Tuesday, March 13, 2018 – Two years ago we brought our motor home to Metairie, Louisiana (where Roy was raised) to watch the St. Patrick’s Parade. We had such a good time we decided to go back this year. Roy and I left Amite Saturday morning headed to Metairie. We parked our motor home at what use to be a funeral home on the corner of Metairie Road and Ridgelake. We enjoyed a beautiful after noon there painting rocks and visiting with others who brought their vehicles to get a good spot for the parade the next day.
Chip’s family and one of Madisyn’s friends arrived in the evening and spent the night with us in our motor home. A few days ago when we planned to go to the parade the rain chance Sunday was very low. Before the parade start time it started raining Madisyn and her friend took my basket of St. Patrick’s Day rocks and hid them all over for me!
And then the rain started and it poured and poured for a while. Everyone ran for cover and when it was over the parade started rolling by us. 
The sun came out and we all had a great day! Roy and I alone caught two big black trash bags of cabbage, potatoes, carrots, onions, lemons, apples, bananas, a ton of beads and toys, moon pies, bags of chips, bouncy balls plus a couple of cardboard boxes of all that.
After the parade Madisyn went through her goodies and we found out she got a Build A Bear. They really threw some unique things this year but I think a Build A Bear was quite unusual!
Once all the floats were past we were able to see what a mess the street and sidewalks were. Beads, cups, bags, vegetables and fruit. This is someone’s property across the street from where we were that had lemons, oranges, potatoes and more all around the yard. 
This is a look at the area from before the cleanup started. We were so amazed at this process that I had to share it!
The clean up crew of dozens of men with blowers and a couple dozen trucks, bulldozers and street sprayers made quick work of sanitizing the street and sidewalks. 
By the time we left Metairie on Monday the whole property and street were spotless. Years and years of cleaning up after parades and big events has got street cleanup down to a science!
We went from the city near where Roy was raised, back to our country road leading to home. Three days away was a nice little trip but being back home was even better!
Now hold on for this. What you are about to see is two views of all the things we caught. This is not typical of any parade other than the St. Patrick’s parade. The little bags on the right side of the pic are around 200 bags of tiny carrots. The little carrots all been blanched and frozen. Some of the cabbage was cooked and we made cabbage rolls. Roy grated some of the giant carrots, chopped apples and made carrot, raisin, apple salad. We feasted on that for dinner. We are going to make a big pot of vegetable beef soup, a big mess of potato salad, some lemonade and whatever else we can think of!!! The toys we caught will go to some children and the beads are going to be made into some sort of crafts by Madisyn and I. 
Ya’ll come back now, ya’ hear!
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