Finally, I escaped. Dark and early at 12:46 a.m. on Monday February 20th, I left the last frontier for the first time since my arrival the previous July for a week long trip to LA and AL. In the days leading up to the trip, I discovered that the temperature topped 70F just 7 times in Anchorage during 2011. I experienced four of those instances including the annual high temp of 77F. At the time of my departure, high temps were running in the upper 20s and thus I was even excited about the humidity and stickiness of the south simply as symptoms of the heat.
The key to getting beads is to be what I am not or to be in range of those folks. Mardi Gras is a family affair and most of the Krewe's (people in the parade) toss beads, cups, gifts, etc at kids or at good looking women. So, if you don't happen to be in either of those categories, just stand near someone who is and catch anything that is overthrown. Raffi, Jason (fellow Penn Stater and a frequent visitor to Gettysburg) and I all managed to get beads thanks to Nicole! The lights really made the night parade a sight to see. The parade also featured several members of the Krewe carrying flaming lanterns harkening back to the days before electricity and the great political parades of the 1840s. If you visit New Orleans for Mardi Gras, I highly recommend taking in a night parade.
Naturally a visit to the Crescent City should also include some Jazz! After the night parade we headed out to a place called Snug Harbor to listen to some authentic music. The woman is Charmaine Neville, a well known artist and an expert in impromptu Jazz. Throughout the evening, she simply called fellow musicians out of the audience to the performance. It was highly organic, but also very high quality. Check out Snug Harbor if you go to NOLA.
Many of the costumes had a facetious, sarcastic or mocking element. Naturally, mocking speed cameras was amongst the tamest I saw that day. Plenty of folks dressed up and mocked political candidates and social movements; Occu-Poty was quite hilarious!
The first parade of Mardi Gras was the Krewe of Zulu, the first African-American parade. These floats are especially vibrant in color and the specialty favors are the decorated coconuts that the krewe hands out. Every parade tosses out beads, but only one hands out coconuts (throwing is verboten - blame the liability lawyers)! Of course, everyone who really wants to get the good loot crosses the police barricades to get close to the floats. Yes, I have a Zulu coconut!
This is one of the stranger sights I observed in NOLA. At first, I thought it was a coffin. Yes, it is very odd that someone would have a artistic coffin in the front yard, but hey, its New Orleans. Later, I saw a few more with plaques and then discovered that it is not a coffin but a trolley car and there are several near the parade route.
The second parade of the day was the Crewe of Rex, which Raffi informed me was the where the rich folks threw out all kinds of goodies (yes, that was paraphrased). Several floats in this parade threw out candy or other food in addition to beads and cups.
Earlier, I contended that Mardi Gras is a family affair and here is my proof. These step ladders and ladders with modified tool boxes, which are seen at day and night parades are for kids. Not only does it elevated them 6-8 feet into the air, but it also makes a better target for the krewe's and gives them a place to stash their loot.
Ash Wednesday began with a visit to Nicole's workplace as a 4-H extension agent and was soon followed by multiple trips to the Baton Rouge airport after Raffi left and then proceeded to sweet talk his way onto a later flight, two days later on Friday. After he returned, we did a bit of touring along the countryside. The picture on the left is captioned "What could have been!" This is the Catholic Church in St. James Parish where the happy couple considering getting hitched until one of them just had to get married in his beloved New Mexico. The brick work is beautiful and the sanctuary is breathtaking including a beautiful organ. Incidentally, the organist stopped practicing and came to say hello. Turns out that she briefly taught Nicole piano a long time ago and went to school with one of her parents! (Cue "Its a small world after all).
This is the levee just across River Road from the church with a barge on the mighty Mississippi. I was surprised at the physical character of the levee. It is essentially a flat plain with followed by an obtuse angled embankment leading away from the river. The embankment is covered in concrete on both sides with a gravel access road on top. I suppose I had expected more of a wall like I saw in Vicksburg.
On Thursday, we let Nicole got to work without any interruptions. Raffi and I took a nice walk along Paulina Beach with all the requisite conversation about philosophy, politics, football and everything else. It was the first edition of the Forum on the Beach! The river seemed docile though quite muddy. We noted several barges moving along the river.
In the afternoon we took a tour of Laura Plantation (http://www.lauraplantation.com/), a Creole plantation with the unique distinction of having been managed by four generations of women. The last, Laura, wanted nothing to do with the plantation and sold it quickly, but she did live a wonderful written record of the history of the plantation and her family, the basis of the interpretation. The interpretation was solid and conveyed the difference between a creole plantation and the anglo-american life style that surrounded much of this French/Spanish/French colony. Our guide defined creole as any person born in the new world of non-British heritage. This was an odd definition that later led to a riveting discussion with Nicole's dad about his experiential observations on the meaning of creole. Always get local history from the true experts!
At left, is Evergreen Plantation (http://www.evergreenplantation.org/), once owned by Nicole's family on her mother's side but lost around the Great Depression. The house has a beautiful symmetrical design more reminiscent of the typical "plantation" in America than Laura. Apparently, a movie producer decided to plant cotton across the street, a first amongst the sugar cane plantations of River Road. However, the presence of a film and construction crew made it easier to create our own personal tour!
This is the slave row at Evergreen Plantation, a very rare set of historical artifacts. Although a few slave rows have been re-created this is either the only or one a very few that is still intact. According to Raffi, it was occupied by sharecroppers and their descendants as late as the 1980s. When I did research and site visits at Gamble Plantation in Bradenton, FL, we could not definitively locate the slave residences. Although nearly 150 slaves worked in forced labor at that site, the physical remnants are gone. This slave row has 22 cabins intact, one of which had interpretative material and was open to visitors. It is phenomenally important to see and witness the physical space of the slaves because no plantation visit is complete without the realization that these economic systems operated by cruel forced labor of a large magnitude.
Although George Strait sang about swimming across the Ponchartrain for his girl, the water didn't look too inviting. This was my view on the train from New Orleans to Birmingham as I embarked on the second part of my vacation. The train ride was 8 hours but very comfortable. The seats are about 50% larger than a plain with twice as much leg room. If only, one could take a high speed train from Anchorage down to the lower 48!
My friend good friend Ilana from my days in the Swing Dancing club at University of Florida got married to her beloved Jason that Saturday. This is what a wedding should be: a bride so full of joy that she just has to dance and a groom so thrilled with his bride's joy! During my two days there I got to meet the extended Stover clan, who excel at southern hospitality. The only unfortunate part was that I only briefly got to meet Jason, he was a little busy.
However, I did get in some good dancing! I got to dance with bride, of course, and one of the bridesmaids, my friend Micah. Micah was the president of the swing dancing club when I first started dancing there. She also co-taught with me the first time I taught a lesson and as you can see, she has an excellent dip pose!
No trip to the south is complete without some sort of visit having something to do with the Civil War, so I made a stop at Natural Bridge, AL. This is the longest natural bridge (http://www.naturalbridgeala.com/park.html), east of the Rockies. While they do not allow anyone to cross the bridge, you can still walk underneath it, which I did accompanied by a red heeler who managed to escort me without nipping at my ankles.
For those who don't ingest everything American Civil War, Natural Bridge, AL is the location where the high estimable Winston County denounced the secession of Alabama from the United States and promptly seceded from the state of Alabama and declared neutrality in the war. They then named themselves the Free State of Winston!
The picture of the Indian has to do with the fact that the locals took inspiration in the historical actions of the Creek Confederacy for their opposition to the Confederate States of America. On the left, you can see my rental car including the missing license plate. The paper placard which said "Tag Applied For" flew off while I was on the interstate. Thus I made my visit to the Free State of Winston worried that if I got pulled over, the delay would cause me to miss my flight.
After my visit to the secession site, I headed over to the county seat at Double Springs to get a look at the divided loyalties soldier at the courthouse. Although this bronze soldier is dressed half Yankee and half Rebel with both flags behind him, the boys of Winston county did not favor each side equally. About 75% of them wore the blue while only 25% wore gray. Once again the Confederate cause has gained extra notoriety in history to the sad degradation of the loyal Union boys!A quick drive back to Birmingham and the airport ended my third day in Alabama. Then, in order to fly to Anchorage I first flew east to Charlotte, NC and then west to Phoenix, AZ. My flight was overbooked, so I then waited a day before flying into Seattle and then onto Anchorage. I hope you have enjoyed my reminisces of the reflexive state trip!
