New Orleans may have its Bourbon Street, jazz joints and French quarter topless titilation, but Saddlebrooke has a Mardi Gras too, doggone it, and possibly the only one with an ompah pah band. The Saddlebag Notes informed us that the parade would begin at 3:30 p.m Saturday. Naturally, we left an hour early so we could sit and wait for the parade to begin with other senior spectators.
Right on time, we heard the wailing of bagpipes down by the clubhouse and the Mardi Gras parade was under way. The Colorado folks in the golf cart that pulled up next to ours have lived here 11 years and they said it used to be a much bigger event, with prizes and stiff competition that started months in advance. Eventually nobody wanted to chair such a big production, nor did anyone want to give up his golf cart to a decorating committee for two months as it was fashioned into a huge feathered road runner, bi-plane or articulated caterpillar.
This year's event appeared to have a European theme: a flat-bed truck carried gentle old Germans in Leiderhosen mit accordians, clarinets, trumpets and tubas.
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Francophiles, led by a priest in a feathered mask, were next with their Eiffel Tower golf cart; then came the Brits and the Bobbies and the Union Jack. 
A classic convertible rolled by with painted women in crowns and sashes, waving a lot, but we still don't know if they are true royalty or they just didn't want to walk. Actually, one of them did kinda look like the Queen of England.
The Saddlebrooke Cloggers did a nice job dancing for us, but they didn't wear clogs, opting for lighter-weight, yet stylish, white tennis shoes for their snappy routines. The bagpiper was most magnificent, dashingly-decked in authentic attire. Kathleen's clear favorite.
While standing streetside, Kathleen was awarded colorful beaded necklaces, but we must hasten to add here that she did absolutely nothing to earn them.
Promoters of a new game, "Pickle Ball" were advancing their cause, encouraging people to come out and participate in their oddly-named sport. An enthuiastic bunch, their posters made several claims about the virtues of this mixed activity, reputedly "better than sex."There was no long walk back to the car after the parade. It was like coming home from a drive-in movie, without worrying about driving away with the speaker still dangling on your window.
