Mardi Gras Part Deux, Mobile Alabama

I headed out from New Orleans with a stiff hangover and a strong desire to see all of my friends again.  It was great getting eight of us together for a week, and I hope we're able to do it again in the future.  Heading ever Eastward, I got too tired to drive, and pulled into Mobile Alabama.  As I rolled into the downtown, I was confronted with another Mardi Gras...  Apparently this one is the oldest in the South.

The good news was the entire city was lit up and packed with people pushing for space along the parade routes.  Ladders were set up at varying heights and balconies were jammed with people looking to get a view at the floats and hopefully some beads.

The bad news was one of Mobile's finest accidentally waved me onto the parade route an hour or so before it all started.  I drove around a few of the main streets and around the square picking up a police escort within 5 minutes.  The Vermont plates and dust covered Jeep definitely helped the "bewildered tourist" game I threw at them, but it did little to stop the happy crowds from flinging beads and doubloons at my car.  The dull pan/slide of a string of beads hitting then dragging off the roof or the hood of the car started as a few isolated noises punctuating the loud WHOOP of the police sirens and jazz bands, but by the time I made it halfway around the main square, it was like a jazz infused Texas hailstorm.

I decided to ham it up, rolled the one window down, turned the Mardi Gras music up t0 11, and threw some beads of my own.  The officer later told me this was entirely unacceptable, but let me off with some harsh words in an extravagant neighborhood on the North side of town.  I got myself into the first motel I could find, wandered around to see a bit of the parades, then slept like a king for the first time in at least a week.  Mobile was good to me.

(view from my car)