Full Time RVer

Tim and Renee McRae didn’t dream about running away to join the circus when they were kids. They just sort of fell into it. Today, and their two teenage sons live in Class A motorhome and travel most of the year, making the circus a family business.

Tim recently told a blogger for the SF Weekly.com that his start with the circus got a most unusual start. In the mid 1990’s he had a far more ordinary job: Forklift driver in a warehouse. But all that changed with a late night telephone call from a cousin with a problem. It seemed the relative had started a circus, but his “big cat” act man wasn’t able to get along with the lions and tigers (oh my!). He offered the job to McRae who recalls, “I said ‘Heck yeah!’” recalls McRae with a laugh. “Actually, I said I’d have to talk to my wife, but she said she’d always liked circuses so let’s go. Later that month I was in the cage with four lions on one side of me and three tigers on the other.”

Ah, but what about the children? It didn’t take long for them to get in on the act. Jordan, now 18, and Dorian–two years younger–have parts with the family’s current employer, Circus Vargas. Juggling and unicycle riding are their forte, when they aren’t home schooling. An older brother, Adrian is off working for Ringling Brothers, working as a lighting technician.

Being on the road in an RV for a circus family does have its differences from other fulltimers. Sticking to the show schedule 44 weeks a year does tend to tie you down. But McRae looks at his life as a bit of an adventure, “Circus life is cool. We have our own little community and we travel around from place to place,” he says, stubbing out his cigarette. “If you’ve gotta do something, this ain’t bad.”

Stock photo: http2007 on flickr.com

You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.