Mardi Gras Week

"Mardi Gras Week" isn't really a thing. The Mardi Gras season, if there is such a thing, starts on 12th Night and ends at midnight on Fat Tuesday, and the only thing certain about the whole thing is that Mardi Gras will be on a Tuesday. Which Tuesday that might be depends on a number of things, including the phase of the moon ... literally. From a local cycling perspective, there isn't much impact on the early morning training rides except for those riders who actually ride in parades and/or have kids and ladders and stuff that they have to get to and from the daytime parades. Except of course on Tuesday when all bets are off. There is, however, a Mardi Gras morning Giro Ride anyway that will generally get people back home in time for Rex but not for Zulu or the morning downtown walking parades.

Thursday on the levee

So anyway, most of the regular morning rides were affected more by the weather than the parades. As usual for this time of year we were riding the temperature and wind roller-coaster. Wednesday's WeMoRi temperature was in the 60s which made for a nice fast ride, and then our Thursday levee ride was likewise fairly warm but featured a pretty good southeast wind which meant a lot of crosswind segments. Things, however, were changing.

Mother Nature had something to say about Friendly Friday this week.

I rode out to the Friendly Friday ride directly into a50°, 20 mph north wind and wasn't surprised to find only one other rider at the City Park Museum of Art. We headed out anyway, knowing full well that parts of Lakeshore Drive might be flooded as often happens when a strong north wind blows a lot of water over the seawall. We were struggling along at like 16 mph for much of this ride, and of course found LSD closed and flooded at Franklin Avenue where we turned back to the west. Then, between Marconi and Canal, the road was also flooded, so basically we did a shortened, slow ride. Fortunately, the forecast was calling for a gradual warming trend all the way through Tuesday that would top out in the mid-80s. One of my nieces came in from Madison on Friday night to get a little taste of Mardi Gras parades on Saturday.

Saturday Giro

Saturday's Giro Ride started out pretty cold. It was about 40° when I rolled out from home into a pretty significant northeast wind. That kept the speed pretty low on the way out and of course pretty fast on the way back but otherwise it was a normal Giro for this time of year. By the time I got home I was pretty significantly overdressed. After that and a quick shower we hopped on the streetcar for a ride down to Napoleon, where it always ends on parade days, and then walked down to the Columns to meet up with my sister and brother in law to watch a couple of back-to-back parades. Candy bailed early but we stayed until almost the end of the second parade before walking back to Napoleon to catch the streetcar back to Carrollton.

By Sunday things were finally warming up and the wind was finally dying down which made for a nice Sunday Giro. I had had a dentist appointment the prior Wednesday that involved cutting and drilling and stitching, and although I'd felt pretty good by Friday it seemed like it got more inflamed on Saturday. Fortunately I had a fair amount of penicillin handy from prior recent dental work, both mine and Candy's, so I started on that although I wasn't expecting much improvement until maybe Monday, which turned out to be the case. Candy and I again hopped on the streetcar and then walked down to Magazine Street to watch most of Tucks, which is one of my personal favorites, before walking all the way back home as streetcars seemed to be in somewhat short supply.

I was off from work on Monday, and looking at the forecast I could see that although the day would start off a bit on the chilly side, it would warm up a lot by mid-day, so I decided to sleep a little later and wait to ride until the sun was high in the sky, which turned out to be a bit after 11:00 am. By then the temperature was in the 70s but there was a pretty strong 10+ mph wind blowing out of, mostly, the west. Since this was supposed to be a recovery ride I was trying, with limited success, to keep my effort level fairly low. That meant staying well under 20 mph for most of the way out. After turning around at The Dip, I picked up nice tailwind that made it easy to cruise back downriver in some places at 24-25 mph but with a heart rate that rarely cracked 130 bpm. It was a nice ride on a sunny day. That evening we had neighbors over for dinner. My jaw was still feeling a bit inflamed but it wasn't bad enough to keep me from sleeping well Monday night.

Happy people on Mardi Gras

For Tuesday I decided to skip riding altogether. My jaw had calmed down by then, so I figured I was good to go for the usual Mardi Gras routine. By 8:00 am the truck floats that follow Rex were already lining up along S. Claiborne playing loud music and sometimes blocking the gradually increasing traffic. Our plan was to ride out to Napoleon to watch Rex, and then ride down Prytania to somewhere around Poydras where we would lock up the bikes (three U-locks, a big cable, and a small cable lock) and walk from there to the Quarter to take in the sights. Rex started at 10:30 and was right on time, rolling through smoothly. The crowd along Napoleon is very family oriented and relatively uncrowded, so it was quite nice to be able to actually see all of the bands and floats and everything. We then headed downtown at a nice easy speed and got to Canal Street well before the first of the Rex parade. By then it was pretty warm, probably close to 80°, with a clear sunny sky. Thing were just kind of getting started in the Quarter so it wasn't too jam-packed in most places along Royal and Bourbon. The warm weather meant there was a lot of skin on display, some good, some not so good, but everyone was having a good time. I took a bunch of photos as usual and I guess we were already heading back home by 2:30 or 3:00. As we crossed Canal Street we could see the Rex floats making the loop there near the end of their route. Riding back along Prytania we could see the seemingly endless string of truck floats making their way down St. Charles.

So it was back to the routine on Wednesday. I was still nice and warm so I went out to meet the WeMoRi in summer kit, surfing a strong south wind out to the lakefront. I'd left a few minutes earlier than usual so I turned east on Lakeshore Drive and found the group, turning around near Franklin to join it and being mindful of the direction of the not insignificant wind. When the group came around the corner onto Marconi we were surprised by someone with a couple of dogs who was right in the middle of the street. The group swarmed around them with only a mild case of panic on both sides and continued on. The south wind kept the speed down as we went south on Wisner but after coming over the top of the bridge the group got a little bit scattered. Then Jaden picked up the pace along City Park avenue with MJ and me in tow. MJ kept the hammer down and next thing I knew it was just the two of us as we picked up the tailwind on Marconi. MJ was drilling it all the way, with me hanging on for dear life. I took an occasional short pull but mostly he was pulling. I of course figured we would be swallowed up by the group soon enough, but when we went around the traffic circle at Elysian Fields we saw that the group had somehow been reduced to four or five, which I guess MJ took as encouragement that he could hold them off, which he proceeded to do. So that turned into a nice little effort for me, and I was glad I'd had an easy day on Tuesday.