There are so many that it’s tough to count, but there appeared to be at least 400 instrumentalists in the band, led by an honor guard and three drum majors and trailed by a mounted escort, a mule-drawn artillery piece, and a two-mule wagon, which in turn were followed by a clean-up crew carrying shovels and pavement brooms and pans, collecting manure and tossing it into two wheelbarrows pained burnt orange.

The band marched over the Congress bridge, stopped to play at Seventh Street while the entire corps of cadets went by, and then followed the cadets up to the capitol grounds.

People were out on balconies and rooftops all along the route. The chefs and manager came out at the Stephen F. Austin hotel. Congress Avenue was designed for processions and this is one that happens only every two years. For game tickets this year is a sellers’ market.

From the bridge to the front door of the capitol is about a mile. It helps to know this when you’re trying to judge how far you’ve walked if you followed the band uphill from the river and then walked back down to the bridge.