Amazing Race 20

[2Epcot]

Despite Amazing Race being my favorite reality show next to Big Brother, tonight was the first episode to see of this current group. I need to go back and watch the 3 previous episodes. I had to suffer watching Brendon and Rachel on Big Brother, now they are ruining my other favorite reality show. Hopefully they will be gone soon. How many more times do I have to watch Rachel cry on TV.

[tinkwest]

"The Amazing Race is supposed to be fun and good."

Jeez

[thrillme]

I can't believe nobody's saying anything about the rednecks and the guys that came in first splitting the first place win with them when they thought they were going to be eliminated? Did I catch them saying something about Bopper's daughter? Is something wrong with her? I thought that was sweet. I'm glad they're still in the race. Interesting...usually they always say..."the last team to arrive may be eliminated"...this time they didn't say that...good for the rednecks.

Bah to Rachel...I'm finding her agravating...Vanessa is not much better.

[thrillme]

This was making me crazy. The "border patrol" agents gave up half of their winnings to Bopper who's running the race for his daughter who has apparently a major respitory illness. I didn't catch that before. The four of them are becoming good friends. Sweet guys...all of them...

Pox on cry baby Rachel and mean girl Vanessa...maybe they need to take lessons from the border patrol agents.

[laprana]

My opinion of Art & JJ shot way up after last night's episode! Not only am I glad they came in first (because they're my team in the pool I am in ), but their gesture to Mark and Bopper was really nice. The only thing they really said about Bopper's daughter is that she has a respiratory illness and that she's on 7 different medications. I'm sure that money will really come in handy for him!

Brenden and Rachel are just ridiculous. On the verge of their meltdown, I was saying, "Here it comes" because it's the exact same thing they did on Big Brother! They haven't changed one bit, that's for sure! I'm really not liking Vanessa, and Rachel and Dave are getting annoying with all their bickering.

[JanetMegan]

"The Amazing Race is supposed to be fun and good."

Jeez

I was really laughing at this cause I had seen your post yesterday and didn't watch the show til last night so when she said this I was really cracking up. I can't stand her yet she seems to be a train wreck I can't turn away from...Glad I didn't watch Big Brother though or I would be way over her.

[bleukarma]

Everyone seemed to be in a bad mood on this leg of the race. Except for the border patrol agents. Dave and Rachel were annoying with all their sniping at each other. Although he did have a point that he is a helicopter pilot and the fast forward was to fly a helicopter, but I highly doubt flying a remote controlled helicopter is the same! They were my favorite team, but not if they keep up the fighting.

I've never really found the border patrol agents annoying. I was happy to see them split the money. Such a nice thing to do!

I noticed Phil say "may be eliminated" instead of "will be" so I had a feeling it was non-elimination.

I was kind of hoping Rachel and Brenden would just quit. She's the one that brought up she would rather quit the race then fight all the time and then when he said lets just quit she's like "why would you say that??!" She's got huge issues and I hate watching them unfold on tv.

[MNNHFLTX]

I noticed Phil say "may be eliminated" instead of "will be" so I had a feeling it was non-elimination.

I'm pretty sure he says the same thing almost every leg--leaves you guessing. That said, I had a feeling it was going to be a non-elimination leg too.

[bleukarma]

I'm pretty sure he says the same thing almost every leg--leaves you guessing. That said, I had a feeling it was going to be a non-elimination leg too.

I've noticed sometimes he says "may be" and sometimes he says "will be". But not every time he says "may be" is a non-elimination.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

I've noticed sometimes he says "may be" and sometimes he says "will be". But not every time he says "may be" is a non-elimination.

Same goes for when teams read the clues. Usually they will show at least one team read the pitstop clue and for the most part they almost always read "caution, last team to check-in may be eliminated".

Very rarely will Phil or the route instructions say "will be eliminated".

[Ian]

Okay so regardless of whether or not I like any of these teams or not, last night's episode (and to some degree the prior one) reminded me why I love this show.

The destinations are incredible! I found myself saying, "Wow I gotta go there! Wow I gotta go there!" over and over again during last night's show. Those castles and the mountains and all were just stunning.

[lwith58]

The destinations are incredible! I found myself saying, "Wow I gotta go there! Wow I gotta go there!" over and over again during last night's show. Those castles and the mountains and all were just stunning.

I do the same thing Ian. I’d love to be a contestant and have the opportunity to travel to all of the places they visit (well most of them anyway). Although I wonder how much actual quality time they get at each location.

[Ian]

Although I wonder how much actual quality time they get at each location.

My wife and I were talking about that last night, actually. I asked if she thought they got to spend any free time on their own in the cities they visit. Like maybe do they have down time during the rest period or are there breaks in the action we don't get to see, etc.

She said she didn't think so, but I don't believe that opinion was founded in anything other than a wife's natural tendency to disagree with her husband.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

My wife and I were talking about that last night, actually. I asked if she thought they got to spend any free time on their own in the cities they visit. Like maybe do they have down time during the rest period or are there breaks in the action we don't get to see, etc.

She said she didn't think so, but I don't believe that opinion was founded in anything other than a wife's natural tendency to disagree with her husband.

First, I'll give you an Amen! (going on 19 years this summer).

I think whether teams get to explore depends on the nature of each leg. When the leg is set up such that teams are still running the leg but are halted due to a location not being opened, then we've seen some exploring. I think of season 7, teams overnighted in a hotel but did some street dancing during carnival or something like that. I seem to recall Lyn & Alex commenting on that. But once teams check in, I think they are basically locked in, for rest, food, debriefing, confessionals etc. They can't even go back for something they left behind (DanDrew season 13 who left their shoes behind and then had to buy new ones at the airport the next day). Once you are in, you are in. I think there's very little opportunity to explore. When there is, teams are exhausted or don't want to waste funds, so they usually just hole up somewhere for a nap.

When they opened the clue last night that said "go to Sleeping Beauty's Castle" I knew right away that it was Walt's Neuschwanstein castle. since 4 teams went to the wrong castle, must not be Disney fans. When the Guidos said something like, didn't she have really long hair? I was like, that's Rapunzel you idiots, didn't you see Tangled?

Glad to see the cousins go, but wouldn't have lost any sleep had the federal agents been eliminated. 200 times to do the curling? Should have gotten it in about 10-15 tries at most.

Very good season so far.

[bleukarma]

According to another website thats put together TAR faq's the teams aren't allowed to leave the pitstop for fear they will bump into the production crew setting up the next legs task. But sometimes if there is an extended pitstop they will set up supervised sightseeing trips.
Most of the time they don't have time to leave anyway because they have to do their interviews, eat (food at the pitstop is free), sleep, mingle with other teams, and plan for the next leg. And if they can they will do laundry.

I would hate to be in a beautiful country like on yesterday's episode and not be able to go back to that castle and properly look at it!

I thought it was funny that Vanessa got so mad at Ralph for wanting to walk up the hill instead of taking the carriage! I probably would've been mad too, the carriage would've been faster without all the exhaustion.

I wasn't sad to see the cousins go. I like the fbi girls better then the cousins.

[Ian]

I would hate to be in a beautiful country like on yesterday's episode and not be able to go back to that castle and properly look at it!

I thought it was funny that Vanessa got so mad at Ralph for wanting to walk up the hill instead of taking the carriage! I probably would've been mad too, the carriage would've been faster without all the exhaustion.

I wasn't sad to see the cousins go. I like the fbi girls better then the cousins.

You and I are simpatico, it would seem ... I agree with all of this 100%!

[Ian]

I was not at all unhappy with last night's result, let me tell you. Good riddance!

The only issue I'm having is I still don't really have a favorite team or a team I'm really rooting for. At this point, I think Bopper & Mark are probably becoming the team I pull for the most. The rest of them are either outright annoying or sort of just blah.

[JanetMegan]

So I was baffled at the choice of the Army Wife (sorry forget name) to be the one to stack the hay. I'll hauled hay. It's heavy and hard to work with. He kept tossing them down on her. I actually thought the Guidos would kill it and leave the Army folks in the dust so I was shocked she finished first. They seem fairly non-compatible so I was surprised they finished first and then congrats to them on the cars. I'm still not a huge fan of the fighting though.

[The Hitchhiking Ghost]

So I was baffled at the choice of the Army Wife (sorry forget name) to be the one to stack the hay. I'll hauled hay. It's heavy and hard to work with. He kept tossing them down on her. I actually thought the Guidos would kill it and leave the Army folks in the dust so I was shocked she finished first. They seem fairly non-compatible so I was surprised they finished first and then congrats to them on the cars. I'm still not a huge fan of the fighting though.

I was a little surprised by their choice too. I think they thought the more difficult part would be to toss them down then to stack, but I've bailed hay when I was a kid on my uncles farm, and that's difficult stuff to do.

I think the key was the approach to the task. Joey/Danny arrived within minute or two of Rachel and Dave. I think Dave had maybe a 4 or 5 bale head start. They key was to create the base, a row of 10, 3 deep and 5 high. The hardest part for Rachel would be the height. It looked like Rachel did the right thing by forming her 10X3 base first then did the stacking, and then by the time she got to the top layer, Dave could throw it almost to the right location, which saved them a lot of time. Where as Joey seemed to just randomly start stacking and Danny was throwing everything to the ground. The jersey boys should have smoked them, but I think it was purely a case of efficiency beating brawn.

I don't know if you noticed, but the FF clue stated that only three teams would be allowed to do the FF challenge.

This is the kind of FF challenge that I love, you have to earn it, by actually competing for it and not simply being the first team to show up. Their is risk reward, like when Terrance and Sara(?) lost out on the gross food challenge to Nick and Starr, or Mojo and the Frat boys fighting it out on the breaking the plate challenges. I hate it when the first team shows up, climbs a pole and simply gets it.

The rest of the episode was a little boring, the submersion roadblock was pretty much nothing as each person did it without difficulty, despite all the hype and the last ditch editing to make it appear that Danny/Joey had a chance was pretty lame.

Funniest part of the episode, and one of the best so far this season had to be Ralph and Vanessa looking for a hidden clue in the carpet shop when there was at least 3 of them in plain view right in front of their faces. I like them, hope they make final 3 and would be a bit of a guilty pleasure if they won.

Can't wait (unfortunately two weeks away due to the CMA's) for the catfight between Vanessa and BB Rachel.

Still hoping for an Art and JJ win, but the better they do the more worried I get (see Tommy/Andy last season).

Should be do for another non-elimination soon.

[PirateLover]

I think the Federal Agents should've come clean to the border patrol guys when they called them out. Now, they are seen as untrustworthy. I get why they created that charade to begin with-so that people would underestimate them-but I don't agree with it. I was really hoping Vanessa and Ralph would get eliminated. Rachel sure is annoying but Vanessa always manages to kick it up a notch in meanness. And come on, she can't ride a bike standing up?