Amazing Race: Family Edition – And they’re off!

Yes, yes, it’s time again for a brand-new season of “The Amazing Race” which, for the third year in a row, won the Emmy for best reality show. Instead of eleven teams of two, this season’s race involves ten teams of four family members. There are too many to describe in detail right now, but I’ll get to them in turn.

All teams started out from a park under the Brooklyn Bridge and the first clue directed them to jump into their (sponsor-approved!) GM Yukons and find (sponsor!) the EMS store in Soho where they will pick up camp equipment. Nothing to note here other than the standard scramble that Race fans have seen for years. After teams pick up sleeping bags and such, they’re directed to “find frank” at a hot dog stand on 91st street in New York City. At the hot dog stand are two heavy-set guys with thick accents, ready to hand out TAR clues. Wait a second: it’s Kevin and Drew from season one! They hand over a clue directing teams to Washington Crossing State Park on the Delaware River.

Teams drive out of New York City over the George Washington Bridge, across New Jersey and to the park where rowboats are waiting. Teams must take a boat across the Delaware River, retrieve a 13-star American flag, and return back to the other side. The Aiello family – a father with his three sons-in-law – finish first in a possible signal that the children-heavy teams are going to fall aside. We’ll see.

The next clue after this first task sends teams 34 miles away to Philadelphia where they need to find Fairmont Park and the Beaumont Plateau. This is a mini-pitstop and teams will be camping here for the night before continuing this leg of the race in the morning. The third team to arrive is the Gaghan family with two young children and another team exclaims: “How did the little kids beat us here?” Ah, the vagaries of the Amazing Race. No teams are eliminated at this point, but the departure times in the morning are staggered between 10, 10:30, and 11 a.m.

Heavy rain the next morning and the teams leave in bunches on their way to the next stop: Brubaker Farm in Mt. Joy, Pennsylvania. Here the teams find the first Detour: Build it or Buggy it. Teams must either build an Amish-style waterwheel with materials provided or pull an Amish buggy over 1.5 miles. Several teams start out with the buggy before they realize how far the distance is (plus, the ground it wet and muddy from the rain). Building the waterwheel presents its own problems for those teams who are not mechanically inclined. The teams that finish up are then instructed to head to the Rohrer Family Farm in Lancaster, Pennsylvania – this is the first Pit Stop of the Race.

The last twenty minutes of this leg is a jumble with teams still building, pulling buggies, or racing to the Pit Stop. Here’s the final order:

#1 – Team Gadlewski – first place and $20,000 bonus
#2 – Team Gaghan
#3 – Team Weaver
#4 – Team Rogers
#5 – Team Schroeder
#6 – Team Paolo
#7 – Team Bransen
#8 – Team Aiello
#9 – Team Linz
#10 – Team Black – ELIMINATED

Next week: Teams are heading to Gettysburg, Pennsylvania (or maybe Antietam, Maryland) for a Civil War re-enactment. Also, clever names are assigned to the remaining teams.

Extra – Here’s the review from Zebrality (aka Dummocrats) and Brainster. Clearly, I committed a faux pas by using the word “eliminated” instead of the more appropriate “Phil-liminated.” Also, did you catch Phil’s enormous eyebrow arch at the start? It was unworldly!