The Amazing Race gets international!
We started with a season-long recap that of course included my friends the Gags. I will admit the little girl looked really cute when she was rubbing her sad face after they were eliminated. We were reminded that the Weavers were the victims of both Yields and still stayed in the Race, and the Linz family was the only one of the three finalists not to be saved by a non-elimination leg.
The teams got on an airplane! And flew out of the country! Yeah it was only to Montreal but still.
How is a direct flight from Minneapolis to Montreal an hour longer than a flight from the same airport connecting through Toronto? They must have edited out a long wait somewhere for the direct flight.
The Detour is participating in curling or log rolling. The Wallys were the only team to do the physical log challenge, and this time it proved to be much harder.
I'm glad the Weavers were able to find somebody who liked them in Ted the taxi driver. We'll ignore the fact they were paying him.
The flying trapeze Roadblock sure was random. The Floridas opened a nice lead when the boy nailed it on his first try. The heavy Linz brother let the girls catch up with his multiple failed attempts.
That stadium thing was insane. Only three departure cards in a 55,000-seat arena? That's not right. And after all that they leave a whole ten minutes apart.
Just a random thing I wanted to throw out there. While looking around the empty stadium, one of the Bransen girls made a comment about how walking down the rows was like being at church. So it looks like we had two church-going families but they acted in completely different manners. It's a reminder that we shouldn't base our feelings about an entire group by the actions of one person or family.
The next morning they took charter planes to a "mystery destination," which turned out to be Toronto. Whoopee. Two-thirds of the teams had already been through there on the previous flight. The Weavers fell a little behind in the tower but it was still anyone's game at that point.
The final Detour was boating out to a ship and climbing a rope ladder, or going to a shoe museum and playing Cinderella with a hundred women trying to find the one that fit your shoe. That doesn't sound like a fairy tail ending to me. Once again, the Bransens chose differently and it was the harder of the two tasks.
The one they call Bone was fast on the ropes so the sibs had the lead but the Weavs were pulling up to the boat as they left.
They must have edited the Cinderella challenge to make it seem longer than it was because the Bransens and Linzes asked for directions from the same jogger on their way to the huge power boats. Those things looked fun.
The final Roadblock was assembling a large puzzle of the states and provinces of North America and the countries of Central America. It's Wally vs. brother Nick and they were neck and neck.
It was funny watching the helpless family members watch the puzzlers. They were jumping all over the place. One of the daughters looked like she was doing Tae-Bo or something.
Nick was the first done with the puzzle but Wally was close behind. It was a sprint to the finish and…the sibs win! The Linz family didn't blow it!
Wally was weeping because he wuvs his wittle wadies. Sorry…I just wanted to whip out some alliteration. It was actually a very touching moment that made one of the angry sons cry too.
So what happened to the Weavers? They never even made it to the puzzle before the Race was over. Somewhere after the boat Detour they fell way behind but we don't know how. They probably stopped for more Big Macs.
And what's the deal with that "Who Dey?" stuff? It goes back to the late '80s when football teams did silly things like make music videos. The Cincinnati Bengals took "Who are they who think they are going to beat the Bengals?" and turned it into the chant: "Who dey think gonna beat dem Bengals?" Apparently football helmets don't work as well as they should.
February! Eleven teams of two! Five contenents!! The Race goes back to true Amazing status and you can count on me to write about it.
Dey Dang Fun, dat who.
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