Another use for duct tape: The Duct Tape Festival

If one roll of duct tape is handy for taking care of almost everything but the kitchen sink–oh, wait, you can use it for that too, how about what happens when there are rolls and rolls of the stuff? Head to the Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival and you’ll find out. In Avon, Ohio, “Duct Tape Capital of the World,” the place where Duck brand duct tape is made, duct tape shows up in parade floats, hats, clothing, sculptures and crafts.

You name it, you can make it with duct tape seems to be the festival motto. The festival, June 13-15, handily coincides with Father’s Day weekend. Flowers for mom for Mother’s Day and duct tape for dad. Of course, you can mix it up and make flowers for dad out of duct tape. Although, since the theme of this year’s festival parade is pirates, maybe a pirate hat will do–or a ship.

Along with the duct tape events there are rides, food and music. If something breaks down during this weekend, like a ride seat cushion gets a small tear, there will be plenty of stuff on hand to fix it.

If there are any funky festivals celebrating something unusual about your town, let us know. Toot your horn so we can send people your way to toot with you. For ideas for how to use duct tape in your travels, click here.

Cross-Country Skiing at the Enchanted Forest- a yummy option

If you love cross-country skiing and you love desserts, not a bad combination since cross-country skiing is a great calorie burner, head to the Enchanted Forest XC Ski and Snowshoe Area near Red River, New Mexico for “Just Desserts” Eat and Ski, February 24. (to get there from the Enchanted Forest website, click on events then click on the Just Deserts link.)Tables laden with homemade desserts from Red River restaurants will be set up at various spots along the trail for skiers to sample. Tequila Lime Pie, Black Forest Cheesecake and Mountain Berry Cream Flan will be among the 18 different options.

If you can’t make it to this event, consider another time. I’ve been cross-country skiing at the Enchanted Forest three times myself-once on a solo weekend vacation and twice with friends. Each time was as good as the next. With trail names like Jabberwocky, Little John and Cheshire Cat, this is perfect place for those who have never cross-country skied before and those who are experts who don’t mind company.

Because the trails cover 33km of the Carson National Forest in northern New Mexico, there are opportunities to take in vistas, tucked away places and loads of mountain scenery. Trails are well marked with their level of difficulty so you don’t go wandering off into treachery if you’re a beginner or waste your time with a ho-hum feeling if you’re looking to try out your technique. If you don’t have your own equipment, rentals are available. Red River is a neat town to enjoy for a night or two. It looks a bit like a tourist town-which it is, but that ensures good places to eat and stay and things to do when the day’s skiing is done. I like Red River because it’s not as crowded or polished as Taos or Santa Fe. There’s a more down-home, casual feel that made me feel comfortable, particularly when I was on my own.