Saturday was a rainy day. In the evening we went to see Wolfman Washington play the blues. My friend Todd and his buddy Steve arrived around 9 and we went to another casino and another buffet (easy to eat your way around Louisiana and Mississippi.) Todd's cousin Herschel and his son Shel arrived early the next day with $3,600 in beads towed in a trailer. Todd, Steve and Herschel planned to be on a float for the Orpheus Krewe on Monday night and wanted to be sure to have plenty of quality beads to toss.
Sunday morning Austin and I drove into New Orleans. As we walked the streets and stood at the ubiquitous parade, Austin started to lose his spirits. He wished he hadn't come and wanted to be back home. He can be quite introverted at this point in his life, and often, when he makes a choice, jumps into it but then second guesses himself. He began to withdraw. We did, however, spend some decent time observing the parade of the day, the Bacchus Krewe. Great floats.
On Monday, the three float riders departed at about 7 a.m. Austin, Shel and I departed for New Orleans in a car thoughtfully provided by Todd's delightful mother, Carmen, and after dropping Shel off at Carmen's, Austin and I headed into New Orleans again.
It was a long day. We had our tuxedos with us and planned to join the others at an invitation only black tie event at the Convention Center between 6:30 and 9, but Austin was getting more and more morose. The hell with that, I decided, and as we wandered the city I started having fun looking at all the characters and absorbing the babel of sounds and the mesmerizing whirl of humanity.
We made it up to Bourbon Street, and also to the Riverwalk. At Riverwalk, Austin stated that he wanted to sit and be alone for a while, and told me he'd be fine if I continued to move about and enjoy myself. I did.
When we reconnected, it was about 4:30 and we still had hours to kill, so I suggested we go to a bookstore and read or pick out some books. We found an ideal bookstore near Bourbon Street and spent about 45 minutes browsing but didn't buy anything; it did, however, settle Austin a little, and he suggested we visit Bourbon Street again.
The highlight of that visit was reached when we saw a balcony full of women making young men in the street do pushups for beads. These guys were cracking off 20-50 pushups for their beads. I walked up below the balcony and waved at the ladies, then slowly got to my knees and down on the ground. I staged three shaky pushups and made a great show of getting up slowly, and was rewarded with the best illuminated beads yet. Take that, you young bucks!
On the way back to the Convention Center, we stopped to pick up a bottle of vodka for Austin (byob), and he took a couple of belts as we walked. He loosened up quickly, which is one of his dearest wishes, and for the rest of the evening he had a wonderful time and was as outgoing as I had ever seen him.
We changed into our tuxedos in the parking lot, and entered the Convention Center. This huge space was divided by lanes where the entire parade would enter, travel through and turn, and back again to exit, passing directly in front of all the tables where the party goers in their tuxedos and gowns waited. This is the best way to see a Mardi Gras parade; nothing like seeing folks in evening wear shouting and begging for plastic beads. It's really quite undignified, and yet, somehow...
At midnight Bret Michaels performed on stage, and after him, Cindy Lauper. Quite a night.
I've got more photos, from a real camera, and I'll post them here when I figure out how.
Next morning Austin and I headed back on a two day trip to Tampa.
If you've never spent a couple days alone with Austin, I recommend it. Kid's a jewel.
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