And then there were... still four, as last night's episode of CBS' The Amazing Race: Family Edition followed up last week’s non-elimination leg with a "to be continued" superleg.
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Even though the Linz family started the leg 4 1/2 hours before the last place Weaver team, since the first shuttle to the balloons did not leave until 6AM, all four teams were within minutes of each other at the start of the task. The Weavers took advantage of the bunching to mouth off to the other teams, particularly the Linzes, about their "wasting" last episode's yield. The teams quickly inflated their balloons and took the ride, with the Bransen and Linz balloons brushing in mid-air. The Weavers had a particularly bumpy landing when their balloon ended up on a steep hill at the side of a road (guess God didn't want them to land in an open field.)
Teams then drove to the Heber Valley Railway, where they were faced with a Detour. Teams that chose to "Spike It" had to assemble a 20-foot section of railway, while the "Steam It" teams had to haul 400-pounds of coal. All of the teams except the Weavers chose to "Spike It," which proved to be a tough task for the Godlewski sisters. The Linz and Bransen teams finished fairly quickly, and the Bransen daughters were proud of their father's strength with the sledgehammer as he led them through the task. Meanwhile, although they arrived after the sisters, the Weavers were able to move ahead of the Godlewskis by completing their coal hauling as the sisters struggled with the sledgehammer and squabbled with each other.
After the Detour, the next clue marker was near the Tree of Utah, a 87-foot Bonneville Salt Flats sculpture that the Bransons nicknamed the "Tree of Hemorrhoids." Once they picked up the clue, teams drove to the Bear Lake Rendezvous State Park in Garden City to camp for the night, with their arrival order determining their morning departure times. Once again, production problems dropped a team from first to worst, as the Linz family met the same fate as the Godlewskis had last week -- a camera crew had unintentionally drained their car battery, forcing them to wait for a replacement (hey producers, time to solve that problem, no?)
The next morning, teams drove to Dunham Ranch in Mt. Piney, Wyoming. Once there, two members of each team had to perform a City Slickers-style cattle drive Roadblock. Once they completed the task, the teams were instructed to drive to Yellowstone National Park and find Old Faithful. After watching the geyser erupt, they would receive a clue from a waiting fireman. The Bransens and Weavers waited together for the eruption, but the Godlewskis and Linzes missed it by a matter of minutes and had to wait 92 minutes for Old Faithful to spew again. Meanwhile, the two lead teams raced along Highway 287 to find the ranch at 15200 and strategized on how to beat each other in a foot race. Although they had the disadvantage of having Wally, the Bransens managed to outsprint the Weavers to the mat, only to have Phil invite both teams to stand together as he said the words that both teams -- and the viewers -- dreaded hearing: "You are still racing. Here is your next clue." Yawn.
On next week's The Amazing Race episode: Christine Godlewski balances her sisters on her shoulders as part of completing a task, while the Weavers remind us that being Christian does not always equate with being law-abiding.
