On March 18th, 2012 I headed down to New Orleans
for Mardi Gras with my friend from college, Amber! #12 on my 30 under 30 list is party in New Orleans for
Mardi Gras..whoop whoop!! What a
fun/different/exciting place. This story
has been edited for my families ears J,
and I know it’s not Vegas, but some stories will stay in New Orleans. ;)
I drove down by myself (my Mom just about threw a fit about
that-mind you it wasn’t that I was going, but that I drove by myself. LOL) on
Saturday afternoon and got to the hotel about 9:30. My sister had told me to make sure I stop and
get gas no later than Lake Charles because random people walk up to you and ask
you for money. Once
she freaked me out I pretty much hurried along when getting gas/stopping to pee
so I wouldn’t get harassed. I had
already had a loooong day by getting up early to drive to Spring for my friend
Mandy’s sons 5th birthday party then I got on the road about 2:30
(my goal was to leave Spring no later than 2 pm…I talk to much so that didn’t
happen). I had rented a car because I
would be driving right at 1,00 miles that weekend (Route: Pearland to Spring,
Spring to New Orleans, New Orleans to Nacogdoches, Nacogdoches to Pearland=
1,000 miles) and I didn’t want to put that many miles on my car. I already
drive almost 100 miles a day to/from my new job (new apartment March 17th!)
so to give my car a break I rented one (a Hyundai Santa Fe was really nice, you
should get one!).
Anyway, Amber was coming from Nacogdoches and we would be in
I-10 at the same time in Baton Rouge. I
had originally wanted to stop and eat dinner together then follow each other
the rest of the way, but we were running late so I told her to meet me at the
hotel. I stopped at BBQ place and had dinner,
I really wanted Cajun food but I couldn’t find one right off the road in Baton
Rouge. The restaurant was great though, I had a
BBQ sandwich and a side salad.
Back on the road I got to the hotel around 9:30 (I still
beat Amber…she drives slow!) and we changed clothes and headed out. We parked
under the freeway and walked to Bourbon street.
Apparently we had just missed a parade because there were TONS of beads
on the street. Street beads=Don’t pick
up because they smell like pee! We made
it to Bourbon street and got a drink (Margarita? Yes please!).
On the way to Bourbon street we saw a girl almost get
abducted! We were stopped at a light and
all the sudden this van started jerking.
The driver and passenger were fighting (and the car wasn’t in park?!
Really dude?) and the girl was trying to escape out of the van . Someone from the back of the van got out and
tried to push her back in, but eventually she got out and was all bloody and
stumbling down the street. We didn’t
want to just leave her so we watched her until she went inside and got help
with a police officer. I don’t know if
she wanted to go with those guys at first (she looked wasted-no sure if it was
drugs or alcohol), but when she wanted out they almost didn’t let her go.
After that drama we kept going down the street and got some
beads (nope, not that way!). The
balconies were filled with people throwing beads. If you wanted big beads you could buy them in a shop, or you could flash
something. I didn’t want beads to begin
with, much less big beads so I stayed away (EDITED STORY :) ). I really got beads for my sister, my nephews
school has a carnival every year that gives out mardi gras beads so all of the
ones I got were for her (plus, she only needed smaller size beads so large ones
wouldn’t have done any good and I didn’t want them at my house).
We left around 3:30 to drive back to the hotel and we
finally fell asleep at around 4 am…super long day!
The next morning I knew I wanted to see a parade so we got
up early and headed out around 10 am (9 am is early when you got to bed at 4
am!). We took forever finding parking
spots, we drove seperatley because I was going to leave straight from there to
go to Nacogdoches and she was going to hang out with some of her other friends
that were there. We got to the parade
route about 20 minutes before the parade started. We knew that the cool people get on risers
and catch beads so we found one by Luke’s restaurant and walked up the
steps. No one stopped us and we hung out
there talking to people while there.
They said we should have had wrist bands on but we could stay as long as
the bouncer didn’t kick us out. We
caught tons of beads there! I told them
about my sister’s carnival and people handed me bags of beads. I got a to-go bag from Luke’s restaurant to
hold them all.
After the parade was over we were starving! We wanted Cajun food, but at that point any
food would work. Luckily we found a great cajun restaurant
towards where we parked. Amber we to
check on the cars and drop off my beads while I waited for the table (one of us
had to stay). When she came back she
said she had gotten a parking ticket (oops! Note to self: don’t park on the
streets of New Orleans!) but my car was fine.
We ordered the most AMAZING cheeseburger French fries. OMG, it makes me
want them just typing this. Then we both ordered other food. Nothing compared to those freakin’ French
fries.
After we ate we went back to see another parade. We couldn’t get back up on the balcony (we
actually didn’t try, but decided not to press out luck) and went to look for
another good place. We got lots of beads
and kept going down the street further to find a better spot. We ended up next to a set of bleachers for
military families that were super sweet.
I also told them about my sister’s carnival and at the end of the
carnival one family gave me all of their beads!!! At the end of the parade I had so many beads
my bag was breaking.
I decided it was just about time for me to get going because
I still had a 6 hour drive home. My
original plan had me leaving right after lunch.
What time did I end up leaving New Orleans? 6 pm!
Amber and I headed back to the car, but were held up by the parade when
we were trying to cross. The police were
going to let about 40 people from our side go across when the parade finished
so there wouldn’t be a mad rush and everyone get trampled. I told Amber to hold on to me so we could
both go and not lose each other. We were
one of the lucky 40 people but Amber got stuck and her shoe came off. I kept
pulling on her to make sure she came with me but she wanted her shoe. LOL. She
said she had contemplated leaving it, but remembered how disgusting the streets
were and went back to get it. We laughed
so hard. (It WAS funny, you had to have been there and been sleep
deprived). One little boy fell down and
another guy was being a jerk, but we made it across and it was time for me to
go. I said goodbye to Amber and left for Nacogdoches!
The ride to Nacogdoches was semi un-eventful. About 10 pm my phone started to die and I
didn’t have a car charger. I stopped at
a gas station to ask where a Wal-mart was and told them I needed a car charger,
a guy in the store said he had one that I could have. I was scared that if I went out there I would
get attacked or something, but he brought it in to me and said that he had
bought one of those kits with all of the attachments and he had that one left
over. Cool! (thanks random guy at the gas station, that
was really nice of you!). I did keep
watching my rearview mirror to make sure he wasn’t following me, lol. He wasn’t though. I was so tired when I got to the Texas line
that I stopped in a church parking lot and fell asleep (with the doors locked!)
for about 30 minutes and got back on the road. I made it to Nacogdoches about 1:30 am and
fell right to sleep.
That’s my Mardi Gras story.
Nothing to wild, as you all know I am not a big partier anyway so I hope
you didn’t expect some wild story. Even
if something had happened, it would have been edited. ;)
Do you have any wild Mardi Gras stories? I want to here them!
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