Super Sunday

This was truly Super Sunday.  The storm system that blew through New Orleans Saturday knocked Isis off their parade route before the finish line.  Endymion was rescheduled and relocated from their traditional Saturday evening route through Mid City to the Uptown route starting at Napoleon and Magazine behind Bacchus.  Bad news for all the businesses along the traditional parade route who missed their busiest revenue day of the year, and bad news for the Uptown parade goers because it swelled the crowd to unmanageable proportions.  More on that later.

Tom and I walked down Magazine a little ways to catch Okeanos and Mid City.  I just don’t get Mid City.  Half their floats are current or past royalty of some description.  Seriously?  Are they that uncreative?  They even had a float entitled “Barbie’s Birthday,” but hell if we could figure out what it had to do with the price of beans in China.  The one redeeming feature of this parade, the steam calliope float, didn’t even make an appearance this year!  Thank god for Thoth!  They rock!  That krewe seems to have a lot of fun, and they throw very generously!  One of Tom’s friends was on the second float, and he pelted Tom with beads as they went by - signature beads, too!  Sadly, I discovered the memory card in my camera was full just as I started to film the bombardment, so I didn’t capture it on video or in still photos.

We had every intention of catching Bacchus and Endymion, but, after making the trek over to Napoleon on foot, thought better of it.  My god!  It was a sea of humanity.  The neutral ground area, include the street crossings had every square inch covered by coolers, chairs, tarps, tents, ladder chairs, and people.  Even emergency vehicles could not cross Napoleon!  It was insane and looked like we would imagine the Libya-Tunisian border to look like.  I shudder to think about the port-o-let situation!!!  We finally managed to pick our way across Napoleon (by stepping on people’s stuff!) and headed up to St. Charles on one of the other streets.  Unfortunately, the street side of the sidewalks were lined with those ladder chairs, so no one on the sidewalks could see the parade or catch beads!!!  Unbelievable!  The human race never ceases to amaze me!

Tom and I both decided we didn’t have the patience to put up with that sea of humanity and headed back to his house, but not before stopping at the Creole Creamery for some delicious ice cream cones.  Check out their menu - some very unusual flavors!  I had Steen’s Molasses Oatmeal Cookie, and Tom had Choc-work Orange.  We’ll write that adventure off as a long, Sunday afternoon stroll and enjoyable afternoon snack!  Maybe we’ll go back this afternoon on the way to catch Orpheus and Proteus!  Think I’ll pass on the gorgonzola-walnut flavor.