Tue 9 Feb
Coming soonFat Tuesday in Mobile, the original American Mardi Gras and the closest real one.
Going as a group? Charter the van · Other events
Know someone who'd come?
Every share is a seat closer.
On film
The trip
Mobile dates its Mardi Gras to 1703, when French settlers held the first celebration, and it credits Joe Cain with bringing it back after the Civil War by leading an impromptu parade down the city's streets. Carnival builds for two and a half weeks, and on Fat Tuesday the parades roll through downtown one after another: masked mystic societies on themed floats, marching bands, mounted police, and MoonPies flying off the floats. The Order of Myths has been the last parade of the day, with Folly chasing Death around a broken column on its emblem float.
Mobile is three and a half hours from Tallahassee, and on parade days the city tows cars left in the signed no parking areas along the routes. So we drive it. The van leaves Tallahassee in the morning, drops you downtown, and waits for the time on your booking to bring you home the same night. Nine seats, one driver, and nobody in your group has to drive back in the dark.
0 of 9 seats booked. 4 more seats and the van runs.
A seat is $95.00. Pay now, and if the van does not fill, every cent comes back. It leaves in 102 days.
Photos
Visit Mobile publishes the parade schedule, and its Instagram is where its pictures of the city go. For Mardi Gras news, its own parade schedule sends people to the Mobile Mardi Gras page on Facebook.
No ticket needed
Mobile's parades are free to watch from the street. Nobody sells a ticket to stand on the route. What we sell is the ride: from Tallahassee to downtown Mobile, and home again the same night.
Visit Mobile publishes the parade schedule for the season, and the City of Mobile publishes the routes, parking and rules. Both are worth a look before the day.
Follow it
The night
Getting on. Be at your pickup place a few minutes early. It is a long drive, the van leaves on time, and it does not come back for a second run.
Your pickup place. You tell us where at checkout, anywhere within 15 miles of Tallahassee, and the van comes to you.
Downtown. You are dropped in downtown Mobile. Streets close before each parade, so Visit Mobile says to be in your spot half an hour before it starts. Stay behind the barricades and do not follow the floats. Glass, pets, skateboards, Silly String and Snap and Pops are not allowed, and there is no underage drinking. Pick a place to meet in case your group gets split up, and for the night parades, a well-lit one.
Coming home. The van waits for you at the time on your booking. Mobile is on Central time, an hour behind Tallahassee, so check the time on your booking against the clock on your phone, and put it in your phone before the first parade rolls.
