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As he predicted, Cindy does more questioning why he’s doing things certain ways and less time actually doing anything constructive. She'd better focus because the Pollards and snowboarders are now at the Detour but they won’t be seeing Team Dude, who has chosen Water. They only see Amani & Marcus for a minute as they see the difficulty the others are having on Waffles and do a course correction to the Water task.

Pretty soon, the raft construction is well under way and the waffles are burning. Andy & Tommy once again prove to be the model of teamwork. They finish building while the married couple is about halfway done. With a seaworthy raft under their bums they locate the first half of the clue.

Ernie & Cindy are denied the clue on their first attempt but get it on the second attempt. They get their clue first but it is only by inches as Team Dude sails ashore with both of their clue pieces. Amani & Marcus and Jeremy & Sandy are fighting to be the next ones to leave. But the water is proving difficult to navigate for Team NFL and the dating couple has a dim future in waffle making.

Bill & Cathi are the last team to arrive and they pull an Amani & Marcus by immediately switching to Water before even attempting to build the waffle stand. Smart move by both teams. You know what’s not a smart move? Sandy once again getting flustered and willing to give up on task they are so close to completing. Jeremy resists this urge to change and they finally figure out two waffles are just in the wrong spot. Even though they get their clue, the editors want us to believe that Bill & Cathi are still viable in the race. As much as I want to, I am just not buying it.


Our engaged team get the next clue that instructs them to release a coop of homing pigeons and then proceed to the address the birds are heading to. Then find the pigeon with the final clue attached to its leg. The snowboarders are not far behind them as team number two.

Team Dude relies upon a local who points them back toward Brussels and Ernie & Cindy are lost. This allows Andy & Tommy to get their pigeon clue first, which includes a very tiny picture of a popular spot in Brussels, the Atomium. It’s a giant rendering of the atomic structure of iron. With an assist from some Belgian youngsters, the snowboarders are heading to the Pitstop.

Fortuitously, Jeremy & Sandy are not only the second team to get their pigeon clue but Jeremy immediately remembers seeing the Atomium in Brussels. Also, fortuitously (for me at least), Ernie & Cindy’s poor navigation is causing some lashing out and profane outbursts from Ernie. After vague directions from a restaurant worker, they learn they drove 30 minutes in the wrong direction. Captain Obvious Cindy once again explains to us Amazing Race laymen that “I hope we don’t come in last because 30 minutes is kind of a big deal.”

Alas, Bill & Cathi haven’t released the pigeons yet.

Andy & Tommy gleefully hit the mat in first place and are awarded with a pair of new Mustangs. I am once again justified in my power ranking and pleased with this result.

Meanwhile, Ernie & Cindy get their clue, as do Amani & Marcus. I smell a producer plant because they get an assist about what the picture is of by the same local man. Unless the sun is setting at that very rapid pace, these two teams have to be about 20 minutes apart. We will see if that is enough to catch up to Jeremy & Sandy who are still looking for the Atomium.

Oh yeah, Bill & Cathi STILL haven’t released the pigeons yet.

This is completely anticlimactic because not only have all the others done the first part of the pigeon task, they have done the last part as well. Well, let’s just cut to the formality of the Pitstop placement. We have Jeremy & Sandy as team number two and Ernie & Cindy as team number three. To answer the looming question, they are not penalized for the lost train ticket. This doesn’t make me happy but I think that they knew any penalty would be useless since Bill & Cathi are clearly the ones going home.

Amani & Marcus hit the mat securely in fourth.

We don’t see the grandparents even touch another clue, let alone a pigeon, so they must have gotten the news to head directly to the Pitstop. They are last and eliminated. Bill offers this truly sweet sentiment, “It was one more chance to be with my best friend and do some really special things in the world. I would do it all over again…same person…same way.”

Next week, such sweetness is absent as the teams scramble through Panama for a spot in the final three. See you then and have a great one this week.

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