch to certain events.  On March 1st, a spectacular Saturday dawned to the loud, reverberating sounds of accordion and fiddle.  Yep, it's Mardi Gras time.

A guy down the road has a Mardi Gras float and was getting started early, pulling his float with a tractor trailer containing a band of boisterous revelers.  I hadn't even had my morning cup of coffee yet and this crew were already imbibing in something a little stronger.  They were heading into town where they'd assemble and spend the day parading through the countryside.

Long about noon, I heard the music again.  I sat out on the front porch in the rocking chair to watch the festivities.  It's not St. Charles Avenue or Canal Street in New Orleans, but our house is on the parade route, and we don't even have to drive anywhere to go to the parade.  It comes to us, each and every year.  

I didn't take photos of every float, but captured a few.  The floats aren't as ornate as the ones in New Orleans.  They are more simple, with country Cajun flair.  Here's "Dat Krewe."  They were playing some Merle Haggard.

Here's "Krewe Da Short Bus" with flags flying, Trump, Mardi Gras, Saints and Old Glory, covering all the bases.  They had a Port-a-Potty on the back.

The revelers waved and threw beads in the yard.  I went and picked up the green, yellow, and purple beads after they passed by.

Most of the floats, like this one, had BBQ pits on the back, fragrant smoke billowing out behind them.  I'm sure they had some homemade sausage on there.  I wished they would've thrown me a link of that.

A load of people were on the Krewe de Foo float, with the ubiquitous port-a-potty tied on back.

Along came Krewe de Bayou with their float resembling an Acadian shack.

Old school buses are popular.  They fit a lot of people and you don't need a truck to pull it.  

These merry people cut holes in the side of an 18-wheeler trailer.  They must have had 50 people in there.

Music blaring, people dancing.  I got tired of waving at all of them, ha ha.

Here's "Maison des Cooyon Kajans."  Loosely translated: The crazy Cajun house.

Both Jennings town cops and Jeff Davis Parish cops led the way, blocked LA 26 to allow the parade to pass.  There was a LOOONNNGGG line of motorists on the highway backed up while the parade passed.  Then the police followed the parade route out into the country.

Tricia came out and said, "Did you count how many floats?"  Sadly, I didn't.  It was a bunch of them, though.  Long after the parade passed, you could hear the music echoing across the countryside.  I was thankful they didn't come ask me for a chicken.  They are in short supply.  It was a nice day for a parade.  That evening, we headed down the road to Mermentau to C'est Bon Restaurant where we had fried shrimp, fried catfish, boiled shrimp, and Shrimp Étouffée to close out the day.  Yum!!