New Orleans, Mardi Gras and more... Part 1 of 2

As was mentioned in the previous post last weekend Nic, Jason and myself drove to New Orleans to visit Matt and Erin and go to Mardi Gras. The trip didn't start off too well. I had a flat tire before I even got to Dayton. I ended up putting the spare tire on and finding a Sears(thanks I-phone)to put a new tire on. We lost about an hour but after that I picked up the boys in Cincinnati and we were on our way. We ended up spending the night at a hotel in Birmingham Alabama. We woke up early and got back on the road for the final four or five hour drive. Much to our surprise while driving through Alabama and Mississippi it was snowing. Nic was really close to putting my car into a guard rail or under a semi but he pulled off a sweet Ricky Bobby move and kept it under control.

Finally we arrived in New Orleans and one of our first sights was the second home the best quarterback in the nation. If you can't figure out who that is from the picture below then you need help



After we hung around Matt and Erin's apartment for a while we decided to pack a cooler and go watch the parades. Before the parade started Jason and I met up with huge ass police man that was smoking a stogie bigger than my... well lets just say it was big!


We soon found out these parades were not your typical Mercer county parades. First of all the four we watched were at night and we were in front a bar with a DJ cranking it up during the entire parade. Also I should probably mention before the first parade started most of the people had plenty to drink. Every parade was led by a person on a horse. No it is not the KKK in the picture below





Everybody was dancing and yelling as the parade went buy. All of the floats were very extravagant. Instead of candy they threw out beads, glow sticks, lighted Frisbees, maracas and much more. Having a 6'4" wing span I was doing pretty good snagging things but Jason and I though we could do better. Below is the result...


In between the parades people were dancing in the middle of the street. Even the big ass police man was breaking it down. So Jason and I thought what the hell and joined them. After a while instead of dancing in the street between parades we were dancing in the street between floats (thanks bud light)! We even had a black chick tell us we were good dancers. Yes you read that right a BLACK chick told two WHITE dudes that they were good dancers! She must had must have been blind or drinking a lot!

The hard part was finding a place to let all of the beer out of our systems. The bar behind us became too packed. Luckily on a side street Nic found a porta john on a back of a truck. He said he only had to undo one strap to use it!

One last picture before the night starts to fall apart...


Nic, Matt and Erin had to retire back to the apartment before the parades were over. Jason and I stuck it out. We ran out beer so Jason bought two captain and cokes. He got a great deal, $48 for both! After some more crazy dancing we made the blurry walk back to Matt's place and called it a night.

Oh I forgot to mention there is no such thing as an open container in New Orleans. You can drink where ever you want. Also on the walk to the parade a church was selling Bloody Mary's out of it's front doors and on the way home they were selling coffee and Kulula. Where else in the world does that happen? The south is definitely laid back!

Well that was Friday night. I'll post Part 2 later about Saturday night...