Amazaing Race post game week 6

It’s week six of the Amazing Race and teams are faced with some impossible looking tasks and some bad directions. Will the Detectives break out some bubbly to celebrate another victory or is it time for the Lesbians to make their move? The Brothers find out how they stack up against other teams by showing off their bar mitzvah skills. The father and daughter team of Steve and Ally find out that duct tape can fix everything. Brent is ready to crown Caite and not in a good way. Is it the last roundup for The Cowboys after two huge mistakes that causes them to take unintended tour of the French countryside or has the bank finally foreclosed on Team Big Brother?

The Detectives start the leg at 7:47 am and are directed to drive themselves to the town of Reims, France and find the only outside statue of Joan of Arc and listen to what they saw. This will cause some confusion to our simpler minded teams as both Jordan and Caite both think they are looking for Noah’s arc. The Brothers leave in fourth place but get a lucky break in finding a local that directs them to the cathedral where the Joan of Arc statue is located. The Detectives luck from the last two legs continues as they spot the office of tourism and decide to stop and ask for help locating the statue, which allows the father daughter team of Steve and Ally to take a temporary lead arriving at the Statue first. They receive the clue from the street musician playing a saw of a cork that has the words Champaign la clere and have to determine where the wine maker is located. Team runs into a local at the statue that knows where the cork is from and gives them directions. The Cowboys and the Detectives arrive next to receive the cork and the Cowboys make their first big mistake of the day, they spotted the town of Champaign on the map and think that is where they should head and will end up going miles out of their way. The Detectives fresh from their visit to the office of tourism head back to get the proper directions. The Brothers arrive at the statue fourth but spot the office of tourism also and the head there and meet up with the Detectives. Both teams get the correct directions to the city of Eparney. Last place Team Big Brother is just now starting the leg and is determined to make up ground.

In Eparney the Father Daughter team take a wrong turn at a circle, which allow the Detectives with the Brothers in tow to locate the Champaign maker first. The Brothers beat the detectives to the roadblock  and are instructed to repel down into the wine cellar and located a marked bottle of Champaign. In the first daunting task of the day their are hundreds of bottles to search though to find one marked with the familiar but small red and yellow route flag. Jordan decides to accept this challenge for the Brothers and is the first to repel and discover how many bottles they must look though. As Louie starts his repel and Steve and Alley arrive Jordan is able to locate a marked bottle and brings it up the stairs and outside to open the bottle with a saber which releases the pressure of the bottle and gives them the next clue. The Brothers receive only a note that says Taittingers les margeutteries. This clue will result in chaos for several teams since locals will give them different directions to separate locations of Taittingers. The correct location is the mansion where the Champaign is made. The Brothers will be the first to fall victim to this as a local tourism office incorrectly directs them to the store where the Champaign is sold back in Reims.

By this time the Cowboys have realized their error and fear they are in last place as Louie locates the bottle in the cellar and receives the clue. The Detectives luck out again and find a local who knows where the mansion is and is willing to drive ahead of them to lead them to it. Steve and Alley are not so lucky as they are also given directions back to Reims and the store that sells the Champaign. At the back of the pack neither team Big Brother or Brent and Caite have located the statue yet. Brent and Caite begin bickering that will last throughout the entire leg but finally locate the statue as Brandy and Carol arrives at the winery. Brandy gets the clue for the team and they are lucky enough to get correct information to the mansion allowing them to jump up into second place as other teams head in the wrong direction.

The Cowboys have recovered from their first mistake of the day and arrive at the winery in fifth only to fall prey to their second as a local incorrectly sends back to Reims as we see last place Jeff and Jordan finally locate the statue. The Detectives are the first to arrive at mansion and the detour. Teams must choose between Tower or Terra. In Tower teams must build a pyramid of Champaign glasses exactly 15 glasses high and then pour a giant Champaign bottle into the top glass and have it overflow down the pyramid until the bottle is empty without breaking any glasses and having the pyramid collapse. In Terra teams must search the grapevines of a square kilometer of the winery to find a bunch of grapes that are specially marked with small red and yellow route marker and bring it to the harvest foreman to receive their next clue. The detective admitting that they are not steady of hand enough for the glass pyramid building choose terra and again use their grid searching technique from their job to try to locate the grapes.

The Brothers are the first to arrive in Reims and are given the bad news that they are at the wrong Taitingers’ location and are given directions back to the mansion by a worker there. At the back of the pack Brent and Caite and get their clue at the Champaign cellar and are followed by last place Jeff and Jordan who realize they haven’t seen another team all day. Father daughter team of Steve and Ally are the next to arrive at the wrong location of Taitingers but before they can find that out Steve hits a curb and damages the passenger side of the front bumper. The wheel is now rubbing against the bumper. As Steve and Ally get the bad news they head back to the mansion in their damaged car which now looks like the wheel will be damaged if they go any further. Steve pulls to the side of the road and tries to pull the damaged bumper away from the wheel. As things look bad for the pair, they discuss whether to call for a replacement car Steve remember that his wife on a last minute whim insisted he bring along a roll of duct tape claiming it can fix anything. Steve tells Ally to retrieve the roll of duct tape from their bags and sets about repairing the car by using the duct tape to hold the bumper away from the wheel. Steve’s wife is right and the car is repaired enough to drive proving something I’ve known  for quite some time that you should never leave home without duct tape because there is no end to what it can do.

Eagle eye detective Michael has finally spotted the grapes and the Detectives are headed to the pit stop for their third straight win. The Cowboys have arrived at their second wrong location of the day and get the bad news as the Brothers Dan and Jordan arrive at the mansion and they choose to stack the glasses which will take longer than they think it will. Carol and Brandy are the next to arrive at the mansion and choose to search for the grapes and locate them much faster than the Brother can build and pass them up. Carol and Brandy are on their way to a second place finish as Phil asks them the question he always asks the female teams “will they be the first all female team to win the Amazing Race?” I hope not, I have seen much better female team come up short and would hate to have this one finally win. I might be okay with Carol winning but I just cannot stand Brandy. Brent and Caite are lost again and think following the Lesbians will lead them to the next clue but instead arrive at the pit stop where Phil tells them that they cannot check in yet . I am growing tired of this pair also since neither them is very bright and it might be a toss up of who is dumber them or team Big Brother. Steve and Ally finally arrive at the correct location and somehow manage to find the grapes while the Brothers still stack and finish a surprising third place. The Cowboys also recover from their many blunders to arrive at the mansion and also pass the brothers and are surprised to be in fourth place at the end of a nightmare day.

The Brothers have incorrectly built the pyramid and are three levels short and decide to risk everything and stack three single glasses on top of each other to reach the 15 glass high level. Their gamble pays off as they somehow manage to pour the giant bottle of Champaign into the pyramid without it collapsing and they finish fifth. It is now a race between two very dumb teams to not be eliminated. Brent and Caite arrive at the mansion and the pair disagree on which task to do. Caite wants to build the pyramid but Brent decides they should search for the grapes. Caite complains all the time they search and finally convinces Brent to give up and start building. After about an hour of Caite building a pyramid they make the attempt to pour the Champaign and for a few minutes it seems to work but then collapses and breaks. The pair gives up and goes back to searching for the grapes. Jeff and Jordan finally arrive in last place and are surprised to find a team still there. Jordan incorrectly thinks they can build the pyramid faster and they attempt that instead. As the pair slowly builds, Brent and Caite locate their grapes and head to the pit stop to finally check in and survive for another leg. Team Big Brother pyramid fails to stay together and comes crashing down, as does their chance to continue. The pair finally locates the grapes they need to finish and arrive to get the bad news from Phil that they are eliminated. I must say the pair takes it quite well and seemed to have fun despite being in last place most of the race.

So some stronger teams got a wake up call this leg and I hope they will rebound for the next leg. I liked Brent and Caite at first but I’m now hoping they will get eliminated next leg because they are just too dumb to go any further. I have changed my mind on the Detectives since they seem to be more humorous to me now and I would not mind seeing them win but I still think the Cowboys and the Father Daughter team are strong competition. The Lesbians despite my dislike of Brandy seem to be peaking at the right time but as this leg proved you can go from first to last with one wrong turn.