Mardi Gras

I recently read a blog post by Mrs. Small Soldiers about her Mardi Gras experience this year which took me back about 10 years (shut up) when four young women decided to take a road trip...

Cheryl called me up one January afternoon and asked if I wanted to go to New Orleans for Mardi Gras.  Well.. Duh!  (We won't get into how I thought that Mardi Gras was in March - I should be blond at times - and it wasn't until about 4 days before we were to leave that I realized that I was a month behind.  Talk about scrambling!)  On a Wednesday evening after work Cheryl met me at my apartment in Addison, IL.  By 7 pm Toni and Kristen had joined us and we were on our way, Bitches!!  Mardi Gras or BUST!

We had decided that we would just drive straight through from Addison, IL to New Orleans, LA.  We took turns sleeping and driving although if I remember correctly I didn't sleep much.  My part of sleeping was supposed to be when we drove through a small portion of Arkansas.  No offense to anyone living in Arkansas but that place creeped us out big time!  We stopped for gas and there were some creepy toothless overall wearing guys just staring at us the whole time.  Scenes from every horror movie about road trips entered my brain and lodged there until New Orleans.  We finally pulled into New Orleans at about 8 am on Thursday morning, and our hotel about 9.  We crashed for about 5 hours and woke up to find Cheryl gone.

Apparently she'd connected with an old boss of hers who had moved to NO and went to meet him for lunch.  From there she connected with Kye (now her husband) who she had met... I'm not 100% sure how she met Kye actually...  Anyway - she didn't tell any of us this so we were completely horrified to find her missing and frantically calling her cell phone.  I think we were minutes away from calling the police when she waltzed through the door with Kye in tow.

We headed to Bourbon Street to get our Mardi Gras on.  HOLY SHIT!  I have never, and I mean NEVER, had such a fantastic time in my life!  There were a few WTF moments like the girl on a balcony giving all the guys a show like none other - think XXX and MUCH worse than just flashing some boob, or the time we lost Kristen, but for the most part people were friendly, the atmosphere was one of fun and having a good time, and the drinks were flowing!  We spent much of our time at Pat O'Briens on Bourbon Street where they have a waterfall of fire and the Hurricanes will knock you on your ass.

We lost Kristen when she decided to go home with a cute boy who ended up being an RA for Tulane University.  She had to do the walk of shame the next morning through the dorm looking like ass.  She didn't know where she was and worse she couldn't remember what hotel we were at!  She told us later that she was sure she was going to die in the cab on the way back!

I also was sure that we were in trouble while on Bourbon Street when Kristen wanted a specific set of beads a guy had. Of course, he wanted her to earn them - which at the time neither of us had a problem with, but ask me to earn beads now and my response will be "I don't want them that badly"!  She briefly flashed him and wanted the beads.  He decided that these specific beads required a longer flash time.  I wasn't so sure that was a good idea but Kristen was balls to the walls drunk and saw no problem.  She flashed him.  For an extended length of time.  Think of this for a moment:  You're in a street that is PACKED with drunk (mostly) college aged guys and you're standing there with your shirt up around your neck.  The crowd started to gawk and shove forward towards us.  I couldn't move.  I could hardly get my arm up to my shoulder.  I finally grabbed Kristen by the wrist, and plowed through the guys who were starting to get a little grabby.  We got out of there with no problem but it was scary for a minute.  Something could have happened to her, to us, and I'm not sure anyone would have seen or stopped it.

Of course we also did one daytime excursion on Saturday before we left.  We waked through St. Peter's Square, Toni and Kristen got their fortunes read, and we had beignets and cafe a lait at Cafe Du Monde.  It was a FANTASTIC trip and I will remember it for a lifetime.

On the way back to Illinois we decided that we'd break it up into two days instead of driving straight through.  We stopped in Memphis for the night.  The next morning before we left we visited the home of The King.  Elvis!  We toured Graceland.  That was a very interesting home.  In one of the rooms there was green carpet - on the walls!

Every year for Mardi Gras I wish I could go back to New Orleans.  Or even visit Baton Rouge, LA or Mobile, AL.  Both of those cities are said to have Mardi Gras celebrations that rival those of New Orleans.  Although I'll tell you something - If I ever get a chance to go to Rio de Janeiro for Carnival?  I'd sell my kids to do so...