Mardi Gras In Crystal Beach TX

We had a wonderful day, leaving Friendswood about 9am Sat with a little mist. As we neared Galveston it started to clear. There were many highway partol cars on the 30 mile stretch of I-45. We had to wait for 3 ferries, they were only 2 running today. Friends of Eddie and Linda were on the same ferry and helped me put "FireAunt" on the sides of the tear. As soon as we pulled up to the Cotton Cafe I knew this was a big deal! There wasn't much time to spare and we got in line with the Evacca Shack, the new Aggie Berry, Fish Inn, and The Dallas C'boy. After barely getting our beads at-the-ready, the show was on the road. I had visions of this parade being a 4minute mile but we rolled down the highway for an hour! The sides of the road were filled with workers, residents and people who had come for the day after seeing or hearing about it on the news - some were even from Louisiana. People had dozens of beads around their necks - I was worried about running out of beads before we finished. It was fun to hear folks call out the names of each tear and ask what they were and did we sleep in them. After the parade we gathered at the Smelly's lot. The term ground zero comes to mind. It's still really desolate but spirits are high. We had some great gumbo and made lots of new friends. The black clouds started to gather, the wind blew and it began to rain but I was happy to have been part of Mardi Gras 2009 in Crystal Beach. 
