NEW ROADS - Cars flocked toward New Roads on Fat Tuesday, so much so that there was chatter among sheriffs of I-10 potentially closing as eager parade goers rushed to Mardi Gras festivities.

Point Coupee Sheriff Rene Thibodeaux started prepping for the influx of revelers early, after more than 100,000 people attended the second-oldest Mardi Gras parade last year. The Point Coupee Parish Sheriff's Office was expecting that same number of parade goers this year, and then some.

RVs started lining up on Monday, some as early as 11 a.m.. On Tuesday, cooking started before the sun came up. One reveler, Raheem Pierce, rolled into New Roads in his RV on Monday morning and was camped out on Mardi Gras Eve, watching a Southern University basketball game with family and friends. He said there's no better place to celebrate Mardi Gras than in New Roads and has been coming from Iberville Parish for a few years.

"Every year, we bring our RVs," Pierce said as he started lighting a grill around 6 a.m.. "So yesterday, we came a little early to kind of get our spots and then we watched a little bit of the Southern University game, and here we are this morning."

Revelers like Pierce wouldn't get to celebrate Mardi Gras in New Roads if it weren't for the New Roads Lions Club. Keith Miller, a Lions Club member, is devoted to keeping the New Roads Mardi Gras Day parade safe and family-friendly.

"I just think it's a day we all appreciate because of the years of the generations that have passed it down, and we want to continue that," Miller said.

Sheriff Thibodeaux is one of those revelers who has appreciated New Roads' Mardi Gras parades for generations. He called to mind a memory of himself as a kid — around nine years old — celebrating Mardi Gras in New Roads with friends. He brought that memory to life by pulling up a photo on his phone: a newspaper clipping from that Mardi Gras day years ago, the photo of that memory of a young Thibodeaux gathering with friends. He pointed himself out quickly.

The sheriff has nothing but gratitude and pride for getting to serve his community as the Pointe Coupee Sheriff. 

"We have a very tight-knit group of community," Thibodeaux humbly said as his role in Mardi Gras festivities is integral to crowd enjoyment and safety. "They all come out, and support each other."

Vidalia resident Tassika Washington drove an hour and a half to catch some beads and watch parade floats pass by. Washington has traveled to New Roads the past several years with her kids, and she brought her grandbaby to their first Mardi Gras.

"All races, people from everywhere, some people from north of us that come here to New Roads to celebrate Mardi Gras," Washington said. "Different cultures coming together, we just make it one big family holiday."

As all the cars packed I-10 to bask in the joy of Mardi Gras, thousands of people traveled back to wherever home was as the holiday concluded. And just like the revelers who keep coming back year after year, they will all crowd the interstate and country backroads for next year, yet again.