Rather than try to put Sunday into perspective, here’s the blow by blow:

– Started at the Rock Bottom Lounge at 11:30 a.m. for the start of the Lady Rollers SAPC second line. First beers, run into friends, and amused by a guy selling what sounds like “Cold, cold Bible water” as it comes through his megaphone. We still had Jon Langford with us, and he saw the ladies coming out the door for the first time.

– From there, lunch, then we parked near Lee Circle and started walking. Unfortunately, my iPhone’s camera wasn’t up to capturing the Buddy D banner and “Honk if You Believe” banner that hung from the top of the Lee statue. People tailgating at Lee Circle wandered into traffic with their “Honk if you believe” signs, and people did.

– A few blocks later, a guy runs up to me breathlessly explaining about his car around the corner and he’s from Mississippi, and as he continues, I pull out my wallet figuring that a dollar will cut the story short. “Oh,” he says. “That’s very generous, but I’m not some piece of manure.” It turns out he had made it look as if he’d hit one of the Minnesota Vikings with his truck and he wanted to make sure we saw it. He had used red food coloring for blood, but someone said that was too much so he cleaned it off.

– On Poydras, the Mardi Gras feeling really kicked in. A brass band played in front of One Shell Square even though no one in particular was watching. A condo had an open house on the ninth floor, which had a great view of the tailgating lot below. It was a good place for a beer and bathroom break, then downstairs and across the street, someone had set up a tailgating party in front of a building and outfitted a statue with a “F*CK FAVRE” T-shirt.

– We worked our way through the tailgating lots, even encountering line dancing along the way. When a Who Dat second line came up Girod, we jumped into that as it crossed Loyola. People leaned out of the higher floors of the parking garage to get a look, and when we got to the covered part, Who Dat chants echoed beautifully. The parade continued through the parking garage and up a series of ramps to the dome, where it dispersed but the band – the Stooges, I think someone said – kept playing. A half-hour later, Supasaint, Saints-Fan Thor and Saints-Fan Boba Fett were among the 50 or so people surrounding the band between gates E and F.

– Then the game started. Here’s a link to a YouTube video of the final moments that hints at what it felt like in the Dome.

– After the game, Poydras was full of people, effectively turning any street feeding toward it into a parking lot. Instead of raging, though, many people sat on their car hoods or the window frames and watched the crowd. Someone shot off fireworks in the tailgating lot, and their reflection in office building windows was a nice addition to the moment. Some cars honked but, my wife said, “Those are honks of joy.”