Tonya the Tiger

This Circus World has a tiger. Her name is Tonya. She is just 7 months old and according to the tiger guy, pretty stupid. She has a very short attention span. He is in the middle of training her. So we got to see her run around and eat off of a stick. Not too exciting, but oh, well. She was fun to watch. According to the tiger guy, tigers aren't very smart. They are pretty lazy and use their size and weight to catch their prey. Leopards are apparently the smart ones in the Big Cat kingdom. Tigers like routine and if something changes they can't handle it. Leopard can break out of cages and can walk around the top wires when they are just babies. Now no one take this the wrong way, but Kris and I decided that Tigers have autism and Leopards have ADHD. (I have earned the right to be irreverent about autism...)
Tonya is looking for her treat.

Batting at the stick

She took a big bite of sawdust. It was pretty funny to see her try to get it off of her tongue.

Then, Tonya spotted a small child outside the cage. She wanted to eat him.

She raced across the cage, but couldn't get close enough.

So she waited to pounce.

Once the parents got him back close to them, she lost interest. But when he was off by himself, she couldn't take her eyes off of her "meal". It was funny, but kind of scary too. Makes you think about the Jungle Book in a whole new light....

Tumblers and Balance acts

These guys were something else. First of all, they are about 15 or 16 years old. Secondly, they throw and catch each other in places that most people wouldn't want to have thrown or caught. The men in our group were wincing.


Yep, thats the one.

This balancing act wasn't my favorite, but the muscles on the girl were scary. She held the guy up too. It was one of those things you just can't look away from....

The man on the ground is swinging the girl in the air by her hair. Yep.

The performers all seemed to be from the same family. The woman and the man on the ground are the mom and dad of the group, I think. They were probably from South America. It was kind of neat to see the whole family performing together.

Elephants on Parade!

My favorite part of the circus is the elephants. I just think they are the most fun! This circus had a pretty good elephant show. It is so cute the way they hold onto each others tails.

Down like dominoes!!

Apparently, this elephant is the only one in the world who can balance all 4 feet on a ball at the same time. She did a wonderful job and I have it on videotape too!
I would have liked to see the elephants in tutu's . I think that would have made my day!

Roger the Clown

Every Circus must have a clown. And so did the Circus World. I have known some great clowns. Roger wasn't in the great catagory, but Andrew really liked him, so he is okay in my book!
Gorilla loved Roger

Every clown must drop his pants at least once.

Well, for a clown, he was amusing.

Elephant ride...

After the elephants performed in the circus, they were giving elephant rides in the back yard. The kids all wanted to go, so they hopped up. I didn't think that Andrew would want to ride the elephant, but he really wanted to go. Even Kris and the little baby belly went for a ride too!
All Aboard!!

They just walked up and back down a sort of alley way. The elephant was very patient!

They were having fun, although Sam looks like he was sliding off!

The rear view. That just looks painful!

And back again!

I guess that they all had fun!

Circus World Museum

One thing I really loved about Circus World was the wonderful circus posters. They had them from way back when the circus first started. They had the huge posters that were hung up in the towns to preview the show and the billboard size posters too. The colors and artwork are so vivid and beautiful! Elephants in tutus

Some of the costumes from Ringling Bros.

A Giant size poster!

Elephant costumes.

Clowns

The Punch and Judy Puppet Stage

The Punch and Judy Puppets. I love the little devil one and the alligator!

The Calliope

More Giant posters!

It was a just a cool museum!

Circus Wagons

Circus World has two warehouse size buildings dedicated to preserving and restoring the Circus Wagon. It is an amazing display of craftsmanship and beauty. These pictures don't really do it justice, you are just overwhelmed at the size of the wagons. I wish that my camera really picked up the colors, but I am not sure anything could have done these wagons justice. You will just have to come and visit and we will go up to Baraboo.

This wagon played music and the figures all moved.

You can see how big these are. Brett is six feet tall. The wagon is at least 10 feet. But this is one of the smaller ones.

Lots of gold and bright colors. Can you imagine the excitement when these wagons would roll into town with the animals and entertainers in them!?

This is the train cars they came in on.

There was an amazing level of artistry on these cars.

All hand painted.

The wheels themselves were mini works of art.

There was a year that Cinderella was the theme. The gold wagons were the theme wagons.

I am trying to figure out how I can quilt this circus wheel!