KREWE OF HOUMAS MARDI GRAS PRE EVENT PARTY

Guess who.....complete with a new hair color and Mardi Gras mask, Pam whoops it up before dinner at the Krewe of Houmas & Synergy Bank pre Mardi Gras event in Houma, Louisiana.

How we came to attend this gala is interesting in itself:  the weekend of February 25th brought an RV Show / Exhibition to the Houma, LA Civic Center.....and we went.   We wanted to visit Houma and have lunch at A.Bear's Restaurant there so we decided to take a look at the RV's as well.   After visiting the exhibition (and determining we still like our 11 year old Travel Supreme the best), we went off to find A.Bear's with the trusty help of the GPS in the Mini Cooper.   It closed at 2pm that day and we were late....so we drove to the town center of Houma to find an alternative.   This is where we came across a section of road that was blocked off and a lady sitting in a chair selling tickets to a chili cookoff.   We like chili and couldn't park the Mini fast enough!!   The contest was already over and a few of the 16 or so pots were depleted, but we made do with those that weren't....sampling all manner of chili....traditional and otherwise.   The winning chili that day was prepared by Jackie Clement (of Jackie's Jambalaya), and "manning" his booth were Roger and Carolyn Bourgeois.  In conversation Roger asked where we were from and it turns out that just last summer he and Carolyn vacationed in Lincoln, NH AND visited Littleton, where they took lunch at Bailiwick's and bought all manner of candy from Chutters!   (the world is getting smaller every day).   One thing led to another and Roger gave us a tour of the local cultural center which among other interesting things, contains a wide variety of duck decoys....many of them donated by Roger from his collection.  (A necessarily long story to get us to the party....!!)

Here are new friends, Roger and Carolyn Bourgeois, of Houma, Louisiana.  Roger rides one of the Krewe of Houma's floats every year (there are 17of them), tossing beads to the throngs of folks who gather along the roads for the several mile long parade....this year it will be on March the 4th.

Roger explained that folks who ride the floats purchase their own beads.....and spend upwards of two to five thousand dollars of their own money.....for the "pleasure of then tossing them away".   As explained in the earlier post, it is a long standing tradition in southern Louisiana.

Here is the Indian Float.

Here is the Dragon Float.

 

 

And if you wonder

about the sizes of

the floats, take a

look at Pam, dwarfed

by the Spanish Con-

quistador on the front

off this Float.  The

Krewe of Houma

floats are about 40

feet in length....the

longest float used in

the New Orleans

Mardi Gras Parades

is 352 feet!!   It blows

the mind just thinking

about driving one that

long!!





Here is the Big Fun Band playing a lively Mardi Gras tune and entertaining the crowd of 100+ in attendance.

Here the Big Fun Band leads the line of folks who grabbed their decorative little umbrellas and "danced" around the room.   That is Reuben in the Mardi Gras outfit.....Reuben was captain of the Spider Man Float for 24 years....the float that Roger rides.   And those are boxes of beads in the background.....a small part of the huge supply of beads used every year for the parade.



Here we are with Roger and Carolyn and Jackie...of Jackie's jambalaya...who cooked the dinner of jambalaya, white beans and fried catfish and salad.   For those of us who "like it hot" (and that includes Roger and me), we added some of Roger's own Fire Suppression Red Hot Sauce.
Jackie treks all over preparing his signature jambalaya for various catered events.
PS....it is GOOD STUFF!

 

                                 Here is the Joker, painted on the side of the Batman Float. 

 

We had a wonderful time....a very unusual experience for us "northerners" to experience a bit of Mardi Gras "up close and personal".    Thank you Roger and Carolyn and Jackie and everyone who all made us feel welcome and "one of the crowd".