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Subtitle: While wandering around Asheville on Sunday, March 2, 2014,
we happened to wander into the middle of a Mardi Gras parade.
Other pages from the Ashville trip:
000-DSC_6386: We noticed a group of brightly dressed people with colorful umbrellas in the distance. We didn't think much of it and figured they were going to some sort of party.
001-DSC_6407: Later, a group of motorcyclists drive by.
002-DSC_6408: We spotted a truck with a bunch of people dressed in pink drive by a block away.
003-DSC_6409: Passing people on the street, some seemed to be
dressed...oddly, even by Asheville standards.
004-DSC_6410: It seemed like something was going on.
005-DSC_6412: We saw the truck with the pink people. In fact, it was called
"The Pink Lady" and was filled with drag queens.
006-DSC_6413: A block away, we saw someone dressed up in a costume, holding a street closed sign. "This means something" we thought.
007-DSC_6414: Looking down the allegedly closed or soon-to-be-closed street, we didn't see much, sort of.
008-DSC_6415: A vehicle drove by after the Pink Lady truck, with its
passengers pedaling on occasion. I'm not sure if they were driving the
vehicle. OK, I checked, it's a real thing, the Pubcycle, though I don't know if it's public or pub as in a bar.
009-DSC_6416: We then walked down the closed street and saw more people milling about.
010-DSC_6417: And things that looked like floats.
011-DSC_6418: There was some more art in the form of cat statues on a wall.
012-DSC_6419: And a bronze cat climbing a light pole.
013-DSC_6420: And an explanation of what the cat-art is (it's called the Catwalk).
014-DSC_6421: We approached the nascent parade.
015-DSC_6423: At this point, seeing the costumes and stuff, we starated to figure out that it was a Mardi Gras parade. Note that while I use "we", and there was, in fact, two of us, it's more likely that Amber had figured out the whole thing long before I did.
016-DSC_6424: A cool float with some sort of bizarre mutant squid-fish.
017-DSC_6425: Parade people.
018-DSC_6426: Another float involving um plants eating people. Not sure if this is a Little Shop of Horrors Audrie II plant or something different.
019-DSC_6427: More parade people.
020-DSC_6428: Still more!
021-DSC_6429: OK, I admit, I thought this kid looked kind of cute, especially the way she/he was sort of flopped down...
022-DSC_6430: ...and then assisted by his/her parent (I asssumed).
023-DSC_6431: I liked the nose mask. I'm guessing it's reminiscent of the gas masks worn by doctors in the time of the Black Death.
024-DSC_6432: A Where the Wild Things Are float.
025-DSC_6433: More people!
026-DSC_6434: An SCA float.
027-DSC_6435: I have no idea about this one.
028-DSC_6436: People in costumes.
029-DSC_6439: Hey...poeple with umbrellas. This might have been
the first group of people we saw approaching in the distance.
Note the Japanese masked guy.
030-DSC_6440: Or maybe it's some geisha theme (given the name on the banner).
there's a cool harlequin checker-boarded person in the background.
031-DSC_6442: People on stilts.
032-DSC_6443: Lots of people. Plus Skeletor pointing ominously.
033-DSC_6445: People, stilts, etc.
034-DSC_6447: We walked past the end of the parade and the street was
oddly empty. We stopped in Kilwin's and got some ice cream. Then sat
at the corner of the street on some benches and a couple walked by and
asked where we got the ice cream. We told them, and then a few minutes
later saw them sit down on nearby benches, enjoying their ice cream.
Hurray!
035-DSC_6448: As the crowds dispersed, there were still some people in costumes walking by, like a few Elvises (Elvi?).
036-DSC_6450: And then there was a girl with a baby doll...that fucking freaks me out! What the hell!?! She seems so normal and happy and it's so weird. OK, she also has a beer can necklace (and we ssaw a bunch of people with them) but...um...look, that left head just is freaky!