It never occurred to me to ask my waitress where all the people who belonged to those cars were.

I just figured I was missing a big party - but lucky for me, I did not.

The next morning, over a Diet Coke at the Rather Sweet Bakery (and God knows, if I weren’t watching my weight, I’d have been so chowing down on pasty chef Rebecca Rather’s bacon and cheddar scones) the head of the Fredericksburg CVB, Ernie Loeffler, cleared up the mystery for me.

All those pickups and cars were place-holders for the folks coming into town to see the parade for the Gillespie County Fair. And, he joked, ‘you’ll see just about every tractor in the county.’

And every beauty queen - from the Gillespie County Fair Queen and her court to the Luling Watermelon Thump Queen, there’s nothing like a parade in Texas to bring out the beauty queens.

Some of the girls wore matching evening gowns, others were dressed in jeans, boots and coordinated Western shirts. No matter their attire, all had the parade wave and the smile down.

Floats from the insurance agency, the nursing home (complete with residents in rockers) and local radio stations shared the route with elaborate offerings from local wineries and the H-E-B, the semi-official grocer of Texas.

To me, this  is the real Texas - a community coming together, a wholesome fair with agriculture competitions, and beauty queens.

(Since I forgot my camera, look for the photos from the parade in a day or so!)