Episode #1207

ALL ABOARD!
Departing the Pit Stop in first place at 2:19am, father and daughter Ron & Christina opened their clue instructing them to travel by bus to the port city of Split, Croatia. From there, they would take a ferry across the Adriatic Sea to Ancona, Italy, where their next clue awaited.

At the bus station, Ron & Christina discovered the first bus to Split would depart at 5:00am. This allowed dating Goths Kynt & Vyxsin and dating couple Nate & Jen to catch up, but TK & Rachel and Nick & Don didn’t even check out of the Pit Start when the lead three Teams departed on the bus to Split. Checking out at 5:37am, dating couple TK & Rachel took the second bus to Split departing at 6:00am hoping for a chance to catch up. Last place grandfather and grandson left the Stone Cross at 7:06am and caught the third bus to Split, where they happily rejoined the lead four Teams on the same ferry to Ancona, Italy. During the relaxing ride across the Adriatic Sea, Vyxsin noted, “When we hit the ground in Italy…it’s going to be a really intense leg for sure.”

OUT OF ANCONA
Landing in Ancona, Italy at 9:40pm, the five Teams raced to the parking lot, where a barricade held their clue. Opening it, the Teams discovered they needed to drive deep into Tuscany to the town of Empoli and find an airfield for their next clue. Along with their clue, Teams were given a Blackberry handheld device. At some point during the 200-mile drive, they would be receiving a message. However, Teams could not attempt to use their Blackberry for any other reason.

Taking a lead out of the parking lot, dating couple Nate & Jen got excellent directions from a man at a gas station, who told them to drive through Forli en route to Florence and finally Empoli. He added that driving up to Bologna and over to Florence would be out of the way. Meanwhile, from reading a map, Ron suggested taking the slower route through Bologna while Kynt & Vyxsin and Nick & Don received the same incorrect information from locals. TK & Rachel opted to drive through Rome after speaking with a local at a restaurant, but the couple had bigger problems to worry about when they later realized after frantically searching through their car that they left their clue on the table and had to drive back to Ancona, putting them in last place. TK joked, “This is too much. I’m too mellow to handle this.”

AN IMPORTANT MESSAGE
With hours of driving on the highways of Italy throughout the night, the Teams got a big surprise when their Blackberries rang and messages from their families appeared on the screen. Nate’s parents joked, “Just wanted to say that you better win or don’t come home.” Ron teared up after hearing a message from his other daughter, Steph, who told him to use the time on the race to strengthen his relationship with Christina. Then Ron noted, “We gotta do better. There’s room for improvement from me.” Vyxsin also began crying after hearing from her parents, saying, “I’ve been really missing my mom a lot lately.” While Don had difficulty figuring out how to read the Blackberry, he laughed when he saw that his son joked, “Don’t embarrass me.” After TK heard his mom’s words of encouragement, he said, “If she only knew what we just went through.”

NEW ROUTE
While Nate & Jen cruised into Empoli to discover that the airfield wouldn’t open until 7:00am, the Teams that went through Bologna encountered a traffic jam and couldn’t get onto the highway to Florence, forcing them to read their maps and make an alternate route. Christina figured out a way to take smaller roads but also knew that this would take much longer than the freeways. Vyxsin noted, “We knew where we were going and to have ourselves detoured this way is completely frustrating.” Grandson and grandfather Nick & Don made a different choice and opted to wait until 6:00am when the road to Florence reopened instead of seeking a different way to Empoli.

FLYING HIGH
As the sun rose, TK & Rachel, having taken the highway through Rome, arrived in Empoli to join Nate & Jen as the only Teams to reach the airfield before the 7:00am opening. The normally calm TK shouted with sheer exhilaration and excitement at being the second team to arrive after having to backtrack to retrieve their clue the night before.

When the gates opened, TK & Rachel and Nate & Jen opened their clues to find a Road Block. In it, one team member had to soar through the skies over Tuscany in an ultra light. While aloft, they had to scan a 10-kilometer radius of the countryside below for the name of their next destination: Vinci. When they thought they spotted the hint, they had to signal their pilot, who would then bring them back down. Once on the ground, they would tell the instructor the word and, if correct, the pilot would hand them their next clue. There was a thirty-minute time limit per flight. Once the half hour was up, team members had to make a mandatory landing for refueling before continuing their search.

Going up in their ultra lights, TK and Nate both marveled at the beautiful scenery over Tuscany before beginning the search for their next clue. At the same time, Ron & Christina arrived at the airfield followed closely by Nick & Don. When Ron shouted at Christina when they couldn’t find the number pull for the Road Block, Rachel listened in shock and horror. She told Jen, “I haven’t heard him yell at her yet. I have no forgiveness or respect for the way that Ron talks to his daughter.”

While Christina chose to fly in the ultra light for her Team, Nick & Don opted to try for the Fast Forward, the only one on the entire race. In it, teams had to travel to Fabio Studios to take part in a local seafaring tradition. What they didn’t know was that the tradition is the art of tattoo. When they arrived, they would learn that they had to have a permanent tattoo drawn on their bodies, the letters FF for Fast Forward.

As Vyxsin began to emotionally break down from lack of sleep and not being able to find Empoli, TK endured his own stress and anxiety in the ultralight. With so much area to cover in searching for the hint, the trick was to look along the river as Nate learned when he spotted the giant letters spelling Vinci on his first try. Opening the clue, he and Jen discovered they had to drive to the town of Vinci and find the birth home of famed Italian artist and inventor, Leonardo da Vinci.

FLYING BLIND
A frustrated TK went back up after refueling but again couldn’t find the hint while Christina directed her pilot along the river and easily spotted the word Vinci. Once again, TK came down without any idea of what he needed to look for. His frustration worsened when hopelessly lost Kynt & Vyxsin arrived at the airfield thrilled and surprised to see another Team having as bad a day as they were. When Vyxsin went up in the ultralight, she also spotted the word Vinci along the river while TK continued to flounder. Back on the ground, TK told Rachel, “This might be the most heartbreaking thing I’ve ever been a part of. I think we’re done.” Now alone in last place, TK once again went back up in the ultralight and this time he finally spotted the hint. Driving off, TK remarked, “I hope because of that we don’t get eliminated.”

TATTOO TIME
Walking into Fabio Studios, grandson and grandfather Nick & Don received a huge shock when they realized they had to get a tattoo to earn their Fast Forward reward. Don remarked, “I never thought at my age I’d be getting a tattoo.” Knowing that turning back now would result in their elimination, they had no choice but to sit down and endure the painful stings of the artist’s needle as black ink permanently transferred onto their arms. With the FF emblazoned on their arms, Nick & Don opened their clue, instructing them to skip all tasks and drive to the Pit Stop at Boboli Gardens in Florence.

Arriving at da Vinci’s birth house, dating couple Nate & Jen opened up their clue to find a Detour having to choose between Invention and Tradition. In Invention, Teams made their way to a nearby courtyard and chose a replica of a centuries-old crane designed by Leonardo da Vinci. They had to first assemble the crane, and use it to lift one large stone a foot off the ground. Then, they had to place a mirror underneath and read a clue printed on the bottom of the rock. In Tradition, Teams made their way to Piazza Guido Masi. There, they had to learn a traditional local flag routine. When they executed the routine correctly the lead flagman would hand them a flag displaying the name of their next destination.

As Nate & Jen ran off to learn a flag routine, grandson and grandfather Nick & Don entered the lush grounds of the Boboli Gardens, where Phil stood waiting. For their victory, Nick & Don won five-night trip for two to Cancun from Travelocity. Sitting in first place, Don remarked, “At this point, I am fully wrapped up in the race. As the odds get smaller, the odds get better to win a million bucks. I really do think we can win.”

BATTLING IT OUT
With Nate & Jen and Ron & Christina each learning the flag routine en route to second and third place finishes, dating Goths Kynt & Vyxsin desperately tried to maintain their lead over last place TK & Rachel. After checking out the complicated crane in Invention, the dating Goths opted to drive to Piazza Guido Masi for the flag routine as they spotted TK & Rachel running up to the cluebox.

As TK & Rachel tried to figure out how to build da Vinci’s crane, the dating Goths struggled with directions, a problem plaguing them the entire day. The normally well-functioning couple began to fall apart as Kynt shouted for Vyxsin to stop the car and allow him to drive. After Kynt threatened to jump out, Vyxsin stopped and let Kynt take the wheel. Kynt sniped, “You can’t be throwing your little temper tantrums in moments like this.” Vyxsin retorted, “This day has had a trend and it’s gonna continue to the end of it and they’re [TK & Rachel] gonna be there when we get there and we’re not going to win this thing.”

CAR TROUBLES
Their day got a whole lot worse much sooner than Vyxsin predicted when Kynt couldn’t get the car to move. When Vyxsin tried driving it again, the car wouldn’t shift into gear prompting her to ask Kynt, “What did you do to the damn car?” Kynt replied, “Just shut up for once today.” The bickering couple evacuated their car and proceeded on foot to the piazza expecting a replacement car when they returned.

While Kynt & Vyxsin continued to argue, TK & Rachel calmly worked together as the pair successfully constructed the crane and lifted it off the ground to read the clue directing them to Boboli Gardens. The couple appeared to have fourth place all sewn up as they drove to Florence but a flat tire stopped them dead in their tracks.

(NON)ELIMINATION
As the stunned TK & Rachel tried to fix their flat, dating Goths Kynt & Vyxsin finally began working together as the pair easily completed the flag routine to earn their next clue. Getting into their replacement car, the dating Goths hoped for the best as TK & Rachel swapped tires and got back in their car. With both Teams having very bad days, they each hoped it would at least end well by not getting eliminated.

After a relived TK & Rachel stepped onto the mat in fourth place, dating Goths Kynt & Vyxsin entered the Boboli Gardens expecting bad news from Phil. Instead, Phil informed the thrilled pair that this was the first of two non-elimination legs and they were still in the race. However, sometime in the next leg Kynt & Vyxsin would encounter a new twist in the race called a Speed Bump that was a task that only they had to complete while the other Teams kept racing. Vyxsin commented, “Today was one of those rare days that Kynt and I weren’t in sync with each other. It was a meltdown.” Kynt added, “Next leg we have to tackle something called the Speed Bump. We’ll give it everything we can.”