Now, I normally jump on any chance to hit O H I O even if it's just for a trip for Jones potato chips or a shot at Grandpa's Cheese Barn, but I must admit the Duck Tape Festival truly didn't seem like my idea of a great time from the start.It didn't turn out that bad though and Rachel wound up getting a nice "haul" for her supply table, so it was worth it to her.
Avon, Ohio is a small city (census estimate is about 20,000) near Cleveland that houses the Duck Tape brand factory and uses the name and product for the reason for the city to have a fair type setting.
Many small towns use a theme for a weekend setting for the town to have a parade and a fair and since the factory is the town's largest employer, what better theme could there be?
I know the true name is DucT Tape, but Duck Tape found a niche' with the mispronunciation of the name and became the name brand of the product.
Think of regular tape is usually called Scotch tape for another example of this...
We rode by the factory on the second day and Rachel along with Cherie stopped and snapped some pictures of the sign in front of the factory.
It really to sum it up was a large carnival or small fair if you prefer with a decent size addition on the end devoted to Duck Tape.
There were large works of art using the tape with the theme of the year being space and some of those artworks were interesting-my favorite was a large Saturn V rocket.
The parking was not done well considering the large ground that they had and on Saturday, we had to park far away (I can use the walk), but was blocked in such a way that I had one small avenue to exit and that was with several shifts and starts.
Fortunately, only a skilled driver as I was able to maneuver my way through in the rented SUV.
Full sarcasm and a nod to First Blood there, for those of you that have seen the film many times, I'm sure you know what I'm referring to.
However, what Rachel enjoyed best was getting tape that wasn't available elsewhere such as scratch and sniff tape (what won't they make?) that has not been released for sale in stores and getting free rolls of "Old School" silver (Excuse me, sir have you gotten your free roll? Of course, not) for her.
The downside? Well, there were two.
The first was the interminable wait for credit card machines to get rolling (hey, when you are spending the money-get those points!), but the lady running the store was very nice and the other was someone named "J Wallets".
I don't watch Duck Tape videos other than Rachel's, but apparently, J is another video person and he obviously has A) Rich parents, B)Parents that spoil him or C) Both as he loaded up a massive basket filled with this stuff while running around pouting that he didn't get enough tape.
There were a few things that could have went smoother on this trip, but now in hindsight (although maybe not at the time), have to spend 20 minutes in line behind a whining J Wallets might have been the worst part of the trip.
All things considered, the festival was tolerable for the old man and I even had a good cheesesteak out of it and Cherie had a nice stromboli according to her for another plus.
I'd do it again IF there were other things to do as well to go with another trip to Avon!
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