Amazing Race Fodder

The Amazing Race All Stars: They're Baaaack!

Welcome back for an all-new exciting All-Star The Amazing Race! Well, at least it is all-new, I can’t really say that this week’s episode was very exciting. Hopefully things will pick up in episodes to come.

The 11 returning teams arrive via motorboat in Miami, Florida. Returning are:
1. Kevin & Drew – friends from NY, previously seen in season 1.
2. Rob & Amber – newlywed reality-TV notables previously seen in season 7.
3. Uchenna & Joyce – married winners of TAR season 10. (I guess ONE million wasn’t enough)
4. Dustin & Kandice – beauty queens previously seen in season 11.
5. Joe & Bill – life partners a.k.a. Team Guido previously seen in season 1.
6. Charla & Mirna – cousins from Maryland previously seen in season 5.
7. David & Mary -- married couple from Kentucky and my favorite couple from season 11.
8. Teri & Ian -- retired married couple that were runners up in season 3.
9. Oswald & Danny – best friends previously seen in season 2.
10. John Vito & Jill – ex-lovers from New York previously seen in season 3.
11. Eric & Danielle – previously partnered with different teammates, they have fallen in love and are joining together this time, previously seen in season 9.

I have to start by saying that I was very disappointed in this week’s episode. Come on it’s supposed to be ALL-STARS. They have all been there and done that. There was nothing exciting for them to do. I certainly hope that TAR will work harder to challenge all of the teams seeing as how they have some idea already of what is in store and how they react to pressure situations.

Interesting changes to me, come in the form of David & Mary. They are still sweet as pie, but they realize that they are in a RACE and not out to make friends. They lied bold-faced to Dustin & Kandice at one point. (good for you, I was never a fan of them anyway)

A few things have changed, and I am not sure that I like it yet. We did not hear any teams reading out the clues in their entirety. They might start, but then Phil takes over and lets us know what it says. Now, some of my favorite moments have come from hearing contestants read clues aloud (Helinski anyone?). We shall see…

As I previously said teams started out in Miami, with the traditional run to the backpack start. After Phil said GO, they ran pell-mell like lemmings over a cliff. Their clue tells them to get to the Airport and take one of two flights to Ecuador. They can choose between American Airlines or Copa Airlines. ( I wonder if Barry Manilow ever flies Copa?) The sneaky trick here is that the Copa flight leaves first but the American Airlines flight arrives first. Leaving on AA are John Vito & Jill, Rob & Amber, Oswald & Danny, Teri & Ian and Charla & Mirna. Leaving on Copa are David & Mary, Uchenna & Joyce, Dustin & Kandice, Eric & Danielle, and Kevin & Drew.

The planes arrive in Quito, Ecuador where they must travel by taxi to Plaza San Francisco to receive their next clue. No big surprise here, the teams on the earlier flight arrive first. This clue box gives them instructions to make their way to Pim’s restaurant where they will pick up a number and the manager has a surprise for them. No, it is not really a surprise it is just the next thing. The numbers designate the time they are allowed to leave, get the clue and start the next part of the journey. We saw some of the early arrivals eating dinner at the restaurant and everyone got to sleep on these cots they had put out at the restaurant. Now, maybe it is just me, but I don’t want to see the groups in moments of respite. I want to see them tired, hungry, angry and confused. It just makes it more fun for me.

The teams that had 7:00 departure were Rob & Amber, Charla & Mirna, Danny & Oswald and John Vito & Jill. 7:15 departures were Teri & Ian, Dustin & Kandice, Joe & Bill and Uchenna & Joyce. Last departures were David & Mary, Eric & Danielle and Kevin & Drew. Drew fell on the way to the clue at Plaza San Francisco, but seemed recovered for this morning’s trip.

The new clue tells them that they need to use the provided map and cars to get to the North entrance of Cotopaxi National Park. (North is important FYI). There are the inevitable people getting lost and misdirected and asking people to travel with them, but it was not terribly exciting until Charla & Mirna ended up at the South entrance and found out they had to go back an hour’s ride to the North entrance. Funny, but not as funny as John Vito & Jill getting WAY lost and ending up at the South entrance very late. They decided to drive through the park to get to the other side. Apparently no one told them it would be shorter to go back and around.

Upon arriving at the North entrance, teams found their next clue. This Detour gives them the choice of Wrangle It or Recover It. In Wrangle It, teams had to help gauchos lasso, tie down and groom a wild horse using traditional tools. They had to trim the hooves, tail and mane to get the next clue. In Recover It, one team member had to don a traditional historical military uniform and search for 3 items missing from the uniform. As only one group chose this and gave up after a very short time, I won’t go into more detail about it.

Rob & Amber were the ones that started with Recover It and changed to Wrangle It along with everyone else. It seemed to me as if the gaucho’s were doing the hardest work by holding the horse, but as I wasn’t there, maybe that wasn’t the most difficult part of the task. There was no stampede, no kicks, no bites, no nuthin’. Gee one might think that I wanted to see some of that….

The clue they received after this task told them to go on foot to Mirador Cotopaxi, a lookout point near where their task was to find the Pit Stop for this leg of the race. The teams finished in this order:
1. Rob & Amber (who won a trip to Canada)
2. Oswald & Dave
3. Teri & Ian
4. Eric & Danielle
5. Joe & Bill
6. Dustin & Kandice
7. Uchenna & Joyce
8. Charla & Mirna
9. David & Mary
10. Kevin & Drew
11. John Vito & Jill – eliminated from the race.

Tune in next week; hopefully they will have some better challenges for the All-Star teams.

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Posted by Wendy on February 19, 2007 7:02 PM
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