Back Where I Started
July 17, 2009
I just got an e-mail from a friend of mine that said he was watching a parade in Milwaukee with circus wagons from the Circus World Museum that the two of us went to see in Baraboo, Wisconsin. I understand that the first parade of this type was in 1963 and was held annually for several years then stopped. This is the first time again in years. I wonder how many kids still have fantasies about living and working with a circus. I have heard many tales of a child that said they wanted to run off and join the circus. When there is so much excitement and glamor that is shown on the surface it would only be natural for a child to be drawn to it. Even as I went through a part of the museum I could not help but think that it would be great to be able to work at the restoration of some of the old circus wagons. Some of the wagons were covered by gold leaf and the restoration of those is quite expensive. But when the work is complete they have a beauty beyond common belief. The museum has been offered wagons that have been in barns for fifty to a hundred years and now the barn is falling down. Back when circuses were traveling around the country a broken wagon might just be abandoned along the road, then a farmer might pick it up and put it in a barn. There were even instances when a circus went into bankruptcy and the entire circus was abandoned where it sat, including all the animals and all the rolling stock. The wagons like this one would carry all the supplies between towns and then perhaps carry an eight to twenty piece band on top during a parade to attract people to come to the circus show and spend a quarter to get in and hopefully another quarter for food. They had to take in a lot of quarters every day. I would like to spend more time and learn more, so I will have to go back. I was only able to tour a part of the museum before time ran out and my legs were too tired to run at all.
A CIRCUS WAGON DEPICTING THE RESCUE OF JOHN SMITH BY POCAHONTAS
I like trains. I like the tiny trains that have engines that are no longer than inch up to trains that roll by pulling over a hundred cars and shaking the ground that I am standing upon. The very best trains are those that hiss and rumble and spew smoke and cinders from their stacks with a huff and a puff. Steam trains are seldom seen anywhere except as a tourist attraction. Out in Sacramento I saw a one man hand operated turntable that was used to turn steam engines and tenders around. It was an authentic reconstruction on the original base from the 1850's. The ingenuity and technology was amazing. It would have been perfect if I could have been one of the people watching the turntable being operated or even better to have turned a 70 ton engine around myself. But I was born a hundred years too late. So the closest that I have come is watching a similar hand operated turntable being operated for a live steam engine on a fifteen inch wide track in Wisconsin Dells. I felt a bit of jealousy while watching the activities of the engineer and the conductor with this coal fired live steam train. This train goes through the woods along the river on the abandoned right of way of a former standard gauge railroad. At the end of the run, which is three mile in length is another simpler hand operated turntable. Along the way is a multitude of bright spring flowers and there is always the possibility of seeing deer or other animals. A lot of people come to ride the train during the fall to see the colored foliage along the river. They also have a pumpkin give away for the kids half way along the route. During December if the weather cooperates they have a Santa Claus Train that runs on the weekends
RIVERSIDE AND GREAT NORTHERN ENGINE LEAVING THE TURNTABLE
This weather here in Rochester has been wet enough to make up for the many months of dry that we have seen in the last year. In almost a month I don't think that there have been more than five dry days. Some days there has been a rain shower six or seven times. We have not gotten the type of rain that I called a goose drowner but areas close to us have. In that way I guess we have been lucky, but having spent so many years in Kansas and Colorado we are accustomed to more sunshiny days than we have had. Our Jeep developed a leak in the sunroof, perhaps a long time ago, that let the water inside. I have been threatening to buy a wet/dry vacuum to carry for at least four years and this finally pushed me to doing it. A couple days I vacuumed over a quart of water out of the floor of the Jeep, and sometimes a pint a couple times during the day. I took the Jeep in to the shop to see about the seal of the sunroof. The sunroof closer was out of adjustment and the drain tubes were plugged. In thinking back I had wondered if the sunroof had always closed to "that" position, and it had not. I would never have guessed that Jeep would have built in drain tubes instead of designing it so that there was not leaks in the first place. At any rate the leak seems to have been fixed.
Back in 1996 I visited a lighthouse on the shores of Lake Erie. It was tucked back on a little obscure road that did not lend itself to being visited. The area was rather weedy and the lighthouse itself was not in bad condition but it showed the effects of age. The only sign that was evident was a sign over the doorway that said "Marblehead 1821. In 1998 the ownership of the lighthouse went to the state of Ohio and it is evident that a lot of rejuvenation and improvement was made to the area when it became part of the Ohio State Parks. The light is located sixty five foot above the ground and has a green flash every six seconds to distinguish it from any beacon lights. It is the oldest continuously operated lighthouse on the great lakes. There was a Civil War Confederate interment camp within eyesight of the lighthouse on Johnson Island where 10,000 men were imprisoned. There were many of the prisoner diaries that mentioned the lighthouse along with dreams of returning to their homes in the South.
THE 1821 LIGHTHOUSE AT MARBLEHEAD, OHIO ON THE SANDUSKY BAY
There have been several times that I have tried to get some pictures of butterflies with a limited success which would have been even less successful except for my telephoto lens. I had the opportunity to go to a butterfly pavilion here in Rochester the other day. Instead of seeing a few or even a couple dozen butterflies I saw hundreds of them. There had to be several dozen different varieties of butterflies and several kinds of moths. My only objection to the visit was that the time was just too short. Maybe it is standard procedure to limit the time a person can visit to a very short time but I did not have nearly enough time to photograph more than a few. To be sure there were a lot of people that came through in each and every tour group. The camouflage of these insects is amazing. There were some with blue iridescent wings that would almost seem to disappear when they folded their wings together. I likely would have never seen one very large and very beautiful moth if it had not been pointed out to me by my wife. It is handy to have a second set of eyes around some times.
A HUGE MOTH IN THE BUTTERFLY PALVILION
Peace On The Road has made me think that in some ways I have come back to where I started. I started by bringing a bride to a home that she had never seen, in a place that she had never visited, to be with people that she had never met, and we didn't know what we were going to do or where we were going to go. That first home had wheels under it, a kitchen in it, a bedroom, a bath, a living room and some storage space. It did not have a motor in it. Something in front had to pull it. It carried no water nor could it generate its own power. Everything we owned was inside or beneath on the ground. Now move forward forty and some years and what do you see? There I am asking the same bride with a different colored hair, to move into a home she had never seen except in a brochure, to go places she has never visited, to be with new people that she had yet to meet, and we don't know what we are going to do or where we are going to go, sometimes until we actually get there. Like that first home this one has wheels under it, a kitchen in it, a bedroom, a bath (well a shower), a living room, and (underneath but not on the ground) some storage space. This one has an engine in the back that pushes, a container of water underneath and a power generator in the front. Except for a few select things everything we own is either inside or beneath in the basement storage. There are some things that have changed in our lives and we see some of the things that have changed for others. It is these changes and the places we visit that makes this life exciting and I have the privilege to share some of them with you.
Till later this is Doug of
Peace On The Road
