The Amazing Race -- All-Purpose Thread

The last challenge is almost always a memory quiz based on the locations visited in each leg, so the racers take notes to consult in that stage.

 

A little late, but ... If I'm Steve, I'm beyond pissed that I had to climb those stairs for nothing, then have to climb another set of stairs. And, I'm surprised Steve got to ride in the glider since Todd couldn't. They seem like they're a similar size.

I'd love to see Rob and Corey win the whole thing. Those guys are so cool. Then again, Joel and Garrett are pretty cool, too, and they keep finding ways to survive.

 

SAME.

I also assume the notebook was full of notes for the final memory challenge.
Greg & John are a VERY strong team. So are Rob & Corey. Rob is absolutely hilarious, I love him and his attitude. I also still maintain that Joel & Garrett may be a surprise team. (also, Greg & John have absolutely noticed that Robbin and Chelsea ride everyone else's coattails. I was wondering if they were ever going to navigate for themselves.)

On the other hand, my god Anna Leigh, pull yourself together. I haven't liked her since she went off on people for voting for them to U-Turn and she's done nothing since to raise her level for me.

Pool Update:
MTM: Greg & John | 92
WolvEagle: Steve & Anna Leigh | 75
TigerVols: Rob & Corey | 62
Wenders: Ashlie & Todd | 57
Huggy: Robbin & Chelsea | 49
*bumpy mcgee: Jocelyn & Victor | 48
UNC Grad: Joel & Garrett | 45
*Write Thinking: Morgan & Lena | 39
*Mrs. Vols: Malaina & Andrea | 27
*nietsroob17: Joe & Ian | 25
*tea and ease: Liam & Yeremi | 22
*Elizabeth & Iliana | 3
*Alexandra & Sheridan | 1
*team has been eliminated

 

Do you have to declare that you're going to use an Express Pass before any tasks/detours start? Because I thought maybe Rob and Corey might use theirs this week (even though they'd said they didn't want to earlier) after they made that mistake in the buoy challenge, switched tasks, and fell from second to fourth. I'm glad they still have the Express Pass for later now, but I was wondering...

And it was nice to see Anna Leigh come off better this week than she has all season.

 

What a fantastic episode! Totally enjoyed watching it last night, and was only sorry to see Ashlie and Todd finish fifth and last and get eliminated. (Frustrated, Ashlie actually sounded a lot like the Anna Leigh of earlier legs for much of the episode).

I should say that I have long wanted to go to Stockholm, Sweden, as my father's family origins are there. In fact, it is among the next places to which I plan to travel, probably sometime in 2024. So it was nice to get a look at it, and I wasn't disappointed. I'm now looking forward to that trip even more.

I seriously don't know if I could've done the skydive out of that airplane, though! I think I'd probably have been most like Ashlie, screaming (or else, totally mute, in terror) and clawing at the sides of the airplane doorway.

I felt bad for Rob and Corey that the Express Pass ended up not giving them that much of a lead at all once they used it, and that they wound up running (literally) with the crowd the whole leg, and wound up in third place, still behind Greg and John once again. I was worried a little bit that Steve might end up having a heart attack, with how much running they had to do this leg, and the way Anna Leigh was pushing and pulling him along the whole time, but they got their fourth-place finish out of it.

Garrett and Joel, though! Wow, what a great first-place finish for them. I was so pleased for them, somehow beating everybody else to the mat like they did. They were so disbelievingly and genuinely happy about it that you couldn't help feeling the same way, too.

Now, I just want to know more about Sweden's recycling program. It recycles 99 percent -- 99 percent! -- of trash? And has taken on other countries' stuff now because its people have gotten it down so well? That sounds amazing, and like something of which the the rest of the world should take note.

As an added aside: Rob and Corey McArthur's family is well-connected to California School for the Deaf/Riverside (CA), with Rob being an assistant coach for the football team and his wife and Corey's mom, April McArthur (who, like her husband, is deaf), being the school superintendent since January. The Cubs last week won the CIF Southern Section Division II Eight-Man football championship, beating Faith Baptist, 54-42, for the team's second title in a row. Last season, CSDR won the Division I Eight-Man championship.

 

Aside from Anna Leigh maybe, there's really no team I'd truly hate to win the million -- though I'm rooting for Rob & Corey unquestionably. Greg/John and Garrett/Joel are both great, and even Steve and Anna Leigh are fine -- if only a bit whiny on her end.

I've alluded to it, but might Rob & Corey be the most purely likeable team in Race history? Never any "whoa is me" attitude, no bickering, no double-crossing. There have been some truly good character teams (Kim & Penn from the COVID season to name one recently), but Rob & Corey have been so refreshing. Not to compare them with the link to deafness, but they're like what a lot of us maybe wanted to see out of Margie & Luke, had Luke been a bit more positive.

 

Rob and Corey are certainly among the most likable teams I recall ever being in the race. Everyone, it seems, is rooting for them. It's just not hard to do.

There have been others, too, though. I agree about Kim and Penn more recently, but a couple that stick out in my mind are Chip and Kim, a husband/wife team that won way back in Season 5. Also, there was the team of BJ and Tyler, best friends and fun-loving, world-traveling adventurers who won in Season 9 despite finishing last in two legs of the race. (Both were non-elimination legs, proving the potential value of having that aspect in play -- which this season does not).

 

That was a great episode and while I have no desire to go skydiving it does really make me want to go to Sweden!

And if you had to drink every time Anna Leigh said "Come on, dad!" you'd be done long before they got to the mat. I thought the poor guy was going to have a heart attack too. And let's not forget she dragged him up a million stairs for nothing in Slovenia.

 

No. You can use your Express Pass at any point in a task, even after you've started it.

My apologies y'all. Your pool runner fell off the face of the earth, between hosting Thanksgiving, completing another trip around the sun and hosting her final work event of the year in the last 2 weeks. I am *finally* caught up. (At least until an hour from now, when tonight's episode airs.)

Sweden is gorgeous and I also have roots there (mom's family emigrated from there in the 1800s) so I have been dying to go. The serving challenge looked like it would actually be fun, as a former server.

Also the looks on the Beardos faces when Phil told them they were team 1...that right there is why you race to the mat.

Sad to see my team go out. Honestly, I don't care which team wins from here on out. Greg and John and Steve and Anna Leigh are both strong strong teams (without being horrible to other teams most of the time), and Rob and Corey and Joel and Garrett all seem like great guys. I want to have a beer with any of them.

Pool Update (through Leg 10):
MTM: Greg & John | 112
WolvEagle: Steve & Anna Leigh | 81
TigerVols: Rob & Corey | 68
UNC Grad: Joel & Garrett | 65
*Wenders: Ashlie & Todd | 60
*Huggy: Robbin & Chelsea | 50
*bumpy mcgee: Jocelyn & Victor | 48
*Write Thinking: Morgan & Lena | 39
*Mrs. Vols: Malaina & Andrea | 27
*nietsroob17: Joe & Ian | 25
*tea and ease: Liam & Yeremi | 22
*Elizabeth & Iliana | 3
*Alexandra & Sheridan | 1
*team has been eliminated

 

I had been about to ask, in a post: "Anybody know where Wenders has been?" So glad you're fine and were just busy (which is usually the case when posters around here go off for a while, I know).

 

Thank you, @Wenders. Truly.

We finally caught up on three weeks' worth of episodes. Honestly, happy to finally see Anna Leigh gone.

My goodness, how likable are these last three teams?

 

Stupid Hulu. Something glitched with the CBS signal, so I've got to catch up with the on-demand in the morning.