Friday Travel Ticker: This festival really bites

By Chris Erskine

Oct. 5, 2012 12 AM PT

And you think you have hairy legs? Check out the annual Tarantula Festival on Oct. 27 in Coarsegold Historic Village, about a half hour south of Yosemite. The festival features a tarantula-themed baking contest, costume contest, tarantula races and more. Details at the Coarsegold website .... Spirit Airlines is charging customers $100 for gate-checking their carry-on bags. The higher charge begins Nov. 6. The fee has been $45. Spirit and Allegiant are the only airlines charging for carry-on luggage .... Ventura’s Scottish festival, the Seaside Highland Games, celebrates its 10th anniversary Oct. 13-14, with bagpipes, Irish dancers and the Scottish Heavy Athletes (large men throwing stuff). Info: www.seaside-games.com .... More than 80 airplanes will taxi down the streets of Palm Springs for a “Parade of Planes” Oct. 10, in advance of a trade show at the convention center, Oct 11-13 . . . . Temecula’s South Coast Winery Resort & Spa hosts a Haunted Behind-The-Scenes Wine Tour, Oct. 26-31. Tickets are $45; reservations required, (951) 587-9463 .... WWII buffs should check out the 11th annual Pearl Harbor Day Troop Train, running between Los Angeles and San Diego on Dec 1. Fare: $109.95, with discounts for vets; www.LARail.com or (714) 546-6923 .... The Four Seasons Hotel San Francisco has debuted a new Runners’ Concierge program that offers nutrition help, massages and free socks, just in time for the Nike Women’s Marathon on Oct. 14 .... A spooked-out maze and mansion tour, the Winchester Mystery House Fright Nights, runs through the rambling and reportedly haunted home of Sarah Winchester in San Jose through Halloween. For details, visit the Fright Nights website or call (408) 247-2101 .... Lunacy Music and Arts Festival, a three-day celebration of the full moon and “transformational festival of the arts,” takes place Oct. 26-28 at Live Oak Camp in Santa Ynez. It will feature electronic and live music with workshops and demonstrations by artists and guest speakers .... Returning to Las Vegas for its fourth year, NASCAR After The Lap takes place Nov. 29 at PH Live at Planet Hollywood. One of the biggest events associated with NASCAR’s Sprint Cup Series Champion’s Week, it gives fans a chance to interact with the top drivers. Tickets are $20, at www.NASCARafterthelap.com .... Each year, Yosemite National Park hosts nearly 9,300 volunteers who donate over 172,000 hours of work, the park says .... Travel quote of the day: There is a harmony in autumn, and a luster in its sky, which through the summer is not heard or seen, as if it could not be, as if it had not been!” (Percy Bysshe Shelley)

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Chris Erskine

Chris Erskine is a nationally known humor columnist and editor who retired from the Los Angeles Times in 2020. Previously he wrote for the Sports, Travel and Saturday sections and edited with the paper’s features staff. As an editor, he has been a part of two Pulitzer Prize-winning teams at The Times (for his graphics work on the Northridge quake and the North Hollywood bank robbery). He is best known to readers for his weekly humor pieces on life in suburban Los Angeles. His latest book, “Daditude,” released in 2018, is a collection of his favorite Times columns on fatherhood. He has written two other books, “Man of the House” and “Surviving Suburbia,” which reached the Los Angeles Times bestseller list. The Chicago native has also worked for papers in New Orleans and Miami.

Friday Travel Ticker: This festival really bites

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