Last night’s parades were canceled due to weather, so tonight’s slate of three parades got an extra, resulting in total paradgasmpalooza. I watched the parades with lots of folks gathered in front of the Discount Zone at Delachaise and St. Charles, and many others joined and left. That’s one of the parts of carnival I like best–running into folks you haven’t seen in awhile and catching up between high school marching bands and floats–which, according to J., a stranger at the Super Bowl victory parade called “allegorical carts.” I love that name for a float! I snapped this picture of one of the lead allegorical carts in the Krewe D’Etat parade, known for its satire. This one is called the Dictator’s Banana Wagon, and the riders were wearing cowboy hats and shiny lame kerchiefs covering their faces. I ran up to the float, screamed my head off, caught a few strings of banana beads, and then stepped back to wait for the next float. And I did that for hours before hopping back on the bike and heading home. Lovely.