![\"billboard](\"http:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/02\/billboard-over-the-trailer.jpg\")
<\/a><\/p>\nI had a nice, billboard-shaded site.<\/p>\n
It’s urban camping at its finest.<\/p>\n
The expansion joints on the Causeway set up quite a vibration in the trailer. I had to spend a few minutes setting thing aright, but then I was ready to head out and explore.<\/p>\n
The first thing I discovered was a caravan\u00a0of floats being moved into position for the evening’s parades.<\/p>\n I love coming across those unexpected treats!<\/p>\n I was heading toward the French Quarter. The folks in the office had given me a map of a parade I did have on my Mardi Gras Parade Tracker App.<\/p>\n I was having a little trouble figuring out the map. I thought I was where it was going to be arriving, but this woman looked like the parade had already passed by.<\/p>\n So, I asked her where the parade was.<\/p>\n She told me that they would be back this way soon. I complimented her on her glasses, and she told me that they had given them to her. She told me that I might be able to get some, too.<\/p>\n Ooh! Free stuff! I love it!<\/p>\n Soon, I heard the marching band, and then it was there in front of me!<\/p>\n https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/kalamazookim\/videos\/10153396305791989\/<\/a><\/p>\n This was the Krewe of Cork, and the marching groups had themes based on wine. It was a walking parade. There weren’t any motorized floats, just groups of people walking along having a great time.<\/p>\n And, rather than throwing stuff, they walk right up and hand it to you. It was so friendly!<\/p>\n People sometimes ask me if I get lonely, traveling by myself. I make friends all the time. Sometimes we’re friends for ten minutes, like the woman with the wine glasses or the man I met with a small instrument case in his hand<\/p>\n I smiled and said, “I’ll bet you don’t play the tuba, do you?” I was thinking that maybe it was a flute or a clarinet. It turns out that he plays harmonica, and the case held all his harmonicas. He told me that he had bought a thirty day Amtrak pass. He started in Chicago, and was ending in New Orleans.<\/p>\n Now, this young man didn’t have any beads at all, having just walked up to the parade route. So, I tapped one of the marchers on the shoulder and told her of his sad plight. She obliged by draping a few strands around his neck.<\/p>\n And then the parade had passed. Everyone had a great time.<\/p>\n It was time for me to wend my way out of the French Quarter to the Uptown area for the evening’s parades. These parades were listed on my tracker and I just went where my phone told me.<\/p>\n I got to the viewing area I had picked and then looked around for a bite to eat.<\/p>\n Okay, who drinks coffee at a Mardi Gras parade? I guess I do!<\/p>\n There was still a while to wait for the parade to start. These vendors were happy to fill in the time by selling stuff.<\/p>\n These little girls were so cute to watch. Here they are checking the parade’s progress on the app on their father’s phone.<\/p>\n And then the parade reached us! This was the Krewe of Oshun.<\/p>\n And the beads started flying!<\/p>\n It was kind of hard to catch photos, and I only picked up one string of beads in this location.<\/p>\n This parade finally got to the end, and I switched spots for the second parade, which was the Krewe of Cleopatra.<\/p>\n This parade was lead by the Shriners.<\/p>\n By the way, does anyone else remember when Shriners used to ride tiny cars in parades?<\/p>\n These guys were riding really big bikes! They waved and revved their engines and then lead the floats and marching bands along the parade route.<\/p>\n Here comes the marching bands.<\/p>\n This was the Krewe of Cleopatra.<\/p>\n I happened to stand in a spot where the floats slowed down. Sometimes they stopped. The beads were just a-raining down!<\/p>\n The beads are starting to add up!<\/p>\n The floats were elaborate and they just kept coming.<\/p>\n Now, I am not quite sure how Santa Clause relates to the Cleopatra theme, but there he was. \u00a0And the beads kept raining down. At one point, I put up both hands to catch beads, and the krewe members threw them on my arms! I felt like a human ring toss game!<\/p>\n I was getting kind of tired, and the beads were getting heavy. I asked my new friend on the left of me to take a photo of me with my new friend on the right – and got photo-bombed by some of New Orleans’ finest.<\/p>\n And a good time was had by all!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Friday morning, I hitched up and headed across the Causeway toward the French Quarter RV Resort. They were waiting for me when I got there, opened the gate to greet me and I was directed where to park. I had a nice, billboard-shaded site. It’s urban camping at its finest. The expansion joints on the … Continue reading Which Way to the Parade?<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[415,414,412,410,411,409,408,413],"class_list":["post-3744","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","tag-beads","tag-floats","tag-krewe-of-cleopatra","tag-krewe-of-cork","tag-krewe-of-oshun","tag-mardi-gras","tag-new-orleans","tag-shriners"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3744","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=3744"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3744\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3783,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3744\/revisions\/3783"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=3744"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=3744"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.towingsilver.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=3744"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n