In the Year of Festivals, Texas Monthly writers gamely join community celebrations across the state. Bring on the pageants, cook-offs, and parades! As I walked onto the grounds of the sixty-third annual Scottish Gathering and Highland Games in Salado, I was greeted by acres of tartan and a lot of bagpipes. And I mean a lot of bagpipes.The Scottish Gathering takes place on the second Saturday and Sunday of November and spreads across most of a Salado elementary school. About a dozen bagpipers paced around the playground, practicing and waiting for their turn in front of a judge. At first, the noise was brain-rattling, but I soon found myself charmed by the different songs that formed a plaintive yet somehow upbeat soundtrack to the day. Each corner of the…The post Searching for My Inner Scot at Salado’s Highland Games appeared first on Texas Monthly.