Pros and Cons of Mardi Gras Inflatable Duck Riding

I survived an afternoon of sitting on an inflatable duck on the duck pond during a Mardi Gras parade. Here are my pros and cons.

It all started with a silly text among friends. When asked about Mardi Gras plans, one friend joked that he would be sitting on an intertube at the Duck Pond.

Of course, he was rtotally kidding... But that gave me the idea... What if someone actually did that? What would the response be? Would it even be fun? Would he catch the Corona Virus?

I needed to experience the duck ride for myself, and man, it was quite the afternoon. To avoid rambling, I've decided to break my day down with pros and cons.

Below, you'll find the pros and cons of sitting on a floating duck in the middle of Shreveport's Duck Pond.

1
PRO
You will most certainly get a lot of attention.
In my nearly three hours on the duck, I received an incredible amount of comments from passerby. Some good, some bad, but the goal was to get attention so mission accomplished.
2
CON
It truly smells horrible.
I had never actually been on the Duck Pond, but after spending three hours on it, I can confirm that the pond smells horrific.
3
PRO
FREE BEER.
While sitting on the large, inflatable duck, I received an abundance of free beer from strangers and friends walking along the parade route. If free beer isn't a PRO, i don't know what is.
4
CON
Kids.
Look, I absolutely love kids. I speak at nearly all local elementary and middle schools. I have two little ones myself. Still, during the entire duration of my time on the inflatable duck, I was harrassed by curious kids. I'm confident that their parents were off doing keg-stands somewhere. They yanked on my rope, made fun of my life choices, and many actually threw bread at me.
5
PRO
Didn't get arrested.
Believe it or not, there was a considerable amount of people who thought I would run into some legal trouble while floating on the duck. I can confirm I did not get arrested, although a few cops came by to see if I was actually doing it, and proceeded to laugh and take pictures.
6
CON
You might get really, really sick.
While I didn't catch the Coronavirus while on the duck, I did fall incredibly ill while on the duck. In fact, I had planned on staying afloat much longer, until I became so sick, so quickly, that I had to leave the pond altogether. I don't know if it was the pure nastiness of the pond, or maybe getting a little seasick, but at least for a moment, I thought I was going to die right there on that duck.
7
CONCLUSION
For the love of God, don't ever spend any considerable amount of time floating on an inflatable duck on the duck pond. It is not worth it, trust me.

Filed Under: shreveport

Categories: Mardi Gras, Shreveport News