I don’t think he was getting out to confront the guy; I think he was getting out because the steering wheel was on the other side.
I’ve taken a few international trips and most of them didn’t even bother to stamp my passport.
And navigating a plane 150 miles? Piece of cake.
Ray said “Hey man!” and seemed to move toward the guy well before he was settled into the wrong seat. After he realized he was on the wrong side, he continued with “This dude pats me on my…oh lord, let me get out of here…they don’t do that where I’m from.” Combine that with all the other times he’s said or done something similar and, yeah, fuck 'im.
I just finished my first Amazing Race series and I have to say I’m very disapointed. It is set up so that no one can maintain a lead. Each day’s activities last from 4-6 hours and with a 12 hour rest period, every team starts out the next day waiting for some zoo or something to open at 8:00am
I know the goal is to keep it competitive since you don’t want one team stretching out a 36 hour lead, but by the same token you get a team like RaYo that fucks everything up and still can make the same planes as the hippies and the frat boys. My solution? Since a days activities take anywhere from 4 to 8 hours, make each cycle approximately 24 hours, i.e. an 18 hour rest period. Most teams wont be able to get any great advantage (you still have to wait until 8:00am for the museum or whatever to open up), but it will hurt teams that are continually screwing up.
Kind of interesting that the one got roller coasters & bungee jumping and the other got digging in the sand and running around in the snow.
But that navigation detour (had the planes been able to fly) they wouldn’t actually have to navigate, would they? Would any pilot just fly their plane the wrong way in Alaska weather (with snow & trees & lack of runways & things) just because some idiot on a game show said “uh, it looks like we’re supposed to go south…maybe?” Wouldn’t it just end up being “sit in a plane for 150 miles”?
I also liked the end challenge, it was fitting.
When did this happen? I don’t remember this happening … I mean, some of it was on “TiVo delay” so I could go out and have a smoke break, but I really don’t remember this.
The truly crappy teams are weeded out early anyway, by virtue of not being able to “work the airports.” And on a lot of these legs, they might only spend 4-6 hours doing tasks, but they spend a really lot of time traveling and resetting their watches. A non-stop flight from Bangkok to Tokyo is more than 6 hours and crosses three time zones.
It has happened before that some teams have gotten so far ahead that others can’t catch them. GSN used to air repeats of the first crop of seasons; if they do it again this summer, be sure to check out Season 1, which in a lot of ways is still the best one (although it didn’t contain the Best. Moment. Ever!, which was in Season 5). By the end of the Race, the third place team was 24 hours behind teams 1 & 2, and they ended up not even doing all the tasks. However … there was less bunching then.
One of the Frat Boys* must have gone to geography school with Ma Weaver. “Hey look, it’s Mount Tokyo!” 
I have a question, and maybe it’s been discussed before and I missed it.
The hippies came in last on two legs and lost all their posessions. But when they got into their car in Alaska they had nice blue parkas on. Where did those come from? Does the production crew supply weather appropriate clothing?
Maybe I’ve seen the same in earlier races and just don’t remember.
Were I Eric and Jeremy, upon watching that final episode, I’d be fuming about how they kept building a lead and how the Hippies kept making stupid mistakes, but at the end, the primary mistake that E&J made cost them all the money. In particular, BJ and Tyler were just really, really surprisingly bad at the whole airport/flight arrangement thing. How many times did they screw themselves up with flights when the other teams seemed to just walk up to the counter or call on the telephone and secure better flights? Although I really don’t like the “don’t tell anyone else about the internet” type of ploy when anyone does it, I was disappointed to see BJ try it - and shocked that it worked for once. Karma seems to be in effect more frequently in this game than in real life, since it ended up that BJ and Tyler made worse flight arrangements than Eric and Jeremy, who just jumped on the phone.
I was afraid that the trick editing was in play with Tyler continually anticipating that his familiarity with Japan would be a big benefit for them as they were heading there, but it turned out that he was able to use his Japanese and his familiarity with the country to their advantage.
(By the way, I thought the “big clump of snow” was a snowball thrown by BJ - surely such obviously planned hijinx should be condemned as superficial and attention-seeking.)
I too wondered what Russian flag BJ and Tyler were looking for - the old USSR flag?
Having just been to Red Rock Ampitheater, for the sake of cruelty I thought that they should have somehow made them run up the steps from the stage - it’s a bear of a climb.
Ray and Yolanda never seemed to be moving! Getting from place to place was not their forte, which might be a little bit of a disadvantage on a race around the world. Things such as turnpike tickets are kind of important.
I loved how Eric (i think it was that frat boy) muttered some deprecating remark under his breath when Tyler was getting his beard rubbed by the girl at the amusement park. Jealous much? It was exactly what he would have been doing if he could have found someone who spoke English, but Tyler was beating him at his own game. Or maybe Eric just does that when Jeremy is around.
All in all, I was exceptionally pleased to see the Hippies win - our whole family was cheering “Hippies! Hippies!” Again, I thought they were genuinely friendly, good natured, smart and comfortable in novel settings - all great strengths.
Ditto, even Serbia didn’t bother to stamp mine on my way out. I think they were more concerned with what kind of bribes they would receive. They’re also hard to read, and not in any special order when they stamp them.
Seems those challenges didn’t seem equal to me. Flying the bush plane would have been way more difficult than drilling holes in ice (then again, I’m a Wisconsinite), and carying a girl seemed easier than biking all over Tokyo and delivering something-assuming you the strength of course.
Don’t tell me it’s on against *Family Guy * next year. What time slot is it slotted for? They should just move it back to tuesdays at 9/8cst, what?, success isn’t good enough??
Glad the hippies won. Even Monica looked excited. Seeing the recaps reminded me how many times she did something that was ‘the worst thing ever’. Breakdown city.
I loved it! Those damn hippies!
Some bastard, that’s who. Some complete bastard.
[sub]I’m tired.[/sub]
Yes. They did that also for the Alaska leg in Season 1 (those stupid white boots) and the Canada leg in Season 5 (dumb maple leaf hats). It would be kinda cruel for TPTB to make the racers cart around parkas for 11 legs. Funny, but cruel.
The check award ceremony is on tv as I write this. Hippies showed up with the dark-haired one (BJ?) in full King costume and the redhead (Tyler?) in a white suit and orange shirt. White Suit Guy: not so bad. King guy: looked really stupid.
And Ray proposed to a weepy Yolanda right there on national tv!! Awwwww. (She accepted.)
Glad you saw this, and glad for this report. It’s nice to see that not winning “the Race” did not keep Ray & Yolanda from winning “the ‘Relationship’ Race.” Not that they need my approval, but I’m happy for them, and I wish them all the best.
You thought so? She still looked pretty pissed off to me.
The guy who took their money after YoRay lost the toll road ticket was giving Ray some directions and when he was done he patted Ray on the ass and walked off. Ray was sort of lining himself up to get in the car when he got patted and went into the whole “hey man” routine and took a couple of steps away from the car. There was a cut and he was on the other side of the car getting into the driver’s seat and he’s giving the “they don’t do that where I’m from” business.
In last week’s thread someone mentioned that on the edition where they got the stupid maple leaf hats there was a “scavenger hunt” style task where they got the winter clothes in Alaska, which didn’t air.
It looked like loose snow that fell as it came from a fairly high angle. Appreciate the dig, though. Thanks.
Well they wouldn’t have been flying the planes; they’d have been “navigating.” Since we didn’t see the task it’s impossible to know exactly what that would’ve meant. As for Maiden/Messenger, it almost seemed designed after the fact to take advantage of Hippie’s knowledge of Japan. I can’t imagine any other team taking that task without the ability to speak Japanese.
Oh my god! Showing up dressed like a king is so funny and charming and cute! It’s the most hilarious thing ever and BJ is so funny!
Five months to come up with a costume and the best he can come up with is a king outfit? What a suckass.
Sorry about the “dig.” It was supposed to be more of an observation that one man’s preplanned superficial and attention-seeking antics are another man’s humorous spontaneous event.
I am glad the Hippies won. Especially after I learned Tyler could speak Japanese. Although his pronounciation wasn’t so good.
And I was very happy to see that the girl the Frat Boys were carrying turned out to be a Gothic Lolita. I was expecting some geisha-costumed person to climb out, but no! Lolis rule! 
Did they even have to navigate in the airplane? I may have misheard the description; I thought they just had to load the supplies, ride along for 75 miles, unload, and come back. I could do it, but it seems like asking for trouble to just plop some random person in the front seat and have the pilot go wherever he tells him.
The Detours are supposed to be choices “each with its own pros and cons”; what was the pro for taking the flying detour? There was more potential for things to go wrong, and even if it went flawlessly it looked like drilling the holes in the ice was still faster.
I wonder what happens if one of the Roadblocks is stopped for bad weather. Do you just sit around for 2 days waiting for the clouds to lift so you can go skydiving?
The description of Deliver It, directly from the tape: “Teams must load a bush plane with medical supplies, then using a map to navigate, direct their pilot to fly over 150 miles round trip to this airfield. Once on the ground, they must unload the medical supplies and deliver them to the first aid station, where the doctor will hand them their next clue.”
The pilot named the place they were going to be flying when Hippie approached him to do the Deliver It, so it’s really unclear exactly what the teams would have been expected to do regarding “navigation.”
For whatever reason, Phil didn’t give the “pros and cons” speech for this Detour.