May 12, 2018
After we left Stone Cellar, we drove around the area. We went past Zapp Hall in Warrington (Fayette county.) It is not a dance hall any longer, it’s now an antique/ flea market. During the big sale days they have live music. It wasn’t one of those market days, and from the road it didn’t look like a place to actually dance easily, so we didn’t stop. I have trouble with dust and mold, so I was OK with not poking around. If you happen to visit and dance, let me know and we’ll think about putting it back on the list.
We also stopped at the family owned Jersey Barnyard. Their cows give milk to Blue Bell creamery. and one of their cows was featured in a Blue Bell commercial. Chickens of every color were strutting around and they had a huge hay bale painted like a pig. They give tours and you could feed the livestock. We were OK with just looking. We purchased some cheese and Mexican vanilla and ate ice cream (Blue Bell of course) in the middle of their store. At the end of the road through the barnyard, were rows and rows of large dog kennels. I asked about them and found out they were shelters for the new calves! There was a Wanted poster behind the counter. Seems they had a cougar filching their chickens which they caught on camera. A photo of the paw print with a human hand next to it was impressive! They were so HUGE! It was a great stop and I recommend it if you are in the area.
Monument Hill and Kreische Brewery were not far from where we were staying so we took a short hike along the bluff area. That’s a view of the Colorado River. Monument Hill is where the remains of the men who died in the Dawson Massacre and the Black Bean Death Lottery are interred. Texas history…look it up.
After that we drove to Grapetown to look at the Grapetown Dance Hall (Gillespie County.) The dancehall was established in 1887 but has been inactive for a long time. We knew it was going to be closed, but someone had said if the owner was around they might let us in to look. We didn’t see anyone, so all the photos were from the outside.
Across the street was the historic Grapetown school and teachers building.
After this is was a quick dinner, change and off to Round Top to dance to Derek Spence.
After Round Top our next stop was Johnny’s Steakhouse for another concert venue.
Dancing Across Texas 