Feb 13-16, 2015

Immediately upon our arrival at Cajun Palms RV Resort just outside of Henderson, LA on Friday it became clearly evident that we were outnumbered with anyone that wasn’t from the State of Louisiana. About 95% of the people camping there that weekend were locals and they all came very prepared for a Mardi Gras party weekend. And the majority of the locals had their own Golf Cart with them which they planned to decorate for the Mardi Gras parade the RV Resort was having on Saturday. Many of the Golf carts were high end with chrome wheels, great stereo systems blasting away as they gravel ran around the park with their coolers of beer, custom colours etc. Everyone was sporting flags, banners etc from LSU (Louisiana State University). They are all huge supporters of the Universities football and baseball team. We saw Purple and Yellow everywhere!

Where we are is in the heart of Cajun country. Southern Louisiana is made up of Cajun and Creole sects of people. There are significant differences between the two. The Creole world is traced back to the Spanish word Criollo which means local or native. It is said that Creole people have urban origins whereas Cajuns have rural origins. Cajuns are known to be more religious, clannish and live private lives compared to the Creoles. Cajuns are of Acadian descent. Acadians were French people who settled in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia when they originally came to North America. The English threw the Acadians out of Canada in 1755 and they moved to Louisiana where they mixed with other cultures which led to the new ethnic group “Cajuns”. The state of Louisiana is broken up by Parishes as opposed to Counties like in other states. This is because most of the state is predominantly made up of Catholics.

The weather all weekend was hot and sunny so it was great for all the outdoor celebrations planned. Friday night there were many campfires going and big groups of people around them. Rob did his best to try to get invited to someone’s campfire but it didn’t happen.

Saturday was parade day to celebrate Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras means Fat Tuesday in English and the term refers to Carnival celebrations beginning on or after the Epiphany and ending on the day before Ash Wednesday. It reflects the practice of the last night of eating rich fatty food before the ritual of the Lenten season.

The first Mardi Gras parade we attended was the RV Resort’s Golf Cart parade at 2 pm (see pics). There was over 40 decorated golf carts in the parade and everyone riding on the carts threw beads, candy and toys in typical Mardi Gras fashion. All of us including Jazz gathered lots of beads (see pics) and had a great time.

Once that parade was over it was time to move on to another parade. Rob and I grabbed a cab and went into the city of Lafayette which was about 17 miles west of our RV park. We wandered around the downtown for a bit and then parked ourselves at a bar right on the parade route named Artmosphere where we had dinner and libations until the parade came by at 7:30 pm. Then it was time to go out to the street to collect yet more beads of course and be part of the festivities. I had made up a sign to hold up at all the floats as they went by (see pics) and my sign brought us more attention than we would have received just standing in the crowd. We caught so many beads at that parade that we had to put most of them in a bag as there were far too many to wear around our necks. The parade lasted for about 45 minutes and had many colourful and festive floats as well as several local marching bands.

The Parades at Mardi Gras are always put on by a Krewe which is a group of people who belong to a service group in the area. They use their own money to decorate the floats, buy the beads, candy etc to throw at the crowd. The parade we saw on Saturday night was put on by the Krewe of Bonaparte. (see pics) As in many other cities and towns in Southern Louisiana, Lafayette actually has several different parades each hosted by a different Krewe throughout the weeks leading up to Mardi Gras.

After the parade ended we walked around a little but more and then returned to the RV Park.

Sunday was yet another parade day, this time in Henderson Louisiana which was just a 2 mile bike ride from our park. It started at 12:30 pm so Rob and I biked into town just before noon. It seemed that the whole town and all their cousins showed up to line the main street to watch the parade. The town itself had a population of approximately 1500 people and looked very red neckish to say the least. The parade lasted half an hour at best and yes, we collected still more beads! After the parade I actually met the Mayor of the town who welcomed me and gave me some more beads and a “get out of jail card free” in case I needed it for later. Fortunately, I didn’t have to use it! Lol

Sunday night for dinner we walked over to Crawfish Town USA which was a huge restaurant just in front of our RV resort. There we dined on a Louisiana Crawfish Festival Platter which included Fried Crawfish Tails, Crawfish Boulettes, Crawfish Etoufee, Boiled Crawfish, Seafood Gumbo, Salad, French Fries and Bread pudding for dessert. (see pic) Everything was delicious. As we had never eaten Crawfish before we asked our waitress for a lesson as to how to eat the boiled crawfish. She showed us what to do and we gave it a try. We were obviously struggling with how to do it and were noticed by a local couple who greeted us warmly and gave us further instruction. We had a very nice evening and dinner and we were very stuffed when we left.

Monday morning we packed up and headed further south to the city of Abbeville where we are staying until Wednesday. We will then go the city of New Iberia which is all in the same general area of Acadiana and we will be there until Friday. Lots of exploring to do over the next few days so better get going.

Squawk at you later in the week!! Happy Mardi Gras!!