AMAZING RACE – 11/27/11

And we’re back in Brussels.  Getting close to the end of this thing.  This week is a continuation of last week’s leg, and if you remember correctly, we only saw Amani and Marcus check in.  I’m still hoping that somehow Cindy and Ernie get kicked to the curb this week, though I know my only hope is that it happens at the end of this leg.  
 
Amani and Marcus are shown checking in again and getting the next clue.  They are told to drive to the Ford Proving Ground in Belgium for the next clue.  These two have issues pretty early with figuring out where to go.  It’s looking like they will pretty much blow their lead.  
 
Oh great, Ernie and Cindy check in next.  No penalty.  Damn.  Did she just pronounce it PRO-ving Ground?  Weird.  Isn’t she supposed to be so smart?    
 
Jeremy and Sandy are shown at the pit stop next.  Sandy says PRAHV-ing Ground.  What the hell is up with these chicks?   Can’t manage basic pronunciation anymore?  I get it that they are in a foreign country, but “Ford Proving Ground” is a fairly English phrase, right?  
 
Snowboarders are next shown still back at the bodybuilding segment.  They finally scored a 12.  What was up with Andy’s hair?  It was an absolute mess.  It kind of had a Harry Dunne feel, reminiscent of “Dumb and Dumber.”  And you know how bad that was.  Anyway, the snowboarders are second to last to the pit stop, very rare for them to be so behind.  
 
Cathi and Bill are also still stuck bodybuilding and they get a standing O from the crowd.  These two seriously have some guts.  In tiny bikinis/Speedos at their age?  I may have had to drop out of the race on this one.   Anyway, they move on and are last to the pit stop, but it’s not an elimination leg.  
 
Ernie and Cindy arrive first at the roadblock.  It involves racing Mustangs at a racetrack and performing a series of driver’s ed type tasks.  Well, I guess the tasks are a bit more extreme than that, but not exactly rising to the level of “Fear Factor” or anything.  Cindy gets so excited, saying “Oh my God, there are Mustangs…this is so cool!” and does a little jig for us.  Yikes. Stay away from dancing, Cindy.  Then Ernie’s a passenger with one of the professional drivers and says “Wow…I thought he was going to take my life!”  Oh, if only he had.  And then maybe run Cindy over on the way back?  I think Ernie’s driver thought he was annoying too…either that or he was a robot or something.  He had zero personality about anything.  Like the little robot chick from “Small Wonder.”  Here’s a car doing donuts at 100 miles an hour and he’s just sitting there stoically.  By the way, Ernie totally sucked at leg two of the challenge, then says it’s because he’s not a car guy.  Is there such a thing?  Maybe one of these male fashion designer types or something…can’t see them giving a crap about these cars.  But are there many guys that would not be into this task or Mustangs, for that matter?  It takes Ernie about 25 tries to finally get the task right and then he heads back to the starting gate or whatever.  Damn, I was hoping for Cindy to get rocketed off the hood on the trip back.  What a disappointment.    
 
Amani and Marcus finally arrive at the racetrack, followed by the snowboarders.  Tommy is chosen to do this one.  Andy says it’s because he’s not as good at the “mind” tasks.  Basically, Andy is saying Tommy is an idiot and they can’t risk his brain being in the way of another task like the last one that required simple memorization.  Honestly, I was wondering whether Tommy could even drive a car, but he managed.  After the task is finished, Tommy starts describing it to Andy and Andy apparently gets jealous. He says that he started bickering with Tommy (of which they didn’t actually show, so this was pretty confusing) and proceeds to rant on about how he asked for forgiveness and Christ saved him from this sin against Tommy.  Uh, okay.  You wanted to race the Mustangs.  Jealousy.  Even God gets the “racing Mustangs” thing.  Not that big of a deal.   Let’s not cry about it.  
 
So Marcus did really well at the task and finishes quickly.  I kind of thought he was gonna accidentally punch Amani or something when he got back.  He seemed way too excited and kind of made a motion like punching the air while she was running up.  He barely missed her.  Would have been quite a scene with the NFL guy punching Dora the Explorer out.  By the way, has she considered moving away from the braids one of these weeks?  Works for a five year old, not so much for Amani.  I just keep thinking “Backpack, backpack…”  (Some of you won’t get the reference.  And be glad that you don’t.  It means you still have a life).