The Amazing Race 14: To Pee or make the Final Three?

Hello Amazing Race fans.

I am blogging this just before the final three season finale will broadcast. This means I am a week late in blogging about the previous leg of The Amazing Race. But I have to tell you that watching last week was an amazing time of itself.

Last weekend I was out of town visiting family for a wedding. On Sunday we had afternoon storms that led to a power outage at my father’s house but electricity was on at a cousin’s home down the road. So we gathered at the house with electricity and I discovered that I have a few family members who were fellow Amazing Race fans. For the first time since I started watching the show in 2005 I spend the evening watching and talking about The Amazing Race. And I must tell you, I enjoyed every bit of it. I experienced the shared passion for the competition and opinions of the contestants.

I discovered last weekend that I am not alone in my growing dislike for the Mother and son team Margie & Luke and I am definitely not alone in my befuddlement of the outcome of Kisha & Jen’s participation in the race.

Since I am posting this so late that few if any will be able to read it before the winner is known you probably know that Jen & Kisha was eliminated and the final three would be TAMMY & VICTOR, MARGIE & LUKE and JAIME & CARA. I will tell you that I am cheering for the former Miami Dolphins Cheerleaders to become the first ever all-female team to win The Amazing Race.
So to recap what happened before the final three was determined, teams were continuing on an extended leg of the race when they thought that they were headed for a pit-stop. Jaime & Cara were first at the pit-stop for the first time and since the leg was extended, there was no pit-stop prize for them. The second team was Margie & Luke and the third was Tammy & Victor. Kisha & Jen were last but relieved to know that the leg would continue. Jen had just struggled with her fear of water at a swimming pool task and was crying as they believed they were eliminated.

So as the race continues, the first stop on the extended leg was to search shops for a TRAVELOCITY KNOME which would have their next clue. And like all seasons, teams would have to carry the gnome doll with them to the pit-stop. They would then have to travel via electric bicycles across Tieanmenmin Square to a subway station for the next clue, the detour.

The Detour choices were “Beijing Opera” when teams would have to put on costumes and make up to the approval of judges before receiving their next clue, Or “Beijing food” where teams would have to go to a restaurant where teams would take food orders in the Mandarin language and serve to patrons. Most teams chose the “opera” detour except for the Chinese speaking Tammy & Victor who easily performed the restaurant detour then pulled the PUNK MOVE of selecting Kisha & Jen for the second U-TURN of the race.
This was the first of events that set up the demise of Kisha & Jen on The Amazing Race. Unlike the previous one, this “u-turn” was not "blind" so Tammy & Victor were identified as the ones who selected Kisha & Jen for the “u-turn” which forced Kisha & Jen to return to perform the opposite of their “detour”, forcing them to slow down. They wrote a note on the photo of Kisha & Jen saying “Sorry, we can’t outrun you”.
After the “detour” and Tammy & Victor’s “U-turning “ of Kisha & Jen, teams travelled to a food market for this seasons disgusting food eating task, The “roadblock” where team members had to eat friend scorpions and other insects. Jen struggled the most with this task by vomiting into a bucket a couple times and drinking lots of water which would haunt her later.
One team that struggled throughout the season was Jaime & Cara in foreign lands with language barriers, Cara’s attitude toward people who didn’t speak HER language in THEIR native land. In this leg they had their usual taxi problems and fell from first to last place. The caught up with the struggling Kisha & Jen at the “roadblock” task and we had the set up for a footrace to the pit-stop. The pit-stop was the next destination after the “roadblock”. But that footrace required a porta-potty break for Jen and that was the end of the line for the Sisters from Louisville.
Tammy & Victor easily arrived first at the pit-stop and with their Travelocity Gnome they won a vacation package to the Galapagos Islands. Margie & Luke, who were elated to know that their archrivals Kisha & Jen were “u-turned”, were SECOND and Jaime & Cara were the third team to arrive thus the final three was decided.
For the record, the pit-stop location was Niao Ciao, the centerpiece of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. And somewhere on the property were a group of public toilet facilities where JEN made the decision to stop to relieve herself. This was the decision that spawned many jokes and a common question.

That question was “If you had to choose between a chance of winning a MILLON DOLLARS or wetting yourself” would you have made that critical decision to make that stop at the porta potty while in a foot race to the pit-stop which was only a few feet away. Well Mother Nature (and a lot of bottled water) called Jen to make the pee stop before the pit-stop.
So Jen Hoffman will go down in history at the woman who “pissed away” a million dollars. Well she pissed away a chance at a million dollars. She said in interviews this week that she did not regret her decision, so it is what it is. But I have to tell you that many people have said that if it were them, they would have taken the chance of wetting their pants, but would have checked in at the pit-stop then sought a bathroom.

There have been many blogs about Jen’s situation. One of the best ones was “Urine or You’re OUT”. And mine is “To Pee or make the Final Three”. Well it rhymed LOL!

And so the final three was set and some of my predictions were true. I did predict that Tammy & Victor and Margie & Luke would make the final three. And I hoped that Jaime & Cara would make the final three and I am hoping for them to win. I didn’t predict Kisha & Jen to win but I always knew and grew to respect them as a very strong and competitive team. My earlier predictions for Margie & Luke were also hopes but those changed as their competition became more annoying over time. Luke especially developed a poor attitude and he and his mother held more of a grudge and I find it difficult to support teams with a mean spirit.

And now it is documented. My thoughts about the next to last broadcast of The Amazing Race 14 with less than an hour before the season finale will air on the east coast. As I am typing this, there is a storm outside and the local CBS affiliate is airing storm warnings. It is raining outside my home at the moment and I hear thunder.

If there is a god, PLEASE DON’T INTERFERE WITH MY WATCHING THE FINAL THREE AS THEY TRAVEL TO HAWAII and the winner of AMAZING RACE 14 is declared.

And let’s hope that Jen has emptied her bladder before sitting down to watch the final broadcast that SHE and her sister could have been in.