Ready or not it was time for me to pack up and move out of Georgia. I wanted to arrive in El Paso by the first of February, but to stop a few times along the way to better know the mysterious (to me) South. I thought I’d get a quick look at New Orleans, but to be honest, I wasn’t up for the challenge of navigating through the hustle-bustle. I got a total of 0.75 seconds viewing time of the Superdome as I dashed by on the freeway. After another couple of hours through the swamp forests I arrived in Baton Rouge, pulled off into the city, and found things were crazy there too. A parade route was roped off and the streets were lined with a lot of happy, enthused people. I know, this isn’t a travel journal, so I’ll cut to the chase. I discovered a (family-friendly) night-time Mardi Gras parade, featuring high school marching bands like I’ve never known before. Louisiana schools must take a lot of pride in their music programs.

That video is a good recap of the Mardi Gras krewe experience in Baton Rouge (jump ahead to about 13:15). It includes some bands, but not with the same impact I experienced myself. The horns were projecting with great diaphragm support and the drums were making a tight, furious ruckus. It was nothing like the marching band tradition where came from where it was only a Summer thing to represent at the various Community Days parades, weakly rendering “Na Na Na Hey Hey Goodbye” and “We Will Rock You” at football games. To me, in Baton Rouge, it sounded like the bands were the main event and they knocked my socks off. There may be a financial incentive for schools, since they can collect booking fees. If they hit the major leagues they can attain the prestige of St. Augustine in New Orleans. You know I regretted that I had to keep driving west past this land of superstar marching bands.