Hallelujah! Hallelujah! I’m playing the lotto this weekend and I think I may have a good shot at winning something! I am just so excited that Lake is gone – I can hardly stand it. Mister-Shirk-the-Blame, Mister-Intensity, Mister-Bad-Mouth-Spouse’s-Mistakes-While-Not-Doing-Anything-to-Contribute, I can go on, so I will stop. But needless to say – I am static (a Mike Tyson saying from an old TV show called “In Living Color”).
Anyway, this leg started off with Eric & Jeremy, the frat boys, leaving first and then BJ & Tyler, the hippies. They had about one hour jump on the other teams leaving for the train station. As happens at least once on each leg airports, attractions, transportation seem to cause the teams to bunch waiting for things to become available and that is what happened here. All the teams were able to board the 8am train to Rome where they were to look for the Trevi Fountain where there was a man on a scooter to give them their next clue. Upon arriving in Rome Eric & Jeremy and Monica & Joseph opted for a cab whereas the rest of the teams decided to go by metro. The cabs proved to be quicker and Eric & Jeremy and Monica & Joseph found the guy on the scooter and moved on to the rest of the task which was to find the Spanish steps and find a carriage with a portfolio folder in it and they were to match up their clue from the scooter guy and the one from the carriage and “crack the code”. It was a tie-in to the Da Vinci Code movie, of which Eric & Jeremy gets to walk down the red carpet at the premiere, that was the prize for “cracking the code”. The rest of the teams found the scooter guy and the Spanish Steps with no problem and everyone moved onto the next destination, Athens, Greece.
All the teams bunched again, this time at the airport waiting to fly to Athens. They all landed and believe it or not Barry & Fran were the first out. Their lead didn’t last due to the fact that the place there were to go to, Agora, was closed and wouldn’t open until 8am the next morning. Monica took the opportunity to voice her awe at being at the place where thinking began and all the great philosophers lived. Obviously thinking is not a strong point of her’s. Enough with my cattiness, moving along to the race.
The Fast Forward was introduced this race. It was the first of the two that will be available this race. Eric & Jeremy, Monica & Joseph, and Fran & Barry all tried for the Fast Forward. The task to claim the Fast Forward was to go to a local restaurant and smash plates in the time honored tradition of the Greeks. The first team to find the Amazing Race red and yellow flag baked into the dishes can claim the Fast Forward. Eric & Jeremy found it and made their way to the pit stop. Monica & Joseph and Fran & Barry had to go back and go to Corinth and join the rest of the teams looking for the Isthmos Station to get the next clue.
The clue had them going by train to Corinth. Joseph took the opportunity to tell Monica to suck it up and don’t be so negative. She was crying because they didn’t get the fast forward and lost time.
At the Isthmos Station they found out they had to do a Roadblock and it was bungee jumping. Most of the teams had no problems – but Fran did not want to bungee jump and was very scared. Monica tried to boost her up but Fran was petrified. But she finally overcame her fear enough to jump. She did it and appeared not to be too worse for wear. From the bungee jumping the teams got a clue to go to a Detour.
The Detour had them choosing between two tasks. The first task involved doing a mini-Olympics. One team member had to throw the discus a predetermined distance and it was the same with the javelin and then both team members had to wrestle a wrestler out of the ring. Ray & Yolanda did the mini-Olympics. Yolanda did the discus and after a couple of tosses got it to the mark but Ray had some trouble throwing the javelin. Joe came and finished before Ray did in javelin throwing. Neither team had problems wrestling the wrestler. It was here that BJ & Tyler made a HUGE screw-up. They drove an hour in the wrong direction and then had to drive an hour back and then onto the Roadblock. They were so upset at this and I thought they might be done. But if you had read my first line you know they didn’t get eliminated. The opted to do the mini-Olympics and got through the three tasks and made their way to the pit stop.
The second task to choose from was “It’s all Greek to me”. In this task they were to pick up 9 pottery shard pieces which had a letter on it and try to decipher, with the help of some locals, the letters the Greek letters stood for and then on a map figure out what city the letters spelled. Fran & Barry and Lake & Michelle did this task and got frustrated because it was harder than they anticipated. But they managed to figure out the city and got the clue to the pit stop. It was here that Barry backed into a tree and shattered the back window and smashed in the bumper of their vehicle.
Eric & Jeremy had won the Fast Forward and were already at the pit stop. Ray & Yolanda came in 2nd and since they did not follow the directions on one of the tasks were penalized 15minutes, while they were waiting for their 15minute penalty to run out Monica & Joseph arrived and were able to check in for 2nd place and Ray & Yolanda got 3rd place. Fran & Barry arrived and took 4th place. BJ & Tyler being 2 hours behind were pretty certain they got eliminated, but much to their surprise and mine – they placed 5th even after their 15minute penalty. Lake & Michelle came in 6th and were eliminated. If I could have traveled back in time and through a television I would have loved to say that. But I will just enjoy the moment.
Lake & Michelle were really at odds this leg. She got mad at him for saying “Damn it” to her instead of getting mad at him for calling her a “Bitch”. But they had to stop while he collected himself – he was stressing too much. I’m just glad they weren’t much of a threat to winning or else I would have been subjected to them more. But they are gone and now to enjoy the rest of the race. I’m really surprised that pretty much all the legs have been elimination legs. I think I remember there being more non-elimination legs and the teams had to beg for money. I don’t agree with that scenario, I thought it was a bit harsh. But the race is tightening and getting close to the end, only 5 more teams left out of the 11.
Posted by deeteebee in The Amazing Race