If you don't know already, besides being your friendly neighborhood dumb-founder, I'm also an Uber driver. As such, especially driving in our nation's Capitol, I'm constantly meeting interesting people.
Last night was no different. I picked up a young couple at a grocery store (nothing unusual) and they were speaking a foreign language (also nothing unusual) that I deduced was Portuguese. They confirmed my guess that they were from Brazil.
As we arrived at the address, the guy pointed out a gravel road leading into the darkness beside the house with the actual address. It was then that they began to reveal more about themselves. The gravel road led to the railroad and he guided me to the train car where they live. They're circus dancers and they live on a circus train.
It seems that the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey Circus is in town. They've been appearing at several local venues and are currently performing at Eagle Bank Arena (Patriot Center) at George Mason University. While they're here, their train is parked at a switch yard in Anacostia.
Though I know of the circus, I've never been exposed to how exactly they travel around the country. This train is huge. It's over a mile long and there are hundreds of people living on it.
These young people aren't that different from any of the other young urban professionals I meet while driving except that instead of cubicles, they work under the big top; instead of an apartment, they live in a sleeping car. Some of the items they had purchased were a bottle of wine, microwave meals, and a Keurig machine.
While "The Greatest Show on Earth" might prompt us to imagine the exotic, at the end of the day, the entertainers are still just ordinary people.
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