Goodbye New Orleans........ We Will Be Back.....

After two Exciting Weeks in New Orleans, it came time to hook up the old wheelhouse, and head on down the road.  We must say that New Orleans is a wonderful place to visit, even when it is Super Bowl and Mardi Gras Crazy.  We met so many awesome people, that gave us directions, asked if we needed help, and even opened their homes to us.  We can not say enough about their Southern Hospitality.  We have all heard, and read, that New Orleans may never recover from the Katrina Devastation, but we are here to say, New Orleans is already back.  We will return to New Orleans someday, and if the timing is right, we would even return during Mardi Gras.  Yes, it was overly crowded, but even with the crowds, it was a BLAST.

 

 

Just a few fun facts about Mardi Gras that we learned.

1.  Mardi Gras is French for Fat Tuesday

2.  Lundi Gras is French for Fat Monday... The day before Fat Tuesday, and another day to PARTY

3.  Fat Tuesday is a State Holiday in Louisiana, and everyone, in every neighborhood, has a PARTY

4.  LSU's colors of  Purple, Green and Gold were chosen because they are readily available.

(The official colors of Mardi Gras)

 

We attended more parades than we ever expected to attend in one week....... 11 of them in all.

 

 

And as we mentioned in our pervious post, we are overloaded with beads, so be prepared to be presented with some of them when we see y' all.

 

 

There is also a tradition about King Cakes, that dates way back.  Apparently a figurine of a baby is baked inside the cake, and if you get the piece of cake containing the baby, you get to bring the next King Cake to the next party.  Well, we had to purchase a King Cake to see what they are all about.  Basically, it is a Cinnamon roll, rolled into a giant donut, covered in icing and sprinkled with Purple, Green and Gold colored sugar.  Very Good, and we both gained 5 pounds sampling it.

 

 

Notice the Plastic Baby on the cake.

Hummmm......were we suppose to hide it in the cake ourselves..?

Guess we will just have to return and purchase another one.

 

We heard about a floating casino up on Lake Pontchartrain, so guess what.....?

 

Three floors of casinos, and the entire 3rd floor was Non-Smoking.

We had a good time, but we were not winners this time.

 

So anyway, our plans have changed.  We had mentioned that we were going to head up North, to the Memphis / Nashville area, but the weather up that way has turned COLD, so we are now on our way to the Florida Panhandle, to find some warmer weather.

 

We made it as far as Mobile Alabama, and stayed for 2 nights.  As Luck would have it, the disabled Carnival cruise ship, "Triumph", was being towed into the Mobile Harbor.  We drove out, as close as we could get, to the Harbor entrance to see if we could see this "GREAT" event.  (Well, the Media thought it was something spectacular)

 

The"Triumph" is the dim lights, just to the right of the bright light, in the middle of the photo.

Ya, we know, not much to see.

By the time it got to where we were, it was dark.



 

We are currently in Panama City, Florida, and will be about 100 miles from Orlando tomorrow evening, and then staying in Orlando area for a couple three of weeks.  We just realized yesterday, that this week was the beginning of the 2013 NASCAR season, and the first race of the year, The Daytona 500, is next weekend.  Ya, you guessed correctly, we went online and got tickets.  Should be FUN, since Steve has never been to a NASCAR race.  Can't Wait.!!











 

We both managed to acquire the dreaded "COLD BUG", which has slowed us down for the past few days, but this morning we are both feeling much better.....  "YAHOO"

Thank God it wasn't the flu.

 

Thanks for looking in on us..........

 

Steve and Roberta