November 10, 2018
Kendalia Halle, 1135 FM 3351, Kendalia, TX (Kendall County) is a nice dance hall. It was erected in 1903 for family gatherings, plays and dancing. It was built of red fir timber from Oregon. The wood traveled by train, then by wagon to get to Kendalia. Some of the recent renovations included moving it 12″to straighten the dance hall, using pulleys. They also reinforced the foundation. The inside has been wood paneled and the roof has recently been insulated to help with temperature control.
It’s smaller than some of the older dance halls we have been to, but the people are super friendly. There is one public dance a month, on the second Saturday. The cost of the ticket gets you BBQ tacos until they run out. Tables are situated around the dance floor. The stage is raised. There’s one small bar which sells beer, water and soda – cash only. The bathrooms are a separate building outside the ticket table, but still within the gate. The windows were shut (it was 55 degrees that night) and they had heaters in four corners of the floor which kept the chill off until you could start dancing. We were told the gate opened and tacos are served at 7:30, the music starts at 8:00 p.m. We left at 11:45 and the band was still going strong, though most of the dancers and listeners had departed.
3 Chord Rodeo, whom we had heard in Dripping Springs, was the featured band. There was a good mix of music, though it seemed heavy on Triple Two and One Step. We recognized some dancers from Dripping Springs. The band recognized people from Dripping Springs, Fredericksburg and other venues they played. Dancers recognized each other, or made new friends as the night went on.
We stayed at The Lodge at Cypress Falls, in Wimberley. It has a hallway of rooms or bungalows for rent. We were in the hallway, and discovered there was no thermostat in the room. We asked about heat and they brought a portable heater. Since it dropped down into the 40’s that night and rained, the heater was nice to have! The drive from The Lodge to Kendalia was 40 minutes. We used my phone’s map feature to give us directions through the winding country roads. Several times it showed a stoppage of some kind on the road ahead. Once it was a traffic signal at a subdivision entrance, but no cars in sight. The second time it showed a stoppage it was a Longhorn Cow standing in the oncoming lane! We couldn’t figure out how the maps feature could find a cow in the road! If it could do that, why didn’t it show the buck or fox that ran in front of us?
The next day we walked down to Cypress Falls, which was a low water crossing we went across (following a doe) to get to the Lodge. There was a fisherman there and we were about to walk closer when my boots slipped on the slime on the side of the bridge. Quick movement on my friends part kept me from falling in the water! We explored another part of the spring and found a nice tubing area for a possible summer visit.
We still had time to visit Jacob’s Well and Emilyann Theater. I needed rubber sole shoes at Jacob’s Well. My leather boot sole’s were slick on the rock and I was not comfortable standing on the ledge looking down into the deep water of the natural spring. Especially with the close call I had earlier by Cypress Falls.
Emilyann Theater had outdoor gardens. Each had a different theme. There was a musical garden, where tire wheels were bolted to a board, and chimes hung in a sling formation, ready for someone to stroke or pound on them. A secret garden full of metal peacocks and a game board with large moveable chess and checkers pieces were some of the other gardens. We notices a park employee setting up displays for their upcoming trail of lights.
Heading home we wanted to stop at the Devil’s Backbone Tavern for our thirty-first dance floor of the year. Instead we visited Riley’s on the Backbone first.
Dancing Across Texas 