Our reason for staying near Sarasota was so that we could visit the Ringling Circus Museum. Sarasota was the winter quarters for the Ringling Bros. & Barnum & Bailey Circus. John Ringling became very wealthy and built a fabulous mansion and art gallery here. Operated by Florida State University, the grounds now also house a circus museum and another building which had, among other things, the most astounding model circus depicting all the tents and features of the entire operation. It took over 50 years to build. Here is a panorama of the layout. The big top is to the right and other tents include a dressing tent, dining tent, cook tent, tents for the performing animals and on and on. (lights would dim periodically to simulate nighttime.) Here is a cutaway of the bigtop with the 3 ring circus inside. All this is to scale, including folding chairs and people and animals. Here’s the performers’ dining tent. If there are any old enough to remember, the circus travelled on trains. The ‘commissary’ would arrive first and be prepared to serve three hearty meals to around 1300 people. In about 4 hours the huge bigtop and the other tents were set up, ready for the parade through the town. I don’t know how many performances they would do, but at the end of the day, all was dismantled, loaded back on the train and headed for the next town. A real picture of logistic precision. Below is the performers’ entrance to the bigtop. The ‘freak show’ tent, concessions, and entrance to the bigtop. Inside the bigtop. Notice the folding chairs. And the trapeze artists were animated. This exhibit is definitely worth a visit. The museum building held actual circus artifacts, including the ‘human cannonball’ cannon and some of the circus wagons. Next was John Ringling’s mansion on the bank of the bay. This is a side view. The expansive marble deck and boat dock extend to the left. Can you find ML? Inside the opulence continues. Real gold of course. Ringling purchased much art and furnishings from estate sales of wealthy people. The chandelier below came from the Waldorf Astoria hotel, which was torn down to build the Empire State Building. The courtyard of the Art Museum And finally, the Rose Garden. From here we move north. Stay tuned.
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Who Are We?Chuck and Mary Lou have been traveling in their RV since 2002 and have lately been taking longer, extended trips. This is our way to share our experiences. Trip Reports
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