Circus Folks Cemetery with that personal touch!

Time for a another weekend roadtrip, and given the time of the year, south was the best choice. I am in the middle of designing the new Rare Visions and Roadside Revelations book (due out no later than May) and realized that there are a handful of places that the guys didn’t really get good photos of. Armed with that excuse go, I grabbed my camera, hopped in the gas guzzling SUV and meandered to Texas.

Showman’s Rest and Bull Rider’s Reprieve
Mount Olivet Cemetery
Hugo, OK
The first thing you notice when you get out of the car is how great it smells. Seriously.  Near the  Ouachita Mountains and National Forest, the pine trees are abundant.  I didn’t realize that Hugo, Oklahoma was once known as Circus City USA (I thought that was Baraboo, Wisconsin or Gibsonton, Florida…don’t ask me why I think such things…). But apparently there are 2 different shows that headquarter there. (Just down the Kirk Road is the winter homes of the circuses) And the Mount Olivet Cemetary is the final stop when the show can’t go on.

There are elephant trainers, bull riders, ringmasters, champion rodeo cowboys, the original Marlboro Man, and apparently one of the more than 20 little people that was hired by the Brown Shoe Company to be Buster Brown.
Eiffel Tower with Giant Cowboy Hat

Corner of Jefferson Road and South Collegiate Drive
Paris, TX

Tonight I got to revisit the town, the “Second Largest Paris in the World” Eiffel Tower, topped with a red cowboy hat. Originally built in 1993 at 65 feet tall, the cowboy hat was added in response to rival Paris, Tennessee’s 70 foot tower in 1998.