What a GREAT day!
We took 22 people from our club up to Baraboo, Wisconsin today to spend the day at Circus World. Last year, we received an invitation from T.J. Howell, Circus World’s unicyclist and juggler, for our club to visit and ride as the special guests in the Old Fashioned Circus World Parade on the C.W. grounds. This summer we were able to line up the visit and today was the day.
We arrived mid-morning and immediately hooked up with T.J. who went out of his way the entire day to see that we had a great time and plenty of information about the history of the circus. What a great guy and he deserves a lot of thanks for his time and effort. I understand he used to perform with John Foss years ago. John, he sends his best regards and wonders if you’re still a nut. I assured him you were.
Circus World is an amazing place, extremely beautiful with exotic memorabilia, authentic circus acts, and loads of wide-eyed circus atmosphere. We attended the Big Top circus act and watched in amazement the feats of the performers. We thought we had great balance…the two men from Columbia (I believe) performed on the high wire without balancing poles…my favorite part of the Big Top. They walked, skipped, danced and did backflips on the wire with only their sense of body balance to keep them afloat up there. Amazing!
The parade followed the Razzle Dazzle Review, a series of great short circus acts. It had rained that morning and the parade route on the dirt road through the grounds was somewhat messy, but for some reason our kids didn’t seem to mind. We followed the last big circus wagon in the parade and as we passed by the reviewing stand, the announcer read the short tag line about our club while the crowds cheered. Most of our higher level kids were doing uni-tricks along the way and others were performing short parade routines that we had prepared. I took up the rear and helped some of our beginning riders keep up with their mounts. It felt great for the kids to receive recognition for their hard work over the past year and even better for Mary and I especially to see that the kids were having the time of their lives!
For the rest of the day, we rode our unis around the grounds from one display to another trying to take in everything. Every once in awhile, we would find ourselves giving uni-riding lessons to some of the crowds. It was always the same response, “It sure is more difficult than it looks.” They loved it. Our kids loved being the center of attention. It was a great partnership.
Jason, I apologize but I need to try to one-up your moose story for a moment. Two of our girls needed their tire pumped up so we went back to the van and trailer which was parked behind the Big Top tent. With the tires taken care of, the 3:00 Big Top show was in progress so we decided to go over to the rear entrance of the tent and peek in before we joined the rest of the throngs in the mainland. They had just finished the elephant act and just as we stepped into the rear entrance, the elephant and it’s trainer came trotting out. It literally brushed by us on the way out and I got a more of a closeup look at elephant hide than I ever want to again. We almost got trampled by an elephant today! After an evil look from the elephant trainer, we made a hasty retreat back into visitor land.
All I can say about our day is WOW! Our kids want to make it an annual event which we may just have to do. It you’d like info on Circus World, their website is http://www.circusworldmuseum.com
It’s been a very long but thoroughly enjoyable day but now its time for bed.
Bruce
