My First Mardi Gras: The Floats

One distinctive feature of any big Mardi Gras parade is the floats.  Not only do these house the beads and the bead throwers, but these are pieces of art crafted by the groups they represent to display what they are all about.  In my past, the floats have ranged from being mediocre at best to pretty darn good.  But what I saw at the Krewe of Centaur parade was better than just pretty darn good.  These were "wow" floats.  An almost life-sized replication of a locomotive.  A real looking dragon, that actually had smoke coming out of its nose.  It was like I was at Disney World or some other big time amusement park.  The costumes were also beyond superb.  An entire group dressed up as Oktoberfest revelers.  I expected pretty good floats... and a lot of them... but I never thought that I would see floats looking as good and professional as these.  It felt like I had stepped into the big leagues when it came to float building, that these were the best of the best.  And no doubt in my mind that they were.  Tomorrow, our last day of this feature, I'll share what the day of the Krewe of Centaur parade felt like.  I'm Dennis Foley.