Race On!

Ah… time to settle in and watch The Amazing Race on the Tivo! Here we go with my ongoing commentary on the show. I’ll do the usual – write, post. Write some more, post. So it will take me 40 minutes to finish the entry, more or less. I decided to post this as a “more” entry so that I won’t spoil the results for anyone who hasn’t seen it yet. The final results are at the bottom, so don’t read it if you don’t want to know!

– I missed last week’s episode, but they are in Thailand and heading at first to Bangkok. The husband & wife minister team was kicked off last week. I am still really surprised that they made it further then the twins.

– Chris & Alex get to leave first. You know, they are from Boston – but their accent seems really, really heavy. Sometimes they sound almost British and they are difficult to understand.

– Mary & Peach. *sigh* Poor, poor Peach. She seems like quite a ditz. She is getting better, in the beginning she was even worse!

– Tara & Wil. What is UP with their HATS??? Wil always wears this freaky looking knit hat! They are in Thailand, Tara is wearing a sleeveless shirt, and he has this weird hat on. And can we just say “so much for being humble, Wil”?

– Blake & Paige creep me out. They have since the first episode. What is up with Paige’s outfits? And Promo’s right – they just seem WAY too close.

– Gary & Dave. Love the hats, dude. ROFLMAO!!! “Team Smiley, they have never had to fight for anything in their whole world. Except for maybe their sorority slots.” (Team Smiley would be Blake & Paige with their constant super pearly white smiles.) OMG! They are talking about Oswald & Danny now, and they say “I think they are funny and entertaining guys, but they are divas.” It’s *so* true!

– Danny & Oswald are in last place. Go Divas!!! They seem really run down, I hope they perk back up. I really like them, I still think I want them to win.

– I love Gary & Dave’s commentary. “To win the game you have to have a killer instinct. Peach couldn’t kill anything except maybe a pink margarita.”

– Now they have to hunt in this huge flower market for a particular stand – the one marked with the yellow & red flags. Wil is becoming very cocky again, even though he said last week that he wouldn’t.

– Chris & Alex are becoming pretty frustrated with the flower market. They can’t find the flag for their booth. Mary & Peach are starting to search aimlessly through the fruit market. Chris & Alex finally found it, and the flags that TAR used don’t look like their normal flags. That made it pretty hard to find.

– Whee! 500 miles by train!

– Mary & Peach spotted Chris & Alex, which helped them get to the stand that had the clue. Tara & Wil stumbled across it by accident. Blake & Paige have theirs. Gary & Dave. Oswald & Danny are looking like total divas saying how they are tired and angry and just want to be in a more comfortable place.

– Once again, the train is the biggest equalizer. Everyone is getting on the same train to the city, and it’s a 15 hour train ride, on the “rapid train”.

– A bunch of the teams leave the train station, they are bored and don’t want to just hang out there. They all go shopping together. Go have lunch together. Mary & Peach are arguing over shopping and spending the money. Mary spent some without asking Peach, Peach felt like Mary had told her no, she couldn’t spend money, and so now she’s whining. Lovely.

– 14 hours on a 98 degree train with no air conditioning. Blech!

– Diva Oswald: “The race has taught me that 5 star hotels are worth EVERY penny that you pay for them. I don’t want to do without them.” I think this is starting to spell out doom for the divas. “I don’t know how many more legs I am going to be able to stand…” Then Danny says how he wants to stay, but he won’t make Oswald go on if he doesn’t want to. Maybe they will make it another round or two after all.

– Ahhhh, the memories of sleeping on the train. Sleeping while sitting in these little seats, or curling up into a tiny ball with your backpack. That’s how I traveled around Europe.

– Danny told Oswald that it was his call if they stay or go, and Oswald woke up feeling refreshed and with tons of energy.

– Mary & Peach suggest to Danny & Oswald that they should share a cab. At this point in the race I’m not sure how wise that is. Now a bunch of the other teams are piling in together too. Go! Blake & Paige are being dumped by their cab driver. A kiss of death. Gary & Dave got a good driver, very fast. Whoo hoo! Danny & Oswald and Mary & Peach stopped for snacks! But the three teams get there at the same time.

– Detour! Take a boat that you have to use a pole to get you down the river, or ride on a slooooow elephant. The boats look really scary though! I could never do it! Mary & Peach are doing great! That is until Peach falls and lands on her face.

– Paige looks like such a loon with her power puff girl hair! She has these two knobs of hair on the top of her head. Looks very silly.

– Tara & Wil are arguing. Ooooh, good sign. Wil is doing a horrid job of steering the raft, and entirely blaming Tara for it. If I was her, I’d slap him. That’s all that there is to it. He completely annoys me. After I slapped him I would burn that damn hat!

– The trucks changed colors! Magic morphing trucks! As they announced the detour they said they had to raft down the river to the trucks – and the trucks were all silver. Now that they are there and about to get in, they are all red. So, what happened to the other ones?

– Chris & Alex and Wil & Tara are in last place coming out of the river! I’m really surprised. I would not want to drive in Thailand, you can’t even read the signs! Oh, look – there are a few of the silver trucks. I guess they didn’t morph after all.

– Roadblock! Watch the religious decorations off of the elephant. Wimpy roadblock, compared to some of the ones we have seen. What, no eating weird foods to gross me out?

– Heading to the final stop. Now it’s just a matter of finding it…
… Mary & Peach
… Gary & Dave right behind them (a minute apart)
… Team Smiley (Blake & Paige)
… Oswald & Danny (Oswald talks about how maybe it’s Buddha’s way of helping him learn humility & endurance)

– Tara is commenting on something I noticed earlier – the clues don’t say “the last one there will be eliminated”. This might not be an elimination round…

… Tara & Wil are team #5, but…
… Chris & Alex arrive with them, they were technically in the lead, but Wil walked in front of them to get on the mat as team #5. And the Boston Boys are ready to take him down for it.

I still like Oswald & Danny the best, although they had some true diva moments this time. Gary & Dave are also doing well. It’s too early to guess who will be the next to go though… so we will just have to wait and see!