And in the End...

Sorry it's taken me a while to finish up this travel blog, but as always seems to be the case with trips, the end came all too quickly. Now that I'm home and am slowly adjusting to the time difference (I know, it's only 2-3 hours. I'm a baby), I think I can finally conclude my travel tales.


Friday was my last day of research and my last day at the Circus Museum in Baraboo, Wisconsin. This time, thankfully, my camera was charged and ready to go. The woman running the front desk recognized me and, even though I hadn't purchased a two-day pass, she let me in for free! There's that Midwestern hospitality at work again.

Again, that's not a child's hand. That's my tiny doll hand sporting the fetching Circus Museum stamp (for free!)

This was my second time going through the collection, so I didn't study the museum material as closely as I had the first time. I did take (ahem, retake) loads of pictures, such as:

Snazzy outfit

Beautiful Alphonse Mucha-style
 Art Nouveau Poster

Mabel Stark: Tiger Tamer
 Extraordinaire

Blaxploitation Precursor?

Famous little "freak" on the right,
who starred in the 1932 film "Freaks" 

Al Ringling's Wife:
A Snake Charmer
and Equestrienne

Mordecai in the Making?

The Menagerie

Unloading

I took my time and soaked up more of that circus air, devoting myself to the old barns, which have mostly been repurposed for exhibitions.

Elephant Barn

Animal House (Giraffes, Zebras, Camels, Etc.)

Cat House

Wardrobe Barn

Ring Barn, for practicing new acts

Once again, I visited the horse barn to get that residual tang of history back in my senses (aka the smell of old hay and horse dung).

Then I crossed the river again, and checked out more of the circus show. It was more than just the little pony show this time. There was a juggling act, a contortionist and balancing act, elephants, and a Spanish web performer (an act involving a long, vertical rope on which the performer swings, curls around, and does death-defying acrobatics). Although the circus grounds themselves were more evocative and inspiring than the show, it was fun to get a taste for live performance.


I was going to visit the library and archives, but they didn't seem to be open. So instead, I concluded my trip to the Circus Museum with their wagon collection. Baraboo has an impressive number, although it was a bit difficult to tell the difference between original restorations and those that were recreated, particularly those recreated for the film "Water for Elephants." The majority of their wagons seemed to be associated with the film (aka my nemesis) and I couldn't tell if they had been built by the film crew or had been simply repainted to match the set of the film. Either way, though I'm sure that many people would be excited to see the film props, I was more interested in the non-Benzini Bros wagons. Regardless of their provenance, though, these wagons were beautiful, and a lovely way to conclude my colorful trip to the circus.

Wagons stored in former barn

Band Wagon

Yep, that is a gigantic shoe, Mother Goose Rhyme-style

My Nemesis

Interesting side note: as I was wandering around the exhibition rooms, I heard a familiar song. It was Cole Porter's "Anything Goes." No joke! Truly my trip had come full circle: from Cole Porter's birthplace and playing dress up in the Anything Goes suite, to here, in Baraboo, staring at clown make up and listening to that same Cole Porter tune. Spooky and fitting.


After making one final loop around the grounds, I made my way back to Aretha and we headed off to Chicago, the last stop before my flight home. 

Baraboo's Collection of Old Circus Trains

My last view of the Circus Museum from across the river

I had the wonderful good fortune of getting to meet up with a long lost chum, the beautiful and brainy Nilu Assar. It has been ages since we've seen each other (I'm talking years) and when she read on the book of the face that I was coming to the Midwest, she saltily wrote me and said "You better not come to the Midwest and not visit me in Michigan," (where she is currently working on her PhD in neuroscience...I told you she's brainy!). While I couldn't seem to find a way to fit Michigan in to my crazy road trip, Nilu was able to fit a trip to Chicago into her busy life, and so the two of us were reunited, and it felt so good. I met her, her new and charming boyfriend, and his friends at a BYOB in Lincoln Park, where we feasted on fried oysters and mussels with truffle fries and chicken thighs with a spicy savory jam while drinking 2 Buck Chuck. Afterwards, answering Nilu's somewhat tipsy call for dancing, we all shuffled off to a nearby bar and did some booty shaking. 


By the end of the night, I was feeling a little worse for wear, between the giant, goose egg blister that seemed to be growing on the bottom of my foot (thanks cowboy boots!) and the many days in a row of little sleep (thanks hot Midwestern nights, no air conditioning, and time differences!). So as not to be a downer, I bid adieu to the boisterous party, and headed back to the apartment we were all crashing at where I promptly passed out...only to wake up at 6:30am. Arggh. Fortunately, Nilu also woke up early and we spent the morning whispering stories to each other. We snuck out and got coffee and breakfast, and just languished in each other's company up until the last second when we had to separate: her to go to a Cubs game and me to return Aretha to her rightful owners and to head out on a jet plane back to SF.


I was exhausted. Like almost a "I helped my best friend birth her child" kind of exhausted (this isn't an expression: I actually know this kind of exhaustion from personal experience). I think I had been so caught up in the momentum of my journey, that the full force of it didn't have a chance to catch up with me until it was over. I managed to drag my broke down, gimpy self through airport security where I promptly took a nap while waiting for my flight. Though this trip was such a rich and amazing adventure, when our plane touched down on that Frisco tarmac, I was ready and eager to be home again.


Now I'm back, lovely readers, and ready for action, ready to get down and dirty with my novel writing and really make this thing come alive. I can't wait. I'm chomping at the bit, pawing at the ground, pulling against the reins. I'm ready. Thanks to this trip, I am ready.


And thanks to all of you for your support and interest in this project. In the wee hours of those hot, unairconditioned Midwestern nights, it cheered me to see my pageviews steadily increasing (and spreading into Russia?). So thanks. It made it all feel less lonely somehow.


Alright, that's all she wrote. C'est fini. Goodbye! Adios! And hopefully, look for my book in like two-five years.