Friends, family and, yes, strangers, often remind me that there’s a whole world out there beyond airports.  They’re right. And luckily that world is quite wacky.   Especially if you find yourself at one of the offbeat festivals or events I rounded up this week for a “Wacky Festivals” slide-show on msnbc.com.

(Courtesy Fruita Tourism)

In Colorado, there’s Mike’s Festival, which honors a chicken that lived for two years without its head. In Ohio, there’s a parade celebrating duct tape. And in Bell Buckle, Tennessee synchronized wading is on the menu at a festival that includes the cutting (and eating) of the world’s largest Moon Pie.

You can click through the full story at msnbc.com, but here are some of my favorites:

(courtesy Duck brand duct tape)

Avon, Ohio is the home of the Duck brand duct tape and, around Father’s Day each year, they have the Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival, which includes duct tape sculptures, fashions and arts & crafts projects, as well as a parade featuring the product.

(Courtesy: The Citizens Voice)

Pittston, Pa has a tomato festival every year, which ends with a rotten tomato fight.

And in Fruita, Colo., Mike’s Festival celebrates Mike, a rooster that lived for 18 months in the mid-1940s after its head was cut off. Left with just enough brainstem to keep going, and fed grain and water by eye-dropper through his esophagus, Mike’s final days were spent pecking out a healthy living for his owners on the national sideshow circuit, where the curious would scratch up a bit of cash to see what was billed as The Headless Wonder Chicken.

(Mike – and Mike’s head – courtesy Fruita Tourism)

Not long after the Wacky Festivals slide-show was posted on msnbc.com, I started getting notes from people who wanted to be tell me about wacky festivals I missed. My favorite so far: the Annual Mooning of Amtrak – and Metrolink- in Laguna, Niguel, California.

Sorry – no picture.