February 27, 2006

February 27, 2006 ( Lundi Gras )

Le Festival de Mardi Gras à Lafayette, Louisiana

YEAR 2 DAY 255

 

Joanne's sociological observation of Louisiana ; The reason why so many young, black men are shot around here by law enforcement are because the really fat, white sheriffs can't catch them when they run.

Dan's sociological observation of Louisiana ; They grow their young, black men around here in 2 versions. Football and basketball.

This morning we drove into Lafayette, and filled up with diesel at Wal-Mart. We went to a specialty store for something, but they were closed for Mardi Gras. We headed for the nearby town of Breaux Bridge, to shop at Poché's Market. Last year we stayed at Poché's Campground, and had shopped at their nearby meat market. We wanted to return this year for some of their specialties. We bought a few boxes of the Gumbo mix that Joanne likes, as well as a frozen shrimp stuffed chicken, and a tub of frozen crawfish étoufée. Poché specializes in stuffed poultry, and is one of only a few places, all in Louisiana, that make turducken for Thanksgiving. A turducken is a chicken stuffed inside a duck which is stuffed inside a turkey. They're very expensive. Well ... as are most of Poché's products. When I went to pay for our purchases, I opened my wallet, and ... my MasterCard was missing. I had lost my MasterCard ! ! !

We drove quickly back to Lafayette, to check our credit card records, to determine where was the last place I had used my MasterCard. It was Le Vieux Moulin in Church Point, 2 days ago. I phoned them. Yes, I had left my credit card there. Mrs. Norman told me that her husband had my credit card with him, and he was in Lafayette playing a Mardi Gras gig with his Swamp Pop band. He and I played telephone tag this afternoon and evening.

I was feeling ill, so I took a nap before we had an early supper. We left for Cajun Field, for a second night of Le Festival de Mardi Gras à Lafayette. Joanne wanted to see the main stage performance of Geno Delafose & French Rockin' Boogie, one of her favourite Zydeco bands. Traffic was much heavier tonight heading for Cajun Field than it was last Friday evening. We set up our folding chairs in front of the stage, and enjoyed an hour and a half performance of Zydeco music. It ended when the King's Parade approached Cajun Field. We moved over to the area where the parades pass through Cajun Field, to take up our chants of "throw me something, mister". My sore throat prevented me from hollering, and Joanne says she just feels too silly doing it, so neither of us actually did any screaming of "throw me something, mister" tonight. Nonetheless, I caught 14 "throws", and Joanne caught 12 "throws". Three of my "throws" were bundles of a dozen strands of beads, as was one of Joanne's throws, so altogether we caught 70 strands of Mardi Gras beads tonight. What the hell am I going to do with all these beads ? A lot of people must ask themselves that every year after Mardi Gras in Louisiana.

After the parade, I was finally able to connect with Mr. Norman in Church Point, and arrange to go pick up my credit card. Since he and his wife were going to be leaving early tomorrow morning for a trip out of town, we went tonight to get my credit card. We pulled out of Cajun Field about 8:45 P.M. and it took us about an hour to get to Church Point. By the time we got back to the trailer it was 10:45 P.M.. We were tired and hungry. We had a snack, I did today's accounting and journal entry, and we went to bed.

DSK