If it's Thursday Nite it must be MUSES

Thursday nite my wife and I went to our first major Mardi Gras parades. There are usually 2 or 3 -one right after another on same route- each nite starting this week thru Mardi Gras day..Thursday nite the week before Mardi Gras has become MUSES Thursday..this is an all women krewe (about 1000 riders,34 floats) who have in the past 10 years become one of the most popular nite-time parades. They are known for their unique throws and especially the coveted MUSES shoe (Click here and here for a slideshow of this years models). We met up with my krewe buddy, his wife and 2 kids at a spot on St. Charles Ave where a lot of family and local folks line the route (the closer you get to downtown and the French Qtr the rowdier and less family friendly the crowds become). The parades started passing us by about 8pm and continued thru about 11:30pm...it was non stop action, noise and fun. Floats, marching bands, other marching groups in costume paraded by throwing beads and other stuff to the crowd . All of the floats for nite time parades are lit, so they look great in the dark. MUSES floats in particular look great. We got lots of beads and other loot during the parades but as MUSES was coming to an end we were still unable to score that coveted shoe..and then it happened- I know this will be hard to believe- but as the last MUSES float was rolling by (and it happended to my turn to go out to the float to ask for throws) I spotted a woman on the top of the float holding what appeard to be a  shoe...I started to run alongside the float keeping an eye on her and she threw the object over the side..well you probably already guessed but I managed to-in stride- catch the object as I ran alongside and as it hit my hands I knew immediately...I had a MUSES shoe...unbelievable..here it is: