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Published: March 15th 2013
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Saturday, February 9th , 2013--Sam Houston Jones State Park and Lake Charles, LA
Overcast and 61 degrees at 12:15.
This 1,087 acre park has been kept as much as possible in its natural state with mixed pine and hardwood forest. Our camp spot was quite nice and backed into a small lagoon coved by duck weed that has Spanish moss draped trees standing in it. We were here to take in the Mardi Gras festivities in and around Lake Charles.
Mardi Gras officially starts on 12th night of Christmas, which was January 6th this year. It culminates with Fat Tuesday (Mardi Gras, in French), which is the day before Ash Wednesday and the beginning of 40 days of Lent. It is a time of balls, parades, and parties with elaborate costumes all organized by various Krewes.
This morning we took the time to check our e-mail and to do some laundry. It was free at this park and this was the first laundry we had washed since we left home. Several ponds and lagoons held a variety to “marsh/shore” birds, such as the Great Egret walking carefully along the edge as it looked for breakfast.
Our
starting mileage was 37446 as we drove into the City of Lake Charles to find a parking place and set up our chairs in time to see the Krewe of Omega Parade. We found a business parking lot right at the corner of Broad and Ryan Streets that is included in the route for all the Mardi Gras parades, and parked Rosie with her nose to the street. If it was raining hard, we figured we could sit in Rosie and still see the parade go by.
Set up our chairs on the curb and people-watched for about an hour. There were vendors going up and down the streets, tv crews, and families settling in. Finally, we saw the sheriff cars blocking off the street, so we knew the parade was not far behind. We watched the Omega parade for about a 1/2 hour.
The Krewe of Omega Parade was the only one that was dedicated to just one Krewe, and in this case, was all-black. It was also the only parade that included a band and dancing or marching units. Rather than large floats, most of the parade units were convertibles with princesses and queens or pickup
truck-trailer combos, as you can see from the pictures. Of all the formal parades, this one was more personal with the participants being closer to the ground than the ones that were to come later.
Later that afternoon, we moved Rosie a couple blocks into the Civic Center parking lot near the carnival rides to watch the Krewe of Barkus Parade; obviously, someone's sense of humor was showing for naming this parade consisting of owners with their dogs in a variety of costumes (the dogs, not the owners in costumes). The dogs/owners vied for the title of "Mystical Dog." Some owners really got into the spirit with their entries and others were just so-so.
My favorite, and one of the trophy winners, was a tiny chihuahua dressed as a crawdad with his owners pulling a wagon that held a huge gumbo pot in it. When we saw it, the owner was holding the dog, but he may have been "in-the-pot" earlier on or for the judging. What really surprised us was there were no growls or other bad behavior on the part of the dogs---only sour grapes, I overheard, from some of the contestants about the judging.
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