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Fandango - "A Silly Dance" The title of my page was inspired by a little known movie of the same name, which starred none other than Kevin Costner. I met the K-9 cavorter while he was filming “No Way Out” 
, and I was making fudge, in Washington D.C. back in the summer of ‘86. But
that’s another story. For those who haven’t seen it, “Fandango” chronicles the
antics of several t.u. graduates who decide to
make one last irresponsible...well...fandango...before shipping off to either Viet Nam or 'points
north'. Something about the movie touched me, and I don’t think it was the
Shiner Bock
or plate of nachos I had while watching it.There’s something about blacktop, especially Texas blacktop, that reaches down inside you and pokes the git-up-and-go. A few years ago, an outfit down in Fredericksburg started publishing an atlas called “The Roads of Texas” 
. It’s a great map book. I must
wear out 3 or 4 a year, and use the old ones for wrapping paper. I guess Texas is so big
that staples can’t hold it together. Anyway, every so often I get the hankering to peruse
the publication, and then off I’ll go into some corner of Blanco County where I’ll find,
for instance, a little wide spot in the road called
Blowout.Blowout was named for a nearby cave where, back in the 1800’s lightening ignited bat guano gas or some other flammable vapor. The resulting ‘blowout’ still leaves a charred spot on the rocks around the entrance. Blowout is about 12 miles south of Pack Saddle Mountain, the site of one of the last indian battles fought in Texas. Somewhere between Packsaddle Mountain and blowout is county road 315 which, according to “The Roads”, supposedly dead ends near Watson Mountain. Only it doesn’t. Therein lies the poke. Maybe it’s the newness of seeing around a corner you haven’t seen around, or discovering that the map is wrong, or seeing the three-dimensional aspect of a two dimensional page. Perhaps, as we grow older, and all that was new as a youngster becomes “been there”s and “done that”s, the freshness of stumbling on some new unexplored corner of the state brings back a sense of awe like the first day of a new school year. Maybe there’s a part of all of us that needs a change, a fullfillment, a new leaf, an adventure, a “Dom”. Maybe not. Maybe it’s just the nachos.  Back to the Fandango Page |