Category: amazing race 20

Unable to catch up to the rest of the pack after their bus broke down in The Amazing Race 20 Episode 2, clowns Dave & Cherie found themselves out of the race.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived, presumably.

They will now fly to Asuncion, Paraguay. With teams leaving at midnight, the airport serves as an equalizer.

Art & JJ have a prediction that they’ll dominate the whole season with Rachel & Dave. That’s probably the kiss of death, but as Mexican border patrol agents, they know they’ll be strong as long as they stick around Latin America.

The first two teams get on standby on the earliest flight. The “teachers” (aka federal agents) wave another team over so they, too, can get on standby, a strategy which Art or JJ takes credit for, as if getting on standby is some great mystery.

First flight (departs at 8:45AM): Rachel & Dave, Art & JJ, Nary & Jamie, Bopper & Mark
Second flight (departs at 10:40AM): Brendon & Rachel, Kerri & Stacy, Vanessa & Ralph, Joey & Danny, Elliott & Andrew

The detour is a choice between stacked up or strung out. In stacked up, they will stack watermelons in a 10×10 pyramid. In strung out, they must attach 36 strings to a harp and get it ready for tuning.

Stacked up: Art & JJ, Joey & Danny, Vanessa & Ralph
Strung out: Rachel & Dave (switched from stacked up), Nary & Jamie (switched from stacked up), Bopper & Mark (switched from stacked up), Kerri & Stacy (switched from stacked up), Brendon & Rachel (switched from stacked up), Elliott & Andrew (switched from strung out to stacked up to strung out)

Given the choice, the physical task is typically the best option, in spite of the heat and humidity, and that fact is not lost on these teams, almost all of whom choose to stack watermelons.

Rachel & Dave find themselves bickering to the point where he tells her to just sit on the cart and relax so he can work on his own. Art & JJ have no trouble with the task, but the other teams find the catch. Once they’re almost done stacking, their piles come crashing down. As the lead teams are leaving to switch detours, they see the Mississippi girls catching up. Bopper & Mark pretend that the task was easy and take their cab, but when they see all the melons all over the place, they’re not buying what the guys are selling, immediately turning around to switch detours. Meanwhile, Vanessa views this task primarily as an opportunity to talk smack about Brendon & Rachel. This ends when the Big Brother couple realizes that not only is this a difficult task, but they don’t want to listen to Vanessa’s mouth for the next two hours, so they just cut their losses and switch. As much as Ralph eventually finds himself wanting to quit, Vanessa declines to do so, stubbornly insisting on staying even after the sun sets.

By the time they get to the other detour, Rachel & Dave see that everybody else is stringing harps, so they decide to go ahead and use their express pass. Seems like a rush decision, but it’ll push them up to second place. The other teams find themselves in an air conditioned room with relaxing music, which makes them think they should have come here in the first place. This particular task goes on as short or as long as your skill allows it to, with little risk of being reset to zero by bad luck or bad planning. As the only ones who tried this task first, the twins find themselves heading off in that direction, but their decision to leave doesn’t last long.

Their next stop is Plaza de Democracia. The road block is to dance while balancing a bottle on top of their heads. Failure to complete the task before all bottles are broken will result in a 2 hour penalty. Could be easier to just smash them all right now.

Road block (in order of arrival): Art, Dave, Rachel, Joey, Mark, Kerri, Nary, Elliott, Ralph

Art makes it through unscathed. Dave is not so lucky and takes the penalty. Rachel and Joey have an easy time with the road block, allowing them to leapfrog the team that’s been penalized. As the seconds tick away in the penalty, two more teams pass them, but they’re still ahead of the trailing teams. Phil tells us this is the first time ever that a team has not completed a challenge but still stayed in the race. What about Rob & Amber in one of the best moments from their season, the meat eating challenge?

The pit stop for this leg of the race is the monument Escalinata de Antequera.

First: Art & JJ (win a trip to the Bahamas)
Second: Brendon & Rachel
Third: Joey & Danny
Fourth: Bopper & Mark
Fifth: Nary & Jamie
Sixth: Rachel & Dave
Seventh: Kerri & Stacy
Eighth: Vanessa & Ralph
Eliminated: Elliott & Andrew

Falling behind on the road block after a difficult detour, Elliott & Andrew have been eliminated. And I was so looking forward to Vanessa & Ralph getting their comeuppance due to her bad attitude and bad decisions. Maybe next time.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 20 Episode 4, which airs Sunday at 8/7cish on CBS.

After wandering around the pit stop for a while in The Amazing Race 20 Episode 1, Misa & Maiya were eliminated.

Teams depart in the order in which they arrived.

First: Dave & Rachel – 2:46AM
Second: Rachel & Brendon – 2:48AM
Third: Art & JJ – 2:49AM
Fourth: Nary & Jamie – 3:21AM
Fifth: Vanessa & Ralph – 3:31AM
Sixth: Elliott & Andrew – 4:21AM
Seventh: Kerri & Stacy – 5:23AM
Eighth: David & Cherie – 5:27AM
Ninth: Bopper & Mark – 5:29AM
Tenth: Joey & Danny – 5:35AM

At the Cafayate Town Square, they will receive their next clue from a mounted postman, who arrives at sunrise, equalizing everybody.

The detour is a choice between boil my water or light my fire. In boil my water, they will visit one of three isolated villages and provide them with a means of cooking, assembling a basic solar kitchen, then boiling water with it. In light my fire, they will gather firewood and clay, load it on a donkey, and transport it 1 mile. Working with animals is always problematic, but I could see where constructing something just based on the picture and then being at the mercy of the sun could be trouble.

Boil my water: Brendon & Rachel, Kerri & Stacy, Rachel & Dave, Vanessa & Ralph, Dave & Cherie, Joey & Danny, Bopper & Mark, Nary & Jamie, Elliott & Andrew
Light my fire: Art & JJ

Art & JJ are the only ones who did not select the solar kitchen building, and they find themselves searching for the fire task instead after everyone else has already begun. They assume it will be hard because it’s too early for the sun to be of much use, while those actually on the task complain about how hot it is. For all the drama, it pays off because they manage to leapfrog everybody but the country boys, who surprised even themselves by taking the lead with their building skills. The rest of the teams are mostly just waiting for their tea to boil.

Teams will now take an 18 hour bus ride to Buenos Aires.

First bus: Brendon & Rachel, Mark & Bopper, Art & JJ, Rachel & Dave
Second bus: Dave & Cherie, Elliott & Andrew, Vanessa & Ralph, Joey & Danny
Third bus: Kerri & Stacy, Nary & Jamie

All the teams are pretty close, so now it’s just a question of how this lengthy bus ride goes. Bus 2 stops in the middle of the night when one of their windows implodes. Bus 1 arrives first, followed by bus 3. The trailing teams reveal they have been delayed about 2 hours, which is going to be too much for them to make up, so one of them is heading home.

The road block is to count cattle and calculate the average weight per head during an auction, without using their calculators. Long division without Excel. Like the olden days.

Road block (in order of arrival): Rachel, JJ, Rachel, Mark, Stacy, Nary, Vanessa, Joey, Dave, Andrew

Rachel and JJ work together to get the answer. The other Rachel (Big Brother) gets stressed out. You don’t say. Eventually she decides to work with Mark, who unlike Art & JJ who have decided they hate Rachel & Brendon, is willing to team up. The teams who tried to play like this against Rob & Amber regretted it, though that was arguably because those teams sucked. The Jersey guys and the twins also work together, leaving the clown to eat their dust.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is El Gomero, a 200 year old tree.

First: Rachel & Dave (win a trip to Grenada)
Second: Art & JJ
Third: Bopper & Mark
Fourth: Brendon & Rachel
Fifth: Kerri & Stacy
Sixth: Nary & Jamie
Seventh: Vanessa & Ralph
Eighth: Joey & Danny
Ninth: Elliott & Andrew
Eliminated: Dave & Cherie

After a bit of bad luck, Dave & Cherie have been eliminated from the race, but they depart with their typically positive attitude.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 20 Episode 3, which airs Sunday at 8/7cish on CBS.

A cast of 11 teams returns to compete for $1 million. The Amazing Race 20 cast consists of 11 teams each with a preexisting relationship. Among them, a pair of familiar faces, Brendon & Rachel, winner of last year’s Big Brother plus her fiance, with this season marking the third stint in a CBS reality show for each. The teams are:

Art & JJ (Border Patrol Agents/Friends)
Brendon & Rachel (Engaged)
Dave & Cherie (Married Clowns)
David & Rachel (Married)
Elliott & Andrew (Twins)
Joey & Danny (Friends)
Kerri & Stacy (Cousins)
Mark & Bopper (Married)
Misa & Maiya (Sisters)
Nary & Jamie (Federal Agents/Friends)
Vanessa & Ralph (Dating Divorcees)

Thanks, by the way, for bringing us two people named Rachel, two people named Dave, a pair of twins, and multiple people whose names could be either male of remale. That should help simplify things as far as me trying to figure out who the hell is who.

And what would The Amazing Race be without an overrun from some sport or another? Football over, we pick up late as usual, this time with golf. (Yes, golf is a sport, sort of.) With Undercover Boss now on Fridays, I see I need to adjust my Tivo options to record this over by an hour instead.

Bopper & Mark are country boys from the wrong side of the tracks, who never had anything and never thought they would get anything. Misa & Maiya are athletes (or at least golfers), who promise no crying. Joey & Danny want to prove they have more going on than your typical Jersey Shore guys. Rachel & Dave hope to reconcile their marriage after his tour in Iraq. The twins don’t seem alike at all, as one’s a rocker dude and looks the part, while the other is a pro soccer player. What’s up with all the body art this season?

Their first clue is up in the air… in a balloon. 11 of the 100 balloons have a clue. It’s all just dumb luck, and the longer you’re there, the worse your odds get. A few teams no doubt have good luck, while the last team standing is there for 1 hour and 44 minutes.

Their first destination is Santa Barbara (Argentina), not to be confused with their current destination of Santa Barbara (California). The first 6 teams will get tickets on the fastest connecting flight. The trailing 5 teams will be 2.5 hours behind.

First flight: Elliott & Andrew, Brendon & Rachel, Nary & Jamie, Art & JJ, Rachel & Dave, Vanessa & Ralph
Second flight: Dave & Cherie, Joey & Danny, Mark & Bopper, Misa & Maiya, Kerri & Stacy

Upon arrival, they proceed to Aerodromo Gilberto Lavaque, an airport in the middle of nowhere. At the road block, one partner will jump out of the airplane, but that’s not the road block. The road block is for the other person to find the jumper, which for the most part seems pretty simple. Follow a map, look for the plane, and run to the X that marks the spot.

Road block (in order of arrival): Art, Brendon, Dave, Jamie, Ralph, Andrew, Danny, Bopper, Maiya, Kerri, Cherie

It’s here that the border patrol agents form an alliance of sorts with the military guy. Brendon, however, is half Mexican and hates border patrol.

Danny can’t drive stick. One thing with The Amazing Race is that somebody on the team has to be able to do that. Problem is typically both people don’t need to. He’s going to get a crash course during this road block. Maiya, meanwhile, gets stuck in the sand, having pulled off the road in the wrong location.

At Patios de Cafayate, they will make 120 empanadas, which must be approved by the empanada champion (really?). They will learn how to make them based on the ongoing demonstration, and they must notice that there’s a different technique to both the cheese and the meat empanadas.

Every damn year with this show. Tivo mishap out of the way, I hit a 10 minute gap. Hopefully nothing too important happens in that time. Like the first 6 teams checking in.

The pit stop for this leg of the race is down the road somewhere.

First: Dave & Rachel (win the express pass)
Second: Rachel & Brendon
Third: Art & JJ
Fourth: Nary & Jamie
Fifth: Vanessa & Ralph
Sixth: Elliott & Andrew
Seventh: Kerri & Stacy
Eighth: David & Cherie
Ninth: Bopper & Mark
Tenth: Joey & Danny
Eliminated: Misa & Maiya

Misa & Maiya finished the empanada task before the tenth place team and also arrived at the pit stop before them. However, they fail to spot Phil, and end up getting eliminated in the process of searching for him.

Stay tuned to dingoRUE for another live recap of The Amazing Race 20 Episode 2, which airs Sunday at 8/7cish on CBS.