Sunday, January 20, 2008

Amazing Race Sunday: Finish Line Edition

Hi, all! Yes, I’m still alive. The trip to Mississippi was good. I’ll blog it later. But I’ve been totally pooped after all the work stress (So. Far. Behind.) and haven’t had the energy to blog the trip, or much of anything else. I’ll try to get back on the bandwagon tomorrow. Meanwhile, we have a finale to discuss! Recap delayed b/c AR couldn’t bump out the NFC Championship game. I had no problem with that.

Taipei, Taiwan
9:47 am Ron/Christina, 10:30 am TK/Rachel, 10:37 am Nick/Don

Travel to: Anchorage, Alaska/6th Avenue Outfitters. Final Destination City
A side note, I’ve made one trip to Alaska. It was awesome, and I was there in December. This should be fun!

OK, so Ron is now all about the free upgrades. Very humorous. This time, it was a free upgrade into the lounge, where the used the internet to find the address for 6th Avenue Outfitters. TK was totally freaking out when they didn’t see Ron/Chris for a while.

Somehow, none of the teams went through customs? Must have been very routine. ☺ Ron/Chris were first to 6th Avenue Outfitters to pick up their gear. TK/Rachel were second, Nick/Don third. And they forgot their bag of gear. DOH! TK/Rachel had a bad taxi driver. Don totally started snarking at Nick on the way back to 6th Ave to get their bag-o-gear. This was one of the clips we got to see last week.

Ship Creek Boat Launch
Detour: Cut the Cod or Grab the Crab
Cod: Cut through 50 cod, search for miniature clue. Gross, but fast.
Ron/Chris – Holy crap! They found the clue in their first fish!
Nick/Don – Don found it on his second fish. Damn, he was fast with that knife!

Crab: Search through biting crabs for one with race colors. Not gross, but tedious.
TK/Rachel – This was the clip from last week’s preview. They were about to punt when TK found the crab … just as Nick/Don arrived back with their bag of stuff to start cutting cod.

20-Mile Glacier
Must climb the glacier to get the clue.
TK/Rachel had another nightmare cab driver, but he did manage to not get lost on the way to the speed boats. The were just moments ahead of Nick/Don, and probably about 20 minutes behind Ron/Chris.

Chris really struggled with climbing the glacier face. Ron went on and on about his fear of heights, but zipped right up that face. I have a feeling that earlier in the race, he would have freaked out and started shouting at Chris to just get the hell up the glacier, but he was actually really supportive with her as she struggled with the climb. She made it just fine, though.

Everyone, except TK, seemed to have a little trouble getting over the lip of the glacier, then did OK the rest of the way up.

Helicopter to Merrill Field/Cab to Goose Lake Park
Road Block: Re-Live Experience on the Race
Well, we had the Survivor disappearing audio glitch while Phil described the Road Block, but it looks like things just have to be matched up with the type of obstacle it was earlier in the race. There was something about one item from each leg of the race, 2 animals or animal products, 3 forms of transport and a partridge in a pear tree. Impossible to really understand without hearing Phil's v/0

Wow. All three competitors struggled with this task. Apparently, Phil’s explanation was more complicated than you’d guess!

Chris: She melted her brain on this, and that’s all they showed. She was missing Ireland on her first try, since the Donkey wasn’t on the platform. She messed more stuff up as she tried to fix it. She was second to finish and crying when she got her clue.

Rachel: She seemed to be pretty methodical with everything and was first to finish. I would have yelped at this point, but I didn’t want to wake up the Hubster.

Nick: He was kind of a disaster on this. Lots of X’s and no checks. Last to finish.

Captain Cook Statue
The taxi-drivers all wanted to cross the inlet, but they’re looking for the statue that gives Cook the view, not the inlet itself. Once again, it’s all about taxis.

TK/Rachel got the clue first. Ron/Chris second. Both of the first two teams were in sight of each other as they ran to the salmon hooker statue on 5th and G. Minutes are separating the first two teams. Nick/Don are out of this.

And the Winner Is...

TK AND RACHEL!!!

They became my favorites about halfway through, and I’m SO excited for them.

Ron/Chris finished second. Ron changed so damn much during this race. Very, very impressive. He said during the finish line interview that he’s a new man. That’s completely true, and shocking considering how he acted during the first few legs of the race.

Nick/Don were third. Don is the oldest person ever to make it to the final leg of the race. And the both have “FF” tattoos to show for it, too!

With that, I hand the reality blogging baton back over to Jenn. Survivor starts again next month! ☺

3 comments:

turtlegirl76 said...

I had mixed feelings about TK/Rachel winning. By the end, I really wanted Ron & Chris to win just because they used the race to their best advantage, than any other team in the history of the show, to improve their relationship. I was rooting fot them. But I'm happy with the winners too. They were a sweet couple.

Jenn said...

I thought I would be fine with whoever won (and I would have) but as the hour went by, I really wanted Ron and Chris to win just because he had changed so much. I never would have thought that at the beginning of the race that he would have turned into the man who finished.

Boy, was I pissed when the audio went out! It's always the memory challenge at the end that screws everybody up.

Anonymous said...

By the end I was also rooting for Chris and Ron sorta! However, I was also pulling for Nick and Don. I thought Don just did one heck of a job. Ron truly changed his spots. Didn't think that would happen. Can't wait for Survivor. 2 Weeks ago I totally lost audio for AR. Captions for deaf are sorely inadequate. Makes u appreciate your hearing.