Amazing Race, Elvis and Beer Garden Olympics at Ripley Reunion Sunday

There was plenty of excitement and fun at the Ripley Reunion throughout the day Sunday, even though the weather didn't co-operate and the shirt-tail dance had to be postponed to Monday night because of a severe thunderstorm that moved in Sunday evening.

The day began with an interdenominational church service, followed by volleyball.

The afternoon saw 13 teams signed up for Ripley's Amazing Race in which they were required to go to five different locations and complete challenges at each one. The locations included the township municipal office, Lewis Park, St. Andrew's United Church, RVilla, and the Bruce Botanical Food Gardens.

Challenges included riding a tricycle and scooping up Cheerios; carrying a bale of hay; shooting hockey pucks at a target; 10 minutes of chair exercises; singing two verses of Kenny Rogers' "The Gambler," figuring out puzzles; and racing through the food gardens to find plants, making tea with them and drinking the tea.

The Ripley Cheerleaders team, consisting of Taylor Pollard, Bethany Wilken, Lily Freiburger and Charlotte Fegert, an exchange student from Switzerland, won the race.

A capacity crowd enjoyed the talents of Roy LeBlanc who performed as Johnny Cash, Roy Orbison and then Elvis Presley.



Roy LeBlanc as Elvis Presley; video by David Dadson

Partway through LeBlanc's show, heavy rain and high wind blew in, forcing the patrons of the beer gardens into the arena until the storm blew over.

Once it was safe to return outside, 21 teams took part in the Beer Garden Olympics which included an obstacle course, complete with a sack race, beer pong, a race through the tires, and more.

The evening ended with a ham supper and the performance of "Railroad to Ripley."