Amazing Race Family Edition update – Lost in D.C.

Teams started out from Amish Country in Lancaster, PA and headed to the Shoe House outside York. (My wife is originally from the Gettysburg area, so this was a familiar sight.) At the house shaped like a shoe, teams picked up the next clue: head to Washington D.C. and the Reflecting Pool outside the U.S. Capitol. Note that this is not the famous reflecting pool next to the Lincoln Memorial but a smaller one way across the Mall. Some teams completely ignored the “U.S. Capitol” portion of the clue and walked endlessly around the larger pool. The Gaghan family in particular lost all their advantage by ambling around looking for the clue box.

Once teams found the clue box at the Capitol, they were instructed to retrieve a briefcase from a limousine parked on 3rd Avenue. “Mr. X” handed them the satchel and then teams needed to head to the Tidal Basin near the Jefferson Memorial. Once there, teams hit the first Roadblock of the Race: one team member needed to walk around and approach people carrying similar briefcases and say the codewords: “The sky is blue.” If the secret agent responds “The sea is green” they exchange briefcases. This is goofy fun as frenzied teams run up to TAR actors and yell out “The sky is blue!” Not very surreptitious, Mr. Bond.

The document drop completed, our would-be spies must now head to Middleburg, Virginia and find an antebellum mansion called Welbourne Manor. Cannonfire greets the teams as a full Civil War re-enactment is in play. Detour: teams must either retrieve five “wounded” soldiers from the battlefield and bring them to the surgeon’s tent or fill twenty lanterns with oil and light them for the quartermaster. At first I thought the lantern detour was more difficult but when you have four hands working instead of two, it moves along much quicker. The Pitstop was immediately following the Detour and the Weaver family arrived first to the battlefield, picked the lanterns and headed at the mat as Team #1.

Meanwhile, the Rogers family just couldn’t catch a break all day. First they head in the wrong direction to take the highway south to Washington D.C. Once in D.C., they also circumnavigated the wrong reflecting pool and burned off more time. Last at the Tidal Basin, last to the Manor, and last to complete the Detour, they were simply too far back to catch up. Dad gamely took responsibility for his poor navigation, but his son Brock didn’t seem consoled. In TV Guide, host Phil Keoghan of the mighty eyebrow said that the eliminations were going to be tougher than in the past due to the family component. To which I say [Tom Hanks in “A League of their Own”] “There’s no crying in The Amazing Race!”

Final standings – Leg #2

#1 – Weaver family – Team Florida – Winners of a Travelocity trip to somewhere warm
#2 – Linz family – Team Cincinnati
#3 – Godlewski family – Team Scream
#4 – Schroeder family – Team Nawlens
#5 – Aiello family – Team Male Bonding
#6 – Bransen family – Team Powerpuff (and Wally)
#7 – Gaghan family – Team Rugrats
#8 – Paolo family – Team Joisey
#9 – Rogers family – Team Shreveport – PHIL-LIMINATED

Next week: Centrifuge time at NASA = more needless screaming.
Last week's update: "And they're off!"

Extra – Of course, here’s Kris at Zebrality with the team breakdowns. And here's Brainster also.