We're Not In Kansas Anymore

The other day my friend offered my free tickets to a traveling circus.  About three weeks ago we took the girls to see Barnum and Bailey's Circus and they loved it, and to be honest Kev and I really liked it too, it was very impressive.  So when my friend said she had free tickets, I thought "why not" the girls will love to see another circus.  I looked up the name of the circus on the internet and it looked pretty legit...that is until we realized that the actual show was miles and miles from town in a cow pasture.  Libby said "Mommy is this circus in a meadow?"

 In my head I kept telling myself to give it a chance...then the first thing I saw when I walked in was this sign.  Well, that was after the sign that said $32 for adult tickets...What?  If I had paid for this experience  I would have been highly disappointed.

The acts we saw included but are not limited to
1.  A clown that pretended to act drunk...at least I hope he was pretending
2.  A miniature pony act that actually got away and ran into the crowd...I'm not kidding...rainbow colored ponies mixing with the patrons
3.  A lasso wielding cowboy that got tangled in his own whip and used a small Schnauzer as his prop
4.  A man and a woman who frolicked around a white tiger in a cage that was a big as Gus's crate (this was just sad...and unnerving at the same time)  They did this for 1 minute and called it the white tiger extravaganza
5.  A lady who spun around on fabric in a costume that was a little bit like something a stripper would wear...she too got tangled up like her co-worker the cowboy
At this point I realized that I needed my camera b/c if this  experience did not land us on the evening news as witness to a circus show gone bad, I was going to need proof that we were there.
The second half had some more slightly offensive clowns, roller skaters, and our favorite an Old English Sheepdog act.   It was like Gus on parade...but literally, on Gus's dirtiest most shaggy day, he hasn't looked quite this bad ever and that is saying something.  This was a rag tag bunch...they were mildly entertaining though.

Lastly, the pinnacle of the show was the elephants.  Let me just pause here to say that my camera does not have any zoom.  It is a fixed lens so the pictures you see are pretty accurate in showing that we were sitting basically as close as you could to the ring.  

 Have you seen one of those elephant gone mad videos?  You know the ones where the elephant gets tired of living in captivity with trainers that don't treat him right and then just starts trampling everything in sight...This was the only thing I could think of as these magnificent animals preformed tricks 3ft from my babies.... 

When the show was over, I breathed a sigh of relief that the news didn't show up with angry animal rights protesters and of course that we didn't get trampled on by elephants or eaten by the white tiger.  The girls frolic in the field for a few minutes before we left and I looked back in disbelief that show I had just witnessed even existed. This is what my face looked like the whole time I watched.

I think that Libby was pretending to be the lady that spun around on the fabric in this picture...have mercy on us if this is the case.

 Maggie is wondering why I subjected her to such madness...

I had to document this experience.  It was like nothing that I have ever seen before. If I was a film maker in search of a new reality show to film I would follow these carnies around.  I think it would be fascinating in a disturbing sort of way...you know like the show "Hoarders" or "Intervention," not in a "Say Yes to the Dress" sort of way.
Happy Circus...please don't tell anyone we were there! :)
Grace and Peace