High Gasoline Prices Ruining Your Travel Plans? Try a Wild and Wacky Festival Staycation

How would you like to go to a blindfold rowboat race or a local version of the World Pillow Fighting Championship? Maybe a Rattlesnake Contest, a Rotten Sneaker Competition or a Lobster Festival are up your alley? Perhaps you'd like to attend a Blobfest to celebrate the making of the 1927 B movie "The Blob" or a Wooly Worm Festival where you can race your own caterpillars.

These and hundreds of other wild and wacky small town events are entertaining Americans from Maine to California. No more traveling to far flung destinations to get a taste of the odd, quirky and exciting. No more high priced gasoline for long distance car trips or expensive airline tickets. In fact, most of these exotic adventures won't cost you a dime.

And, the best part is that you can create your own local extravaganzas just by using your imagination. Here are some real events taking place across America that will inspire you to get in touch with your own inner impresario.

Let's start in Rockland, Maine, a small seafaring town on the rocky coast. Each July thousands of people crowd into the harborfront for the annual Lobster Festival. A gala parade with floats and marching bands winds its way down Maine Street to kick off the festivities. A Grand Marshal crowns the festival Sea Goddess and Princesses while King Neptune and his court preside.

There's also plenty of lobster to eat. But if you don't like to crack these crustaceans, you can still enter the Lobster Crate Contest. All that's required is the ability to skip across ten to fifteen lobster crates strung together in the harbor-without falling in. Losers are treated to a dip in the icy ocean.

Tastebuds not tantalized? Then tune in to your sense of smell. Did you know that your feet each have more than 200,00 sweat glands? These tiny glands can churn out a pint of sweat every day. This obscure fact led to the start of the annual International Rotten Sneaker Contest in 1988.

Each March regional winners gather in Montpelier, Vermont for the big enchilada- a shot at a $500.00 savings bond and the honor of having their stinky sneakers enshrined in the "Hall of Fumes." How would you lke to be a judge of this contest?

Across the country in Fullerton, California, townspeople bring their pillows out to play in the annual World Pillow Fighting Contest. But this contest, now in its 36th year, is more than child's play. Contestants must be older than 14.

Competition begins with contenders climbing up a slippery wet pole hung over a mud hole. Next they crawl along the pole to the starting position holding a wet feather pillow in one hand. Then the pillow fight begins. No kicking of opponents or touching of the pole is allowed. The first contestant to fell an opponent wins the round and two out of three winning rounds wins the match.

Here are a few more festival ideas to get your creative juices flowing:

The Running of the Rodents, Louisville, Kentucky: Spalding College sponsors this annual event which is part of campus Rat Week. Participants take part in the Rodent Parade, the Rat Hat Contest and the Fruit Loop Eating Contest.

The Great Texas Mosquito Festival, Clute, Texas: This gala event features a Mosquito Legs Contest and a Mosquito Calling Contest

The Humungus Fungus Fest, Crystal Falls, Michigan: This fun festival commemorates the local discovery of a Giant Mushroom, allegedly weighing 11 tons and covering 37 acres. It's estimated that this fungus is more than 1,500 years old. Townspeople celebrate their Humungus Fungus with a Fungus Fest Parade, a pie social, horseshoe tournaments, and a fabulous fireworks display, all in the name of mushrooms.

Whether or not you like lobster, mushrooms or rattlesnakes, there is a festival idea out there for you! Create your own epic event and let the good times roll