As has come to be customary, the Chuy’s parade did not follow the published order of march. Lloyd Doggett was somewhere up front, along with Los Texas Wranglers, but soon after that, things became more disorderly. Austin’s Anderson High band Louie, Louie’d, and the Hardin-Simmons Cowboy Band was, as always, the hit of the parade.

It was fun to watch the formation of the line up around Twelfth and Thirteenth, a complete jumble of bands, twirlers, llamas, vintage vehicles, and, of course, the Oak Farms cow, which is much, much larger than life. The Cowboy band’s director always wears a beautiful pair of boots; this year he was sporting full-quill ostrich in a handsome luggage color. The Hardin-Simmons people and the Kyle Sisters were very kindly entertaining people before the parade officially stepped off. The Kyles are to be heard quite often singing in the KVET studios live on the Sam and Bob show. We followed the Hardin-Simmons band down to Seventh Street and then walked back up to Eleventh Street, watching the rest of the parade.

It’s always easy to tell on these occasions who’s familiar with downtown Austin and who is not. The savvy people know that for this parade it’s best to come in from the east and to park in the TRS parking lot, where there’s always space and where there’s no towing on weekends.