Placeholder!
And somebody please tell me this is the last weekend of March Madness…
Well, it’s the last weekend of March so will anything further just be madness?
The Easter Bunny continued his tradition of putting together a TAR-like scavenger hunt for my kids. The detour was “burpees or slurpees?” They chose slurpees, which meant that there were a dozen paper cups with water in them and they had to find a cup marked with a dot on the bottom by drinking the water and turning it over. The roadblock asked “Who’s puzzled about art?” [Del]I had[/del] The Easter Bunny had purchased blank jigsaw puzzles at a craft store and drew an abstract design on one, then disassembled it. The team member who was doing the roadblock had to replicate the design on one of the blank puzzles before getting their next clue. The final clue was a word puzzle that instructed them to “go to the front hall closet”, where their baskets were.
Always good fun. I hope there’s not too much of a delay tonight.
OMG, how clever how fun for them! Sheesh, now I wish I was a kid so somebody would do an Easter Bunny roadblock to me :sigh:
I’m figuring the delay will probably be the same as it was last week – I think around 8:30-ish my time :crosses fingers: It’s not so much March Madness as it is that I end up missing the first half of Celebrity Apprentice when there’s a delay 
Well it’s 6:45 and there’s still 15 minutes of a close game, I’m not going to be surprised if it’s an hour late. :mad:
I usually set the DVR to record The Good Wife, tonight I set it to record The Mentalist, too. I’m just glad there’s nothing else I want to record on most Sundays.
It’s not the last weekend of the tournament, but the games next week are Saturday and Monday so we should be OK for TAR on Sunday.
The next weekend after that, though, is The Masters. So instead of being late because of football or basketball, it’ll be late because of golf. 
Hey, it’s the Masters! I doubt it will go late since it should be over around 6 which will give it room to go over. And it’s 41 minutes late in the east.
Wow, Sad and very surprised about Pam and Winnie losing this leg. They were rocking.
Wasn’t there a time penalty for being caught speeding in previous seasons. I thought a team got caught speeding in New Zealand and had a time penalty.
Country Music Awards are on CBS next Sunday, so the next Amazing Race is the 14th, on Masters weekend. There’s always a chance Masters runs long if the weather is iffy or a long playoff happens, but they don’t have stadium lights at Augusta so there is a limit how late they can push it.
This was a good episode with a surprising result. A couple of animal-related challenges (which are always good), a difficult boating challenge, and two speeding tickets.
The mixup on the horse challenge was that it was a bird sitting on a hippo, but the picture on the wooden tablet was a rhinoceros.
Does anyone know what the notes taped to the steering wheels said? Maybe something like, “Don’t speed. There’s a cop doing radar just down the road” ?
For anyone who finds themselves missing the Race, I’m hosting an Amazing Race themed tournament at my curling club next weekend. Should have asked lorene for ideas.
I’m curious about this, too. I noticed the notes in a previous episode, as well (maybe two weeks ago?). My first guess is that it’s starting instructions for keyless ignition or something about right-side driving. But why in this season and not others, so it’s probably something else.
I thought it was really nice that they showed the teams viewing wildlife at the beginning of the episode. I know the Amazing Race is a race first and foremost, but it’s also a racearoundtheworld I still like the occasional shots of the scenery just for the sake of scenery.
Taxi Assessment:
Stuck in the Desert and Officially Detained - or, Philiminated with extreme prejudice.
Matthew & Daniel and Idries & Jamil and John & Jessica and David & Connor - (already eliminated)
Pam & Winnie (down from “Passing”) - You just know that when a team is shown touting their own skills in decision-making or navigation or smarts, it’s only as a prelude to some disaster in the same department. That kind of contrast is too irresistable for the editors to pass up, and this episode’s comments by Pam & Winnie are no exception. Switching Detours is always chancey at best, and Pam & Winnie wound up just hemorrhaging time with the back-and-forth swap.
Flat Tire - or, not likely to get anywhere soon.
Chuck & Wynona (holding steady) - Shockingly, Wynona does yet another Roadblock, and Chuck & Wynona cruise through the Detour. I was a little disappointed that the Detour seemed to be so unbalanced, with Chuck & Wynona finishing well after Mona & Beth and Caroline & Jen, even though they started earlier. Really, Chuck & Wynona deserve a second, but with the extra time involved (and rather severe penalty for messing up), the “Brains” option wound up being way worse than the “Brawn,” even accounting for working with the animals. In any case, just as I was ready to count them out, Chuck & Wynona have had two very good episodes in a row. Some of that is due to Chuck’s hunting and fishing experience, which actually translates rather well to the Kalahari, so I’m still rather skeptical about this team once they start in on the tasks that don’t involve wildlife.
Stopping for Gas - or, not broken-down, exactly, but not a good sign.
Max & Katie (holding steady) - Max & Katie got lucky that Pam & Winnie made such a bad decision on the Detour. With a speeding ticket, and having to do a Speed Bump, and driving issues, and not quite being able to edge Joey & Meghan, despite being neck-and-neck, this wasn’t a stellar episode for Max & Katie. Plus, they both seem to be getting more visibly tense as the season wears on - not quite the drama couple I was expecting at the start of the season, but enough that I wonder how their judgment will be affected.
“Rapido! Por Favor?” - or, making meaningless ineffectual comments from the back seat, but in no immediate danger.
Caroline & Jen (holding steady) - Despite being caught in the speed trap, Caroline & Jen notch up their first top-three finish, and wind up only seconds out of second place. I’m still a little skeptical of this team, but they are stepping it up right when they need to.
In the Passing Lane - or, ahead of the pack, but not quite comfortably.
Joey & Meghan (holding steady) - Oooh, bad navigation this episode, which is something that might wind up biting Joey & Meghan in the butt farther down the road. Still, I think their attitude will help in the latter legs of the race, so I’m still including them in this upper category, despite the fact that they’re the only team left to have never finished in the top three.
Mona & Beth (up from “Rapido!”) - Statistically, this was a great episode for Mona & Beth. They started out in sixth place, ahead of only Max & Katie, and wound up in second, behind only the Fast-Forward-taking Anthony & Bates. To be fair, that rise was because of the things they didn’t do: get lost, get a speeding ticket, choose the longer Detour leg, or completely whiff on the Detour. But not making mistakes is pretty much most of the point of the race, and I’m picking Mona & Beth as one of the final three teams.
Cruisin’ with Earl - or, drivin’ on the shoulder, takin’ shortcuts, and generally kickin’ butt.
Anthony & Bates (up from “Passing”) - Ah, the joys of being well ahead of the competition when a Fast Forward appears. At least the FF task this tim was vaguely challenging - although Anthony & Bates nailed it on the first try, I could see other teams being unable to complete it. With a relaxing leg this week, and only six teams left, Anthony & Bates look to be far and away the best bet to make the final three.
I know nothing about donkeys- or mules, or whatever they were- but it seemed like they couldn’t see the carrots that were being dangled right in front of their faces, but gamely plodded forth to get to the carrots that hung about 5-10 feet in front of them. Or maybe they were just thinking, “if you’re going to keep bouncing that fucking thing off of my nose, I’m going to stand here just to screw with you”.
I wonder how long they spend trying to get the donkeys to move. The editing made it look pretty quick but I can understand giving up if it had been, say, 20 minutes with no sign of progress.
Having to pay the parking tickets reminded me of something. For any leg of the race this season have they made any mention of how much money they were given for that leg? I can’t recall any and I’m wondering if the producers just decided to remove money management as an issue.
It seemed to me that after Pam and Winnie left the donkey challenge everyone else was instructed (probably by the locals) to say “Hut, hut” to get the donkeys moving. The carrots were probably just for show anyway.
I’m just waiting for Max and Katie to implode. Running the Race is stressful enough – you don’t need your spouse continually haranguing you on every single little thing. No wonder why Max backed into the pole :shakes head:
I love how there’s at least one scene during each episode this time around where they show the teams socializing, whether it’s at an airport or like the safari camp at the beginning of this episode. And the crocodiles! They must have filmed this during the off season in Botswana – crocodiles tend to be sluggish and less inclined to attack when the weather turns (relatively speaking) colder.
The roller derby moms are starting to grow on me. Ditto the country girls. Surprisingly, I don’t feel as bad for Pam and Winnie as I thought I would because I think they already knew they were going to come in last. They’re also not crying types, so their lack of emotion also played into it.
Huh? I hate Max and Katie, but the derby girls harang each other far more than M&K.
If I recall, the image on the safari was of a bird on a hippo. The images they could choose were of a bird or a rhino (but no hippo). Chuck & Wynona figured this out by saying that while it was originally a hippo and bird, and definitely NOT a rhino, there was no hippo block and so they put just the bird block. Which was correct. Pam & Winnie got hung up looking for the hippo and defaulted to using the rhino block because it was the closest. Then they had to try again, saw for sure that it was a bird sitting on a large beast and for their second attempt, chose bird AND rhino. Which I saw as an unfair part of the challenge. But at least it was equally unfair for anyone who tried it.
Concerning Chuck & Wynona: Through most of the Race it has been pretty clear that Chuck was dragging Wynona along and doing pretty much everything. The last few episodes Wynona has been stepping up pretty decent. When they chose “Brains” I thought we were in for a laugh, but they did awesome. Wynona’s song worked for them and Chuck realizing that they didn’t need to know the precise zoological classification of every animal, just enough to know it when they saw it ("…just call it a woodchuck") was great.
I was surprised by the amount of bickering during the “Up the Creek” challenge. I know it must be frustrating to be the person not doing the challenge, but outside of some constructive help, if the person is trying, leave them be. I saw this most with Caroline & Jen, but everyone seemed to be doing it. “You need to get out of the reeds.” “I know.” “You need to get out of the reeds.” “I KNOW.” “You really need to get out of the reeds.” “I am trying!”