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.

Flint Creek Valley Days: Philipsburg, Montana

Flint Creek Valley Days in Philipsburg, Montana is the kind of small town festival where everyone is involved–even the tourists. This was our fourth. The highlight for me is always Saturday’s. People park their trucks and hatchbacks on Broadway (the main street) with hatches up and gates down for the best view. Kids come with empty shopping bags ready for when the candy flies. Every one who is in the parade throws salt water taffy, Tootsie Rolls, Dum Dum lollipops and bubble gum into the crowd while waving and calling out to friends and neighbors. Anyone with a business is in the parade along with various clubs.

The other big draw is Sunday’s car show. I’m not an huge car person, but these are beauties. My favorites are the cars that people add extras to show them off such as an old-fashioned car hop tray, the kind that you used to get at a restaurant with a Drive-in.

This year, a week ago today, while I waited for the parade to start, I sat next to a lovely older woman who shared the back of her open hatchback with me while she told me town news. She grew up in Philipsburg and recalled stories when the mines were in full swing. Over the years she’s seen the town shrink and expand with the economic times.

Besides the main parade there’s a kiddie parade on Friday night where kids dress up and ride or walk through town before ending up at a carnival. We missed it this year, but this was one of my son’s high points when he was three. My Flint Creek Valley Days high point was a few years ago when I ran in the 5K and got ribbon.

A pancake breakfast, a logging competition and live bands on Friday and Saturday night add markers of things to do in between moseying down the street browsing the vendors’ wares and picking up some street food. If you’re thinking of visiting Philipsburg, this is one of the liveliest weekends of the summer. It’s always the last weekend in July. Here is a list of other town events–some past and others still to come.

John Wayne Turns a Hundred

John Wayne turns 100 on May 26 and there’s a celebration. Of course you know John Wayne is dead, but that’s no excuse to not have a party. In Winterset, Iowa where he was born, the town has a slew of cowboy type stuff to do over the weekend, May 25-27 at the John Wayne Birthday Centennial Celebration. Michael Martin Murphy, the singing cowboy poet is performing. So is the group Ghost Riders. Besides that, there’s a parade, The John Wayne Birthday Wild West Revue, a chuck wagon supper and free John Wayne movies on a big screen somewhere. Along with the festivities, John Wayne’s 4-room house is a museum that is open year round. It’s been restored to look like it did when he lived there and has loads of memorabilia. To buy your own John Wayne stuff, stop in the Birthplace Shop.

If you’ve never gone to a small town American festival, this one looks like a good one. I’m quite fond of events where the town comes out for a good time and everyone seems to know everyone. For example, if you go to one of the parades, people in the parade know all the people watching the parade.

By the way, Winterset just happens to be in Madison County where the book and movie Bridges of Madison County takes place. Just another reason to go there. Here’s a link to the covered bridges and movie site map. Now that I’ve found out about this, perhaps I’m just going to have to swing through the next time I go through Iowa, and I do drive through Iowa.