Tuesday - 9 Feb/16

Today is Mardi Gras (Fat Tuesday in French). The name reflects the practice of eating richer, fatty foods before the ritual fasting of the Lenten (Christian) season begins on Ash Wednesday.

Related popular practices are associated with Shrovetide celebrations before the fasting and religious obligations associated with the Penitential season of Lent begin. In countries such as England, Mardi Gras is also known as Shrove Tuesday, which is derived from the word shrive, meaning "Confess". In Canada, which is officially bilingual (English/French) it goes by either title depending on your language (Eng/Fr) and religious (Catholic/Protestant) affiliations.

We also called it "Pancake Tuesday" as this was a traditional meal for the day. Fried breads or pastries made with sugar, fat, and eggs are also traditionally consumed at this time in many parts of Latin America and the Caribbean. We use all three designations interchangeably.

Similar to New Year's Resolutions whereby folks commit to fulfilling a certain promised task, during the Lenten Season many promise to "Abstain" from certain pleasures through fasting as a form of penance.

Like my New Year's Resolution (Sustain Regular and Rhythmic Breathing) I try to set easily attainable goals. For Lent I will give up eating caviar and truffles. (grin)

If you get to New Orleans don't miss Blaine Kerns Mardi Gras World (any time of year). Here you will go behind the scenes and learn about the world of the Mardi Gras. This one-of-a-kind tour will let you experience an important part of the history and culture of New Orleans. We took the Canal Street Ferry and the Mardi Gras World Shuttle to the tour. It was a great time with lots of Yellow, Purple and Green (traditional colours).

In 1703 French settlers in Mobile, AL established the first Mardi Gras celebration. This was even before the area was even a part of the USA. New Orleans didn't have it's first celebration until 1837. Our favourite place to celebrate a Mardi Gras Parade was in Fairhope, AL. This celebration is totally family oriented without the mass chaos and rowdiness of the larger festivities. We had a lot of fun at their parade collecting an easy 10 lbs. of thrown beads.

Of course, Mardi Gras/Carnival is also an "Anything Goes" time of costumed celebration in many countries throughout the world. Party On, Dude!

The Wi-Fi was so poor that after running the computer all night it was still unable to get my iPhone updated. I got up at 6 a.m. and it still took 2 hours to do what would have been a few minutes work back home. I had to keep changing Wi-Fi transmitters when the signal dropped off and was eventually successful. This success was a mixed blessing - there was good news and there was bad news.

The good news is that I was finally able to update the interstate weather predictions. The bad news is that everything changed since Sunday. We thought we would be leaving and be home on the weekend; but now the best weather back to Canada means we will be leaving on Thursday. This also means Charlotte will have to cancel her Thursday appointment for using the long arm quilting machine at Sew What.

Today will be a prep day for going home. I went to the office and made arrangements to move the RV to the storage area tomorrow. We will "Dry Camp" there overnight and depart early Thursday morning.

Tonight's TV with Jeopardy, NCIS and NCIS NOLA will be our last. The blog will also be suspended until we return. No schedule for returning, It will be at least a week and most likely longer. Much will depend on the driving conditions.