Sorry for such a delay in getting anything posted these past few days. It has been a rather hectic, but fun weekend of dance and exploration and those times when I got back to the trailer were used to catch up on some much needed sleep. But I'll recap it all here, more so I can remember it than anything else.

    Most of Friday the 25th was spent in hanging out at the trailer and getting ready for the dance weekend that was starting that night. I left around 2:00 in order to drive over to the Tampa airport and pick up a couple of friends who were flying in from Denver. No real problem meeting up with them and since I had a few extra hours to kill I even drove them around a bit so they could find something to take with them to the pot luck before the dance.

    I met up with a friend of mine from Nashville at 5:30 and we ended up eating dinner at a restaurant just down the street from the dance hall. Pretty good food over all and the best part was that we could sit outside and watch the sun go down over the bay. With the palm trees, good conversation, a nearly full moon and soft warm ocean breeze it was a pretty nice dinner all in all.

   The dance started at 8:00 and about 300 people were there ready to go when 'The Blue Ribbon Dance Band' and Will Mentor got us started. Good music, good calling and lots of fun dance partners. The 1st half was over way to early. The 2nd half had the band 'Riptide' playing with Cis Hinkle doing the calling. They were even better to dance to as they played more upbeat, or at least louder, tunes than the 1st band. Now don't get me wrong, there was nothing wrong with any of the 1st half, it was just that the 2nd half was more energetic and that was what everyone was there for. By the time 11:30 came around and the last waltz was played, my feet were sore and I was exhausted and dehydrated. It was just enough to get me back to the trailer and then into bed.

    I picked my friend up at 10:00 on Saturday and we headed down the coast to the town of Sarasota. We were on a mission to see the Circus Museum that they had there where the Ringling Bro's - Barnum and Bailey Circus use to have their winter quarters. It took about an hour to get down there and then we spent a couple of hours seeing as much of it as we could before our hunger for lunch overtook us. We hit the main circus museum buildings as well as the mansion of John and Mabel Ringling. Lots of stuff to see of course but a few things really stuck out. The 1st was the 1/2":1' scale model of the circus that some guy named Howard Tibbals has been creating for the last 40 years or so. With between 50,000 and 60,000 individual pieces and taking up 3,800 square feet of space, it is an amazing history of the circus in miniature. Photo's of some of that will be forth coming as soon as I can get them all sorted and processed.

    There was also the original private railroad car of the Ringling's. Fully restored it was an amazing piece of architecture on wheels. But the thing that struck me the most was the Mansion that the Ringling's had built right on the waterline of the bay. One of three mansions they owned this one was called Ca' d' Zan, or House of John, and was built to emulate the grandeur of palaces they had seen in Venice and Seville. A very beautiful 'house' in any case, it became even more interesting today when I went out to the movies to see the show 'Parker' and saw that they were using that house as one of the main sets. The best part was in knowing that the house wasn't really set in Palm Beach like they had you believe in the movie. Cool!

    We finally gave up on the museum because of hunger, even though there seems to be a lot more to see there. Maybe next year. We went off to Barnacle Bills in Sarasota for a quick lunch and then back to St Pete for some relaxation and a nap before meeting up again for a quick dinner before the evening dance.

    Another hopping night of dancing on the official 'Snow Ball'. Some people dressed up, some even in all white, but most just came dressed to be comfortable on what was a nice warm and pleasant evening. The reverse order to the bands tonight with Riptide starting off and BRDB second. No holding back tonight as everyone was revved up and ready to dance. By the time 4 hours had gone by we were all drenched in sweat, exhausted and very, very happy. Once again I had just enough left to get me back to the trailer and into bed.

    Was up way to early on Sunday. The last dance started at 10:15 so it was a struggle to get up and take a shower and get dressed and drive over to the dance hall. But it was done, and like usual, Sunday was some of the best dancing of the weekend. There was a noted lack of energy to most everyone as well as a lack of any great brain activity going on, so it was a good thing that the callers kept the dances easy and not to fast. By the time the dance ended at 1:30 everyone seemed to be happy but exhausted. It had been one of the best dances this past year. Lots of fun people and a lot of good friends. Never did get to dance with everyone I wanted to, but that is often the way it goes. The good part is knowing that we will meet up again at some other dance weekend. It is one of the great things about contra dances.

    I headed back to the trailer soon after the end of the dance. I was tired and feeling a little bit nauseous for some reason. Finally figured out that it was most likely due to all the allergy meds I had consumed over the course of the weekend. It is really a bummer when your own body works against you. In this case having to good of an immune system. The pills did help keep me from having fits from all the dust that gets stirred up at every dance, but it also takes a toll after so much stuff. I ended up falling asleep on the couch and not waking up until nearly midnight, only to go to bed and not wake up again until nearly 10:00 this morning. It seemed to work tho as I felt a 100% better today.

   Finally got some food and fluids back into the body this morning and decided to take it easy today. With that in mind it was off to find someone to give me a haircut. Found one over near the mall who consented to "lower my ears" a bit and got done with that onerous job once again. Since I was already there it seemed like a great idea to go see a movie, so that was how I came to see the movie 'Parker' this afternoon. A good 'Boys Night Out' movie, but not one that will ever garner any awards of any kind. Still, it did have a bit of a plot and J-Lo still looks good. I'm sure women would also find Jason Straithem (sp) easy on the eyes also.

   So that about does it on the catching up stuff. I am sure there are already parts that have been forgotten, but that is the way it goes. Here are a few photo's from the Circus Museum. Tonight it is pictures of the mansion. Other photo's will come along later.

John & Mabel Ringling's mansion, Ca' d'Zan, at the circus museum in Sarasota Florida - Jan 26, 2013

The front view of part of the house. You can see the Italian, Spanish and Moorish influences. I love the tower.

A view along the back. Note the curved stairway to the tower and the little deck that must be up there also. The stairway at the bottom right of the photo leads down to the boat landing dock. It was covered with black, white, green and orange limestone tiles.

A closer view of the tower, staircase and upper deck. Check out the details above the windows and the colored tile accents.

The outer facade of the inner spiral staircase.

Another view showcasing the window details.

More windows.

Another overall view of the back facade.  

This chair looked like it could stand up to anything or anybody. Check out the carved details.

The office.

This was just inside the family room. The warm wood is really set off by the black and white marble tile.

The roof over the main living room area had this chandelier and all this richly painted detail. The balcony runs around 3 sides of the second floor and has doors to the rooms found there. We couldn't, unfortunately, see the 2nd floor.

Another view of the main living room showing some of the furniture on the 1st floor and another view of the 2nd floor balcony.

Ah! The "boy's" room.

The formal dining room had another beautiful chandelier and this remarkable wooden ceiling. Made entirely out of wood, it must of been a nightmare for some finish carpenter to install. The details on the interior panels is all wood marquetry also.

A closer view of some of the panels.

The way they kept thing cool in the days before modern refrigeration.