Cavaliers ride proud in gay pride parade

The Cavaliers celebrated gay pride with a ride through the French Quarter in New Orleans' annual gay pride parade on September 28. Tropical storm Isidore gave way to a sun-drenched sky just in time for the spectacular parade.

Six bikes, two with passengers, showed up early to line up along Elysian Fields Avenue at Washington Square Park. We had a great time getting to know some new friends before the colorful parade stepped off at 12:45 in the afternoon.

-Mark rode his 1998 Honda Shadow 750 named "Betty"
-George rode his 2002 Honda Shadow Ace
-Guy rode his 2001 Harley-Davidson Road King
-Tim rode his 1990 Harley-Davidson Sportster 1200
-Tedd and Tom rode Tedd's 2002 Honda Reflex
-David and Michael rode David's 1996 Honda Gold Wing SE

Four of the riders were attending their first Cavaliers event. The ride was a great way to promote our new group. We were stopped along the way by several parade-goers who asked about our rides.

It was a really fun ride. We made a lot of noise along the way, blaring our horns, roaring our pipes, waving at the crowd gathered along the streets of the French Quarter, and tossing rainbow-colored beads to the parade-watchers.

Our group got especially noisy as we roared past Johnny White's bar on St. Peter Street, the notorious biker hangout in the French Quarter. The straight dudes pretended to ignore us.

We got an especially warm reception as we passed the French Quarter's gay bars along St. Ann Street and Bourbon Street. We waved at friends as we turned past the Rawhide, rumbled past Good Friends, cruised past the Bourbon Pub and Oz, and roared around the corner at Lafitte's.

The warm day and slow riding took a toll on some of the bikes. David had to pull out right before the end of the parade as his Gold Wing was overheating and exhibiting some clutch problems. Things were fine after the bike sat for a few hours and cooled off.

The group met up again at the pride festival in Armstrong Park. The bikes looked great lined up under an ancient oak tree in front of the Armstrong arch on North Rampart Street. We strolled around the festival shopped, ate, drank, and had a good time hanging out together before we all headed home one by one.