Covington, LA: Not A Cat In Sight.... Mardi Paws

On our last day in Lousiana we attended the Mardi Paws Parade in Mandeville. Before Debbie & Richard arrived, MLA and I took a tour of the Otis house, a large mansion located in the park where we are camped. Meant to do it all week however there has been too much to do and see.

Originally this was a 400 acre parcel of land with lots of trees. Guy buys 400 acres for 50 cents/acre and build a saw mill. At one time he employes ~250 men. One worker with an axe can cut about 8-10 trees a day. They earned 20 cents and hour or about 20 cents per tree they cut down.

The two man saw reveloutionized the industry. A two man crew could cut down close to 100 trees per day. Needless to say the sawmill owners became rich and thier house reflected thier wealth. They also installed a steam engine to automate the saw mill which again revolutionized the industry. Another generation even richer than the previous one. Gotta love technology.

On our way to the Mardi Paws Parade we stopped to check out the Fountainbleu State Park. This park is only about 10 miles east of Riverside State Park. However since it is located right on Lake Pontchartrain, it received a lot more damage from Hurricane Katrina. The tremendous power of a hurricane was still on display at this park. Trees down everywhere and lots of damage to building. Most of the infrastructure is still closed and the new campground is behind schedule. Probably in July. Looks like it will be nice however Riverside still wins hands down.

We did check out the remains of a Sugar Mill built in 1828. Gentlemen who owned big parcels of New Orleans real estate (they still have a neighborhood named after him) built the mill and ended up spending much of his time on the north shore of Lake Pontchartrain where he enjoyed cooler temperatures and delightful breezes compared to New Orleans.
The Mardi Paws Parade was a hoot. Dogs of every breed and description dressed up in Mardi Gras outfits. Think there would be a lot of fights/scraps with an estimated 500 dogs in attendance? You would be wrong. Hardly a snap or growl all day. The parade itself was a bit too disorganized to tell who won and who lost. Kinda a moot point since the trophy was a Gold Pile of Poop. No one was trying to win too hard. You couldn't tell which dogs were officially in the parade and which dogs were there 'just checking out a couple of hot bitches' while in costume.

Most novel business idea: The Poop Pro's. They come to your home, commercial business or whatever patch of grass you want and clean up the dog poop. For a fee. They are bonded and licensed. For what I'm not sure but it's good to know you are dealing with pro's.