Mardi Gras Meat.

'Team Lunch' and a cart-full of bread.

New Orleans, LA - Crossing from Mississippi into Louisiana, the road that never seemed to end dissolved into a ghost of fog.

On a bus for 22 hours through seven states and a province, we have set up camp at Adullam Christian Fellowship – also known as City of Hope – in New Orleans, preparing to spend the afternoon in the French Quarter. Spirits are high, and not just because we can hear the faint strains of Sunday service wafting through the air.

After a group meal at the International House of Pancakes, we broke into 'Team Breakfast' and 'Team Lunch,' invading the local Wal-Mart to gather supplies for the week. Three heads of lettuce, 24 loaves of bread, six gallons of milk and nearly 10 pounds of sandwich meat: the trappings of a few meals for 40.

Greeted by a thick accent matched only by his smile, the man behind the meat counter talked us up, and started teasing us by saying "eh" and "aboot." And asked of we had driven down through California.

Then he gave us free meat to celebrate Mardi Gras. Long live southern hospitality.