SAM HOUSTON JONES STATE PARK AND LAKE CHARLES, LA—February 9-12, 2013 (Part 3)

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Monday, February 11th

It poured all night long and in the morning we were concerned about how high the lagoon had crept up to Rosie back bumper. Decided to be on the safe side and went to the ranger station and got assigned a new space on a bit higher ground near the laundry. With the rain continuing to come down hard and no parades scheduled, we decided to just hang out and endeavored to keep dry in the campground. We did manage to watch a pileated woodpecker and several other birds in the trees in our camp spot before we moved and some water fowl, egrets, and herons in the Lake and Calcasieu River as we drove by in our move.

Tuesday, February 12th

Drove by the local Micky D's for pancakes in honor of today being Shrove Tuesday. Expecting a large crowd for the main Krewe of Krewes' parade later today, we drove downtown to set up our place early. Not as many people out as we expected.

We watched about 20-25 Coastguard men and their families set up tents across the street from us and have a great time with something like a tailgate party. Watched a large family set up a tent and cook a huge pot of gumbo. They had parked their pick-up next to Rosie and hauled all kinds of ingredients from the back. We had the time and enough beads to really decorate Rosie's hood along with the wreath we had already placed in the windshield.

The Motorcycles, Hot Rods, and Classics Parade started at 1:00 and again we were disappointed in the number of parade participants as it lasted no more than 20 minutes.

At 5:00 the main Krewe of Krewes' Parade began with the advertised hundreds of krewe floats, costumes, beads and more wind through the city in the culmination of the Fat Tuesday celebration. When it was all over, we had a 10 X 12 box of almost 200 beads in all colors and sizes, and several toys, and plastic cups. Since the pavement was so wet, most of the candy thrown was into the yucky rain water running down the street, so we left them. We did get tossed some foil covered moon pies, bags of peanuts, and large tootsie rolls that we enjoyed.

When you are new to Mardi Gras parades, you don’t think you will be caught up in the spirit of catching beads and trying to entice the “throwers” to favor you, but it doesn’t take long before you stop being shy and reach out your hands for the gold, purple, and green beads.

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