Teams leave Delhi and travel to Penticton, BC. Via Tokyo again which begs the question: why not a leg in Tokyo? Great place for a leg, lots of versions have stopped there. Probably some production reason, clearances, etc. Come to think of it, the US version of the race took a long time to hit Japan in its initial seasons. Teams flew through Japan a few times but it was many seasons in when they stopped in Japan. Not sure which one but maybe Logan knows; he's full of TAR minutiae.
In Penticton teams have to find some place, can't remember, where there are a bunch of trucks, some white, mostly black. The black ones are arranged in a kind of maze and you have to move them around to get your white one out. Gino and Jesse stand around and begin to plan. I think they even came up with a mission statement in the time it took them to get started. Sometimes taking your time and figuring things out works, sometimes not. This is one of those not times because while they are contemplating, Nick and Matt are moving trucks and leave them in the dust. And pretty soon, Brent and Sean aren't far behind, leaving not long after the Wrestlers. And then there's a bit of back and forthing with Simi and Ope, but finally the Italian Boys get out of there. Behind them are the Dancers and Simi and Ope.
All teams have to head to the lakefront for a Roadblock. Interesting they didn't call this the Mickey and Pete Roadblock cause it's all about the wakeboarding. Racers taking on this two part course task are Nick, Jesse (I think, still can't tell them apart during the racing scenes), Sean (I think I got his name correct this time), Simi and Leilani. Faceplants galore for the first several tries as racers try to get their balance. Finally, Jesse manages to hold on and gets through. And a bit of a surprise, Sean muscles through this task, leaving as the second team. They have to find a clue box in some Winery I think. Again, I didn't take notes, it's the day after and my second time around. Nick finally finishes, as graceful as a pig, Matt says, leaving Simi and Leilani to struggle on the water.
At the winery, its a Detour: Brains or Brawn. In Brawn, teams have to load a bunch of onion bags into a truck, then flipped a tractor tire 100 meters followed by some swinging on monkey bars over a big pile of shit. In Brains, teams have to find three bottles of wine in the vineyard using a grid plan, then hit a target using a potato slink followed by stacking ten pallets using a forklift. After each side of the detour, teams must race through a muddy obstacle course to find the Double U-Turn. Hey, did I mention there's a Double U-Turn. There's a Double U-Turn.
Okay, I like good wine and can read numbers so that would be easy. I also play Angry Birds so yeah, potato sling is done. And in one of my many, many jobs as a kid, I used to work in receiving. Heck I think I had two different jobs in receiving. So pallets and forklifts are no problemo. Gord and Wayne would do Brains although I've spent a lot of time in playgrounds in the last 11 years so monkey bars would be no problem. Gino and Jesse, not surprisingly do Brawn. Nick and Matt are the same. But wait, what happened to Brent and Sean? Well, they had to do their Speed Bump, bottle, label and cork some wine bottles easy stuff. But before that, as they were driving to the winery, Sean realized he had swallowed a lot of water during the wakeboarding task and had to pee. No, he couldn't wait, he had to go now. So they stopped and like Tyson from Season 3 of Amazing Race Australia, he stopped the race to pee. We've only seen Sean pee once - he's more of a hurler - but Tyson stopped all the time, even while running to the pitstop. So that allowed Nick and Matt to pass the Designer Bros on the road. Love the line though about Sean's bladder not being psychic. Psychic Bladder would make a great band name. Hello Cleveland! We are Psychic Bladder!
So all the male teams are on the brawn with the Italian Boys are pushing through as hard as they can. Run through the mud, mess the hair hit the W-Turn. No surprise they U-turn the Wrestlers and it's off to someplace and find Jon. Pitstop? Don't think so.
Let's go back to the water and see how Simi and Leilani are doing. Hmmm, not so good. But Simi gets done and dad Ope is happy as a dad in a boat when your daughter's done something awesome. No dance but hey, there's still time. Leilani, though, takes a hard fall on the ramp - a hard fall, ouch. And she's not only hurting in the bones and muscles, she's sliced open her leg. It gets worse, even though they don't know it, but once Nick and Matt realize that they've been U-Turned over at the B & B Detour, they have to U-Turn someone else. So for some reason, not sure why, they pick Dujean and Leilani. So here we are just over the halfway mark in the episode and we already know who's going to be eliminated. Sucks for the producers when most of the drama is over by then.
Well, there's some more drama. Gino and Jesse realize that they aren't heading to the pitstop; they're actually arriving at a huge model railroad display (Man, that is so cool) and have to find a smaller version of Jon, which they call Little Jon. Another thing to file under No Shit Sherlock. Still, some cute moments there with Jon and his mini-me. And I must add that Jon's enthusiasm during this leg is furthering my opinion that he is the best TAR host in the world. Great to see him come into his own over the last three seasons. Anyway, back to the drama. One of the Italian Brothers starts freaking out about how difficult it is to find Little Jon in the 4,000 square foot model railroad. And why not, that's almost four times bigger than my house. Jeez. But they decide to hug it out, a great moment between the brothers, and soon after, Little Jon is found. Head to the pitstop at the Nk'Mip Cultural Centre where they win a trip to Tokyo and even more free gas.
The rest of the teams power through the Detour. Simi does a great job of using her head to climb over the monkey bars instead of swinging from them (nice lateral thinking), although she's still using her head to look for Little Jon, bashing into the display glass. One of my fav moments of the episode cause I could totally see myself doing the same thing. And another nice dance of joy once they find the tiny doppleganger of the host. Just in front, the Designer Bros and the Wrestlers race to the pitstop. Brent and Sean win the footrace and no one hurls. Well, not on the mat. There was some dry heaving in the Brawn section. Second and third respectively for those teams with Simi and Ope in fourth.
Now comes the ugly part. Dujean and Leilani are not getting along to say the least. She's wiped from wiping out and to be honest, Dujean isn't being that supportive. It all breaks down and Leilani can't take it anymore. They decide to quit the task, quit again after being U-Turned and arrive last. There is a palatable sense of relief on Leilani's face when Jon tells them they are eliminated. For the most part, I liked these guys. They did argue some but I appreciate that the producers didn't edit them constantly fighting, that they did show many moments when they worked together. But sometimes enough is enough and you can tell why they aren't together anymore.
Next week, teams head to my hometown of Edmonchuk, some curling (easy stuff) and a visit to Fort Edmonton Park. One of those guys in the saloon looks like someone I know and it's not Natural Treasure Dana Anderson. My previous blog has the info. But I'm keen to see how much camera time that familiar face can get cause he does know how to work things to get himself noticed. See ya next week.