S27E07 - Full Speed Ahead, Captain!

[Frosty]

The episode begins really with the ending of the last episode with
superfans Justin and Diana off to their next destination -
Rotterdam(sometimes known as Amsterdam) and Team Alabama doing a
disservice to French rap which you would think would be impossible.

J&D get a good lead on others by choosing to stand up on the first train
out of Paris. Others also take earlier trains then the 7:22P which was
reserved for the racers.

Someone should have told that to Tanner & Josh who decide to sight-see
until 7:22P.

Denise and James Earl Jones get a reprieve from Phil at the pit stop and
go full blast wishful thinking into the next leg.

Cue the short opening credits.

When teams arrive in Rotterdam they must make their way to a big red
boat which is where they nap for the night. Not every team is going to
Rotterdam though. For some reason Cindy & Rick are under the impression
Amsterdam is also Rotterdam. Damn. A quick switch of trains and they are
back on track.

The quicker you get to the boat the quicker you take off and J&D will
leave at 5AM with teams taking off every 15 minutes after that. Mom and
son will leave at 630A.

Teams are told to make their way to the water taxi terminal and that
"every step counts" leading perhaps later on to a FitBit promotion. Some
teams walk and some teams take the taxi. How will this affect the teams
later on is unknown.

Justin and Diana being to argue again. Well maybe more Justin then Diana.

The taxis take them to the RoadBlock where they must find a match to Van
Gogh's 'Sunflowers' painting among several windmills in the area.

Fast Fact: 26% of the Netherlands is below sea level

Joey pays attention to detail and is first to find the match. Using
Kelsey and Joey's FitBit they must calculate the difference in heart
rate between this and the last leg and take the number of tulips to the
person with their next clue which will lead them to a distillery and it
is there they will get their Detour Clue.

Fast Fact 2: Krista went to college for 7 years and it paid off. Insert
confused goat look.

At the Detour teams are given the choice of using a simulator to find
ships in a storm in under 5 minutes or a skipping routine. Everyone but
Tiffany and Krista take the boat challenge. T&K are naturals at skipping
and need only 2 attempts to get the clue to the pit stop which is the
Peace Palace in The Hague.

Hot on their heels is Justin and Diana who complete the simulator with
seconds to spare. In fact at the train station J&D are the first to
leave to The Hague and the first to arrive at the Pit Stop for their 4th
win.

Oh, remember the earlier statement that "every step" would count? It's
true as every step taken was matched by free money from FitBit. $31,873
for J&D's future wedding.

The only question remaining in this episode is who would finish the
simulator last and would they make it to The Hague on a train with other
teams.

In a moment of great suspense Denise/James Earl and Cindy/Rick are the
final 2 teams at the train station. Denise/James Earl decide to take a
train that goes directly to The Hague but it will put them in last place
when they get on it.

Veterans watchers of TAR would say they made the wrong decision not
sticking with Cindy/Rick.

So what happened?

After getting off the train they took the right connecting tram to the
pit stop unlike Cindy/Rick who got on the wrong tram and arrived on the
mat last. They have been Philiminated!

[Nancy Dooley]

I wonder how one can dislike Justin more with every episode. I was so hoping
for someone else to win the leg.
And "hag-oo?" Sheesh.

Also, Amsterdam is in Germany. LOL.

N.

[Brian Smith]

Post by Nancy Dooley
I wonder how one can dislike Justin more with every episode. I was so hoping
for someone else to win the leg.
And "hag-oo?" Sheesh.
Also, Amsterdam is in Germany. LOL.

As I was watching the episode last night I had to laugh at what was posted
here about the last episode concerning the French national motto. Not
knowing that was very forgivable after hearing some of the stuff that was
said in last night's episode. The Amsterdam in Germany part got even worse.
I was watching the bonus clips last night and they had one about this
mistake. Some locals (at least I think they were) overheard them and told
them they were not in Germany. Then Krista said that they must be in France
because the flag they saw nearby was red, white and blue.

"Amsterdam, Germany, France" was not even close to the stupid thing we saw
as far as I'm concerned. The stupidest had to have been Rick proclaiming
that Rotterdam is the same city as Amsterdam. He said the French call
Amsterdam Rotterdam. I thought he was the smartest in the race but last
night he totally destroyed his team with his stupidity and stubbornness.
Sitting at the bus stop for approximately 45 minutes (bonus clip) and not
looking at the clearly displayed info on the front of the tram were huge
mistakes. If he had listened to Cindy they would have finished in the middle
of the pack.

Another moment of stupidity was Team Texas not being able to do simple
subtraction. At the rate they're dropping in the standings they should be
gone soon.

Then there was Chris and Logan. Those two are business partners?! There's a
couple of bonus clips with them fighting again. To me it's amazing that
they're still in the race because there's nothing strong about either one of
them individually. A simple task such as counting 43 tulips took them what
looked like forever because they could never agree or Chris would bring up
ridiculous points such as "do they all have to be the same color?" If the
clue doesn't mention color then don't worry about it.

It's been a long time for me, if ever, since there's been a season with so
many unlikable teams. The only team I like that's left is Joey and Kelsey.
Individually I like Krista and Diana but the rest can all get eliminated as
far as I'm concerned.

[Questor]

Post by Nancy Dooley
And "hag-oo?" Sheesh.

Sounds like a line from some cheesy sit-com:

IT.... IS.... HAG-OOOOOOOO!!!!

Post by Nancy Dooley
Also, Amsterdam is in Germany. LOL.

And every town whose name ends in "-erdam" is the same town!

Post by Nancy Dooley
I wonder how one can dislike Justin more with every episode. I was so hoping
for someone else to win the leg.

Justin rubs me the wrong way just a little bit too. However I think he is
basically an okay guy at heart; somebody who generally plays it straight.
He's a bit over-enthusiastic, like a big puppy, and there's an element of
bragging there as well. But it's largely deserved, based on his performance
in the race so far. He's studied the race, and he and Diana are thinking
about what they're doing, analyzing their mistakes, and always trying to
do better.

Contrast that with the Texas boys, who seem mean-spirited to me. They have
that cocky arrogance I detest, and give off an air of entitlement, like they
just expect to do well as a matter of course. But their performance has been
generally lackluster, and they've made a couple of serious errors. At least
they haven't blamed other teams for their own bad showing.

Cindy & Rick's attention to detail clearly helped them at several tasks during
the race. Too bad it failed them in taking the right tram to the pit stop. It
was interesting hearing Rick rationalize sitting at that bus stop. A lot of
teams do this, particularly when stuck in traffic, but in this case he made the
mistake of justifying why they didn't have do anything. Big mistake. I think
they deserve to still be in the race more than Team Alabama, who is only still
in the race because of two or three lucky breaks.

[Loren Pechtel]

Post by Frosty
Oh, remember the earlier statement that "every step" would count? It's
true as every step taken was matched by free money from FitBit. $31,873
for J&D's future wedding.

We could get married 100 times for that money! (Admittedly that was a
quarter century ago and it does not include her wedding dress--her
father provided it, we never found out anything of what he paid.)

[Nancy Dooley]

I think it is outrageous the way people spend on weddings, to say nothing of
the dress cost. But these are different times than 1962 when I got married.
It would seem smarter to put most of that cash towards a down payment on
a place to live, but many young couples don't want that type of responsibility,
and I really can't blame them.

When I got married, my mom was in charge of the bills. Every time my dad asked
what is this costing, anyway, she would respond by giving him the cost of one
Item, like the flowers, or the photographer. My dress was custom made by a dressmaker,
duplicating an illustration in a wedding magazine of a dress that cost $240, which was
way more than anyone I knew spent on their dress.


Different times, for sure.

N.

[Loren Pechtel]

On Sun, 8 Nov 2015 07:27:43 -0800 (PST), Nancy Dooley

Post by Nancy Dooley
I think it is outrageous the way people spend on weddings, to say nothing of
the dress cost. But these are different times than 1962 when I got married.
It would seem smarter to put most of that cash towards a down payment on
a place to live, but many young couples don't want that type of responsibility,
and I really can't blame them.

Yeah. We didn't put the money towards a down payment because it was a
few cities before life was stable enough for buying a house to make
sense. We also didn't have much anyway but so what? I didn't need a
big thing, especially since the legal situation at that point meant
nobody from her side could attend. (I didn't meet my in-laws until
around 6 years after we married!)

Post by Nancy Dooley
When I got married, my mom was in charge of the bills. Every time my dad asked
what is this costing, anyway, she would respond by giving him the cost of one
Item, like the flowers, or the photographer. My dress was custom made by a dressmaker,
duplicating an illustration in a wedding magazine of a dress that cost $240, which was
way more than anyone I knew spent on their dress.

We did it on our own but she came from a culture where weddings were
very simple affairs and I came from a family where they were even
simpler. Two rings and a justice of the peace. (My parents went a
little fancier--two rings, a justice of the peace at midnight. They
had sequential birthdays and were married at the midnight between
them.) By now the cost of our wedding is down to under $1/month.