In another uneventful departure, Ron & Christina were eliminated in The Amazing Race 18 Episode 7.
Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.
First: Flight Time & Big Easy – 2:07AM
Second: Zev & Justin – 2:12AM
Third: Kisha & Jen – 2:53AM
Fourth: Gary & Mallory – 3:30AM
Fifth: Jet & Cord – 3:35AM
Sixth: Kent & Vyxsin – 3:44AM
Teams will now fly to Vienna, Austria, a city more than 40 degrees colder than where they are now. Everybody arrives at the same travel agent, and they are all there together, with the opportunity to all get on the same flight. The cowboys opt for the later flight rather than take the risk of the tight connections. This puts them 25 minutes behind unless something happens to the others. Meanwhile, Kent & Vyxsin continue their bickering ways.
The first flight is not delayed, which once again puts Jet & Cord in the position of scrambling to catch up.
After a shameless plug for the new Ford Focus (which the leg winners will win), teams find out they must make to Schloss Schallaburg. The backup camera’s nice (I don’t know how I ever drove without one), but the lack of navigation system isn’t helping them find that castle too quickly. They go there merely to be told to go to a library in Vienna. It was a beautiful building until Flight Time decided to pee on it.
Vyxsin has a request for Kent: stop acting like a chick.
The detour is a choice between long hard walk and quick and easy meal. In long hard walk, teams will transport a couch 1 mile from a museum to a school, both of which Freud worked at. In quick and easy meal, they will pick up meals and eat all the food during one 12 minute rotation of the ferris wheel. If you don’t get the eating done in one shot, you’re not going to be able to do it in the second shot, so you will have to switch. At least the food is pretty good, but there’s a lot of it. Couch moving is less of a risk.
Long haul walk: Kent & Vyxsin, Flight Time & Big Easy, Kisha & Jen (switched from quick and easy meal), Zev & Justin (switched from quick and easy meal), Jet & Cord, Gary & Mallory (switched from quick and easy meal)
All three teams that tried the food failed. Although successfully completing this would have given them the lead, you’d think if they took more than 5 seconds to consider it they would have just all opted to go where they ended up anyway instead. Once they got there, they should have at least figured out there was just too much food. The wasted time is the break Jet & Cord needed to catch up. Since they’re stronger than most of the teams, they should be able to pull up to the front of the pack.
As for the couch moving, the Globetrotters do fine, and in the process the cowboys make up two spots. Justin’s left doing most of the work while Zev acts as the supervisor. Then there’s Kent, who whines a lot, while Vyxsin tells him to suck it up. Ultimately, in spite of the complaining, this seems like a pretty simple detour, albeit a tiring one.
From there, teams will drive to Salzburg. This drive presents the opportunity for Kent & Vyxsin to continue their negativity. She says she’ll never speak to him again if they get eliminated today. Promise?
The road block is to sweep chimneys. Seems simple enough. Gary & Mallory are hoping for something that will let them catch up, but this will not be it. Their only hope is that somebody gets lost.
Road block (in order of arrival): Big Easy, Zev, Vyxsin, Kisha, Cord, Gary
The pit stop for this leg of the race is Villa Trapp, the real home of the Von Trapp family from The Sound of Music.
First: Zev & Justin (each win a 2012 Ford Focus)
Second: Flight Time & Big Easy
Third: Kent & Vyxsin
Fourth: Kisha & Jen
Fifth: Jet & Cord
Noneliminated: Gary & Mallory
Darn. I was hoping to see Kent & Vyxsin never speak again. Unlike the last time when they were eliminated in leg 8, this time, Gary & Mallory finish last, but they are not eliminated and must complete a speed bump next week.
Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 18 Episode 9, which airs Sunday at 8/7c on CBS.