This Saturday (September 29th) marks the 3rd installment of Depot Town’s Fallapalooza. There will be a corn roast by the Farmer’s Market benefitting Ypsilanti Meals On Wheels, The Hope Clinic, and the Friends of the Freighthouse. There will be a scarecrow contest, live music on the street, games and clowns, bobbing for apples, Story Time provided by the Ypsilanti District Library, as well as a corn hole toss for kids and ‘beverage’ tent sponsored by Aubrees.

The highlight, however, will be the world’s largest game of Chutes and Ladders brought to you by Shannon Gordon and the good folks at Gordon’s Five and Dime. Had Shannon been willing to call it by its British name of Snakes and Ladders, the people at Guinness would have been interested, but since Shannon wanted to thumb his nose at copyright infringement and the Hasbro corporation, we’ll just have to give it the unofficial world record.

Shannon’s put some work into this and is planning on bringing the community some interesting match-ups. At 11AM, there will be a game between members of the Plymouth Whalers ice hockey club. At 3PM, the principals of the local elementary schools will face off against one another. There were supposed to be other “celebrity” match-ups like a City Council game or a rematch of some of the recent political contests. There was even supposed to be a blogger match, but that never materialized. It’s Saturday. People have things to do. It’s really no big deal. The game will be cool enough on its own.

As a consolation, there will be a head-to-head, winner-take-all match between myself and local rabble rouser, Steve Pierce at high noon. It may not be Foreman v. Ali Rumble in the Jungle or even Sugar Shane Moseley v. Luis Collazo at Mandelay Bay, but it’s something.

In an effort to make the game interesting, we are doing a 50 Cent / Kanye West thing where the loser has to retire from the game forever.

Vegas already has the line at -260 Robb / +105 Pierce. I’m heavily favored, and with a line like that, I stand very little chance of making any serious money unless I’m willing to throw the game. I’m not ruling that out, but you’re better off taking Kentucky getting 23.5 against Florida Atlantic than you are betting on this one.

The most interesting thing to note is the board itself. Local businesses, among others, sponsored squares. While I’m not certain of this, it appears that Shannon has organized them in a hierarchical format with his most favorite being at the very top. As you can clearly see, my square is at the very top.

I would encourage everyone to stop by this family-friendly event and watch me kick Mr. Pierce’s ass all over the street in the name of charity.