Round and Round

The other tour stop we made on the way home Friday was at Carousel Magic in Mansfield, OH. One of only two factories in the world that will build or reconstruct a carousel from the ground up (the other is in Mansfield as well, but doesn't do tours), this tour talked about the history of carousels (originally used as training for jousters), the style changes (from small horses only, to larger more ornate equines, to the free-for-all styles of today), the construction (hollow casket style saves a lot of weight), and the intricate quality assurance steps that they take (look for shadows). My daughter even got to try her hand at chiseling a little. Like the lessons learned at the Whistle stop, I think that we all have a new appreciation for the beauty of the manufacturing process...

Note to self: remember to always take twice as much cash as you think that you'll need. We had to change our route home to avoid the tollways because we didn't even have enough cash on us for that...