The Amazing Race cast (S13E11) and its final three teams, brother and sister combo–Nick & Starr Spangler, frat guys — Andrew Lappitt & Dan Honig and separated, but soon to be together again — Ken & Tina Greene set off from their Pit Stop at VDNKh Park and receive a clue. The clue indicated they must fly to their final destination city, Portland, Oregon and conclude their world travel.
All teams arrive at the airport to make the same flight even though there was some suspense with Andrew and Dan leaving in third place. The players go from Russia to Portland. When do they get first class seating? When the teams arrive in Portland, they travel to a local adventure park. At this point, Andrew and Dan face taxi difficulties that essentially put them out of the race. A Portland cab driver could not find the adventure park, whereas the other teams arrived quickly. This was simply bad luck for our favorite frat guys.

At the adventure park, all teams complete a “Detour” selection requiring them to overcome their fear of heights by traversing a log high in the air. They travel by taxi to “The Bridge of the Gods”, where their fear of heights is tested once again. In my opinion, this task is easier than the log challenge - but who am I? In this challenge, the teams must take 2,000 foot zip-line ride to an island. At this island, the teams are faced with a significant memory challenge — a game board testing their memory of the events throughout the race. The race contained ten game pieces, each representing a leg of the race. Behind each picture was a symbol representing either the game’s “Route Info”, “Roadblock”, “Detour” or “Pit Stop”. Each team searched more than 150 clue boxes for pictures. Once they identified the correct picture to support the clue, then they must dash to the game-board and fill the vacant spots. Each time they placed a correct picture, a green light would signal them to move on to the next clue. Once this task was completed, teams found a clue that directed them to travel to the Portland Building and search for a green dinosaur. At this point, they searched on foot for a Russian food cart and finally a donut shop before receiving the clue directing them to the finish line at a local mansion. The results came down to a taxi race for the finish with the winner…Nick and Starr.
This was a fun and exciting episode. This is one of my favorite reality shows.

I still can’t believe this tv show has a full 13 seasons of success and increasing its ratings each year. Time sure does fly.

Look forward to a new, “The Amazing Race” cast for season 14, episode 1 on CBS, February 15, 2009.

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