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| My Costume |
Woke up early Sunday morning at hotel and put on the
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| Loaded! |
tv news. Rainy weather was gone- today was gonna be sunny and cool- perfect parade weather. Around 8:45am my wife and I headed downstairs to the krewe pre-parade breakfast. You could feel the excitement in the air and everyone was in a good mood. After breakfast, riders headed to ballrooms set up as dressing rooms where costumes were laid out on tables by float location. I slipped on my costume and- following the lead of all the other guys around me- started to trim my mask to a custom fit ( masks are required for all riders during the parade; they are plastic and can get pretty hot so most riders cut eye and mouth openings bigger and make other modifications for a more comfortable fit). Now the room was really buzzing , a brass band was playing and energy level was up- it was getting close. Our table - which was made up of my fellow riders on
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| Me and the King! |
Float #3-the band float- met briefly as a small group with our float captain who gave us a quick pep talk, wished us a good ride and then presented us each with a commemorative throw to wear during the parade that featured a small ( working!) saxophone. The larger group was addressed by the krewe officers- going over the official do's (have fun, make sure to make eye contact before throwing to folks in the crowd, wear your safety belt and mask at all times on the float) and dont's ( no smoking on floats, no alcohol-wink, wink, and no cell phone calls- this looks like you are ignoring folks watching the parade). After a couple more brief speeches by krewe officials and a brief address by our King it was time for the new rider initiation.I can't tell you what was done bc it's a secret (believe me it was nothing weird)-but lets just say it was a real eye-opener. I was actually surprised to see how many other new folks there were- pretty impressive. After this brief ceremony, we got our bus assignments , got masked up
( that's a technical parade term ) and we headed out for the walk thru the hotel lobby to the buses outside that would take us to the starting line. On walk out we were accompanied by our brass band and krewe members gave out beads to the families and friends who were there to see us off as well as to folks who just happened to be in the lobby at the time.I managed to spot- and startle - my wife who was watching us march by.. Wearing this mask was gonna be fun! We loaded up on the buses and headed out for the 30 min ride to start of the parade. As we approached the parade staging area traffic started coming to a halt- everywhere you looked there were buses, horses, floats, marching bands and krewe members from other parades milling about. The buses stopped and we filed off- time to find your float, get into position - I was Float 3, Position 4, Neutral Ground (vs Sidewalk) side- and start readying your beads and throws. I was walking w my krewe buddy Arthur and we were able to find his two kids who were riding on the Jr Maids and Dukes float. He was able to get them to their float and help them climb aboard. Then it was off to find our float. We found Float #3 climbed aboard and then climbed some more across the bags of beads and throws (see photo above) that literally filled the float up to the top of the side walls. We had about 20 minutes to get our beads organized and start prepping stuff to throw. As I fumbled around with my bags and beads, trying to figure out what was what and how I was gonna set things up I realized- this was really happening- right now...
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| Me and my KMC Krewe buddy Arthur before the parade |
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