Feb 22nd to 24th - Picayune MS

Feb 22nd - Sun - Picayune MS
We were finishing a few chores when Billy & Lauri arrived at 11:30. The park had messed up the sites and were parking them on the original site on the entrance road. Terry helped get that all straightened out. After Billy & Lauri set up and had lunch, we all went to the nearby Super WalMart for a few groceries. Shortly after we returned, Carie & Gary showed up.
We had an early dinner and then Carie & Gary came over to watch the Academy Awards which we normally don’t watch. Lauri was the one who definitely wanted to watch them and we have the satellite set up so knew we would get them. But Lauri wasn’t feeling up to par and they could pick up the show with their antenna so they ended up staying home.

Feb 23rd - Mon - Picayune
We all went to New Orleans today to check out the city and the Mardi Gras celebrations. We stopped at a visitor center and got some good advice for parking and a recommendation to stay for a couple of parades this evening rather than attending parades tomorrow. Today is actually “Lundi Gras” (Fat Monday) and tomorrow is Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday) so tomorrow will be much more crowded.
We found the parking lot with no problem and choked up a bit at the $20 cost for all day. Carie & Gary were riding with us so we got a break and split the cost. It was a short walk to the French Quarter and we headed for Bourbon Street. The French Quarter is very old and mostly not refurbished. Many buildings on the side streets appear to be uninhabited. Bourbon Street was very interesting with people on balconies throwing beads to people on the street. The street was closed to all but delivery trucks and you can walk around anywhere in New Orleans with booze in plastic cups.
We stopped at a little place eatery with courtyard seating. I tried jambalaya and Terry had gumbo. For the $7.99 price each we would not order it again! After lunch we continued walking and ended up at the river (Mississippi of course) where a lot of the buildings appear to be rebuilt. We enjoyed a beer at a microbrewery and then walked and shopped some more. One parade started at 5:15 and the second at 6:00 from a spot outside downtown so we decided to have dinner before the parade. We were on Canal Street just out of the French Quarter and ended up at a Chinese restaurant where only Billy had a meal that was really enjoyable.
We ended up waiting until 7:30 before the first parade finally started coming down Canal Street. Of course we were standing and all our feet were getting tired. Again, floats were very nice and “throws” (beads and stuff) were plentiful. There were not huge crowds and we felt very safe with a large police presence. There was about a 20 minute wait before the second parade which was Krewe Orpheus and one of the larger parades with celebrities. 3 of the very large, tall floats included Josh Groban, Joan Rivers and Jim Bellushi. The signature float of Krewe Orpheus is a multi car train - very impressive. Quite a few of the floats had small trailers behind with 4 rotating spotlights. I should get pictures posted soon.
We had positioned ourselves for a short walk to the vehicles and headed there after the second parade. On the way we saw parking advertised for $30 and $40 so felt better about our rate. Wanda directed us quickly to the freeway and an easy 40 minute drive back.

Feb 24th - Tues - Picayune
A relaxing day today to give our feet a break. Lazy morning, a breakfast sandwich and then we headed out to go somewhere. I wanted to explore Picayune so we drove in the direction that we thought the town would be and we were surprised at how large it is. We HAD to stop at a store called Hudson’s Treasure Hunt. It turned out to be a large, clearance store where you had to go down each aisle as things were not strictly segregated and organized (this is an understatement!). One whole end was devoted to fabric & crafts, the other end to clothes and in between a bit of everything else. Kind of a flea market in one store - we felt right at home. After wandering around for quite a while, we ended up with some powerful little magnets for our board and some automotive light bulbs! Then we had to stop into the “sister” store across the street (Dirt Cheap) which turned out to be basically more of the same.
Filled up with diesel at $2.09 a gallon, we could get used to that price. Terry wanted to take advantage of the sunny day to barbeque so we stopped at WalMart for some pork chops and also picked up a bulb to repair a brake light on the truck. We were just finishing our early dinner when Carie stopped in to invite us over for a drink. Billy stopped in for a few minutes to report on their return trip to New Orleans. He said there were lots of people and they decided early that they would leave before dark.