[cheerful music]
- Mordini: My first degree in teaching was in history.
I love history.
I sneak it in whenever I can.
Hello.
- Angela: High school teacher Shelley Mordini
will school you on Baraboo's history.
- Shelley: Isn't this the best ride ever?
And I love riding a bike,
so combined all of those things together.
- Angela: As a tour guide, she can peddle a good story.
- Shelley: I want them to see a beautiful Midwestern town
steeped in circus history
with a few ghosts hanging around
to make it exciting.
[chiming bike bell]
Welcome to the Historic Downtown Baraboo Rickshaw Ride!
Coming up here on our right-hand side
is the historic Al Ringling Theater built in 1915.
He spent $100,000 to build it.
It's built on the one-third scale model
of the Palace of Versailles,
has 700 seats in the main floor and 102 in the box seats,
and absolutely gorgeous on the inside.
I get to meet a lot of interesting people.
Whoo!
[laughs]
I started to keep track of all the different countries
that have come on my tour,
and I'm up to 22 different countries right now.
Some days, I love this more than my husband.
[passenger laughs]
[chimes bell] Al Ringling Mansion was built in 1905.
It's very unique on the inside.
- And where's that?
- Right over there.
- Angela: This tour also requires a lot of pedal power.
- We do have steep hills in Baraboo,
which is why I have a little motor to assist me
in getting up these Hills.
My weight limit is 600 pounds.
One time, I had a family of four,
which kinda worked out to be 600 pounds,
and it was a struggle.
You can't just jump into it.
You have to be in good shape to do it.
- No tour of Baraboo is complete
without a visit to the circus grounds.
- Up that way is circus world.
That's where all the magic is hidden here in Baraboo.
This is where the "greatest show on earth" started.
So here, we are entering in
the Ringling Brothers winter quarters.
Baraboo was the winter home
to the Ringling Brothers Circus from 1884 to 1919.
Interestingly enough,
that was the same year as the Spanish flu,
and that's why they pulled out of Baraboo.
- The circus left more than a few secrets behind.
- Shelley: And the big red one,
that's like the most haunted place.
So, we talk about the ghost that put the "boo" in Baraboo.
- Angela: From ghost to grueling hills,
this pedicab peddler
is filled with passion for this place.
- I want them to experience the history of Baraboo
and really see Baraboo through my eyes,
the eyes of a local.
I give them a great show.
[laughing]
- Whooooo! - Whooooo!