Whew. We are finally entering into the final run of parades for this Mardi Gras season (or “Deep Gras” as it is locally known) and, while we have had a blast, we are also ready to get back to our normal lives. It is a lot of fun but trying to attend as many parades as possible really wears you out after a while and all of the eating on the go makes following a good meal plan almost impossible. It’s all worth it, though, to get to experience the fun for such a short time.
On Saturday March 1st, we had been invited to attend a party for one of the parades in Daphne. Our friend Maria, who took us to the ball and the float review party last week, invited us to watch the Shadow Barons with her at a private location along the parade route owned by one of her business associates. They had brought in chicken from Popeye’s and had homemade red beans & rice and all kinds of snacks and drinks. We set up lawn chairs in their parking lot and got front row seats to the parade that evening. While the parade was a little smaller than some of the ones we had been attending in Mobile, the floats were really cool and we really enjoyed ourselves.
The Sunday before Fat Tuesday is celebrated as Joe Cain Day in Mobile, with its center being the Joe Cain Procession (never called a parade). This has been called “The People’s Parade” because it is performed by citizens without being run by a specific Mardi Gras krewe. Although Carnival was first celebrated in Mobile in 1703, it eventually fizzled out in the city. Following the Civil War, a man named Joe Cain brought it back. Joe Cain Day has been celebrated since 1967. While most of the parades in the area are known for their elaborate floats, the Joe Cain Procession is made up of people walking. Sometimes they pull wagons or push carts or ride bicycles or scooters but for the most part it is all marchers.
We saw Dolly Parton impersonators, and all sorts of costumes. One group was dressed up as characters from the movie “Rocky Horror Picture Show” and one of them presented me with a plastic cockroach which I will choose to interpret as a high honor.
While the real Joe Cain was only married to one woman in his life and there is no evidence that he had a mistress (let alone a whole gaggle of them), the prominent groups in this procession are the Merry Widows and the Mistresses. Membership in both groups is secretive and they appear wearing heavy veils that completely cover their faces- the widows in black and the mistresses in red. In the morning, they pay their respects at the cemetery where Joe Cain is buried and they dance on the grave and usually have a staged fight between the widows and the mistresses. We didn’t get up early enough to make it to the cemetery but we sure did enjoy the procession.
Following the marchers, the Joe Cain Society parades with floats. These aren’t quite the elaborate floats that some of the other orders create but they make up for it with pure enthusiasm.
While we had gone downtown to watch the Joe Cain stuff, we also got to see the MAMGA (Mobile Alabama Mardi Gras Association) parade which was on an alternate route but it did intersect with the main parade route where we were. I wasn’t expecting it but we suddenly just found ourselves in the middle of a parade which really happens to us far more often than you would think. It was a smaller parade but still put on a good show.
We opted to skip the parades and events on Monday or Lundi Gras as it is commonly known because I had been fighting off being sick and we just wanted to take it easy before hitting the parades for the final day- a marathon of parades for Fat Tuesday. We did take advantage of the beautiful day to explore another part of our campground – the battlefield.
This was the site of an actual Civil War battle in 1865- one of the last battles of the war. The Battle of Fort Blakeley took place from April 2 to April 9 and resulted in the fort being surrendered to the Union army on the same day that Grant accepted the surrender of all Confederate troops under Robert E. Lee at Appomattox. While visiting Historic Blakeley State Park, you can still see many of the earthen fortifications used during the battle and efforts have also been made to preserve and restore the area of the fort. John, Harley and I had a great time exploring the main battlefield and the area where the fort had been.
We got up early on Tuesday and met some friends from Michigan who were also spending the winter in the Foley/Mobile area. David and Gayle and one of their family members, Dawn, decided to come up and join us for the big day. We met near our campground and had them follow us to our usual spot at the corner of Broad and Canal. David and Gayle had attended a few parades in some of the smaller towns surrounding Mobile but it was their first time at a parade in the city and it was Dawn’s first Mardi Gras parade all together.
The first parade rolled at 10am and was the Order of Athena. They had some really pretty floats and threw some great stuff. Although it was super windy, we really enjoyed this group.
Next up was the Knights of Revelry. They were supposed to roll at 1230 but I think they kicked off a little early due to the weather forecast which was absolutely fine by us. John had a friend in this parade so we made sure to yell and get his attention when his float came by. Getting his attention also meant getting the attention of most of his fellow riders, though, so we ended up getting showered with beads and packs of ramen noodles from all of them which was very much appreciated.
Following the Knights of Revelry, we had a few floats from King Felix III.
The final parade was the Comic Cowboys. This group tends to be very political and a little more adult. While we don’t always understand a lot of their stuff because much of it has to do with local politics, they are still a fun group to watch.
And finally, Mardi Gras was over. But we still weren’t done being busy for the week.
Harley was scheduled for a routine dental cleaning on Thursday so I got up early and drove her down to the vet in Foley. This is the same vet that did her tumor removal last year and we really like them. When I dropped her off, we also discussed a large lump that had been developing on her head just under her ear and the doctor said he would take a look while she was under for the teeth cleaning. I killed time doing some shopping and errand running around town since it was a 45 minute drive back to the campground and they called me to update me. They ended up removing the mass from her head in addition to her dental procedure as they felt that it was likely cancerous but the vet feels confident that he got it all and we shouldn’t have any issues going forward. It has been a rough recovery as her mouth was sore from the dental (she didn’t have any extractions but did have to have some gum tissue removed as it had grown up over her teeth in a few places, a quirk of pit bulls that can be exacerbated by her allergy medication) AND she now had 5 stitches in her head from the mass removal. It also didn’t help that she is a very smart dog and learned that the more she whined and cried, the more attention she got. (Please believe that Harley has a very high pain tolerance so we don’t believe she is actually that uncomfortable. Last year when she was hospitalized for a snake bite on her foot the vet told us that they firmly believed her leg could be falling off and she would still be determined to pull on the leash and sniff every bit of the yard when she went out). We were feeding her some extra canned food during her recovery and giving her soft human food as treats since eating her dry food might have been painful for a few days. She is still trying to get us to believe that she can’t eat her dry food several days later but I am starting to think that she might be playing us for additional chicken nuggets.
On Friday night we got to do something that we have been looking forward to since last year- attend a fish fry at St. Catherine’s! St. Catherine of Siena Catholic Church has the absolutely best fish fry we have ever attended. We went last year on the advice of the people of Reddit and we fell in love- with the people and with the food. Everyone was so friendly and many of them still follow us on social media. We couldn’t visit Mobile during the Lenten season without attending a fish fry. For $12 you get a generous helping of the best fish I have ever had, grits, hush puppies, french fries and coleslaw. You can also add on soup but it sold out right as we got up to the front of the line. We also got some peach cobbler for dessert and it is also amazing. We started chatting with some people in line and they invited us to sit with them. Our friend Maria and her husband also came in after us so we moved to sit with them once they got through the line with their food. Two priests and several other members of the church also came over to talk with us. They always make us feel like one of the family and we are so happy that we will be able to visit one more time before we leave town next weekend.
So, with bellies full of fish and a dog with 5 stitches, we prepared for our final week in the Mobile area.
I am ending this post with a collage of all of the outfits I wore to Mardi Gras because I think I looked pretty darn cute.
