Mardi Gras and Tornadoes

On Saturday morning we attended a Mardi Gras parade in Foley.  Actually, we were on our way to town and saw several people lining up along one of the downtown streets.  It looked liked a parade was about to happen, so we stopped.  It had been drizzling all morning so we came prepared with raincoats.  This was our first real Mardi Gras parade.

Of course there were floats and costumed participants.

But the parade was over almost as quick as it began.  It was no longer than 2 blocks and lasted only about 5 minutes.  However, throwers threw candy, beads, small stuffed animals and a popular marshmallow cookie called moon pies.  This is our haul from this one little parade:

It was quite fun catching all the stuff that was thrown.  However, we had a downpour just before the end of the parade so everyone got a little wet.

Saturday afternoon and evening we were under a tornado watch, tornado warning, severe thunderstorm warning, flood warning and high wind advisory.  It was quite a treat to have everything at once instead of spread out over several days!  About 5:00 PM the rain began to fall in buckets and dark, churning clouds moved into the area.  We were in the clubhouse (decided to be there during the brunt of the storm) and watched with a handful of others as it moved over us.  We survived.  However, the park was flooded wherever you looked. Arriving back at our site about an hour later, our truck tires sank several inches in the mud as we parked.  I spoke with one of our neighbors this morning, and per his rain gauge, he had recorded over 2.5 inches of rain.  No wind damage was evident though one fifth wheel has a plastic tarp draped over its roof.  We are quite sure it was not placed there to protect the roof from bird droppings.