We have been anticipating Saturday's events for weeks now, and finally the day arrived! It's time for the 14th Annual Cowboy Mardi Gras in Bandera, Texas! The festivities started last Thursday evening, but culminated today with a parade at noon and Cajun/Zydeco music all afternoon with several side streets blocked off to accommodate the party-goers! Our focus was the parade, so off we went to Bandera, just a 1/2 hour south, thinking that we would be among a small crowd of maybe a thousand or so...Wrong! With a normal population of 898 souls, I can comfortably say that Bandera hosted many, many thousands today! I can say that because parking was to be had only on the outskirts of town or in the front yards of unsuspecting homeowners when we arrived at eleven.
And it was a show!
I was honestly surprised that every person in our area stood as the flag passed by. God Bless America!
Followed by the state flag of Texas!
This event is sponsored by the 11th Street Cowboy Bar in Bandera, and over the years has grown into a great crowd pleasing event as well as a revenue producing shindig. The 11th Street Bar float had the honor of leading the parade:
This set the tone for the day.....all the parade entries threw candy or colorful beads to the crowd!
You don't see many of these anymore!
The Sisters On The Fly group were all decorated:
Rather out of place, but nice to see, a nicely restored vintage Airstream cruised by.
Green, purple, and gold were the colors du jour.
It wouldn't be Texas without horses! See the young ladies in the front? By the end of the parade they had fist sized bundles of beads around their necks!
Horses? We don't need no stinkin' horses...
There were a lot of nicely decorated trucks.
The girls are beginning to get the hang of the bead thing...
And the beads are stacking up...
This gentleman with his dancing horse caused quite a reaction...except from the young ladies...no beads, ya know. But an extraordinarily well trained horse...a beauty to watch it prance!
Nice car...get out of the way, girls!
With visions of Mardi Gras finery in our heads, we left Bandera with a smile on our faces!
Not wanting to go directly back home, we headed south toward Hondo, Texas. Ok, that took a minute, so we headed west on US 90 toward Uvalde, TX, passing through D'Hanis...
Then Sabina and Knippa before arriving in Uvalde, where we ate a nice lunch at MacGillicudys. This is a combo BBQ, Mexican, Burger, and Steak restaurant. Hey, in a small town...
So now we had a choice: Go home via Leakey, TX, or Utopia, TX. Both towns sounded like they had something to offer, but considering our age we figured we already had experienced Utopia and that Leakey better suited our physical state these days...
US 83 took us to Leakey through the resort community of Rio Frio, situated along the river of the same name. We saw Big Horn Sheep, wild Boar, and hundreds of deer along the way. We also saw this big boy watching over his harem.
Donna managed to catch a handful of beads and a Moon Pie as souvenirs of the Cowboy Mardi Gras parade:
And a Texas sunset to end a great 205 mile day trip!
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