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Portugal was our last stop and that's where we pick up with Travis & Nicole eagerly ripping into their clue.

Before we get to the first clue-reading portion of the leg, here's a snapshot of my rankings for this week:

1. The aforementioned Drs. Travis & Nicole
2. Their alliance partners and dating New Englanders Jason & Amy
3. Bearded friends Brandon & Adam
4. Baseball wives Nicky & Kim
5. Team Okies Tim & Danny
6. Exes Tim & Marie
7. LA Kings Ice girls Ally & Ashley
8. Afghanimals/cousins Leo & Jamal

I've been thinking about the fact that the producers didn't give Chester & Ephraim an impromptu non-elimination last week because of woeful travel delays. Really, two explanations come to mind: either they were so far behind in time that the other teams basically started the next leg before Team NFL got to Portugal or the next leg itself didn't include a flight so there really wasn't a chance to level the playing field.

The timestamp onscreen for the doctors probably means my first guess is right. The married couple is leaving at just after 11 p.m. and based upon the delay last week for Chester & Ephraim, their flight didn't even leave London for Portugal until almost 10 p.m. There was simply no way for them to catch up after completing all tasks and fulfilling the required Pitstop break.

I will move on now forever more from the Houston Texans and focus on teams still in the hunt.

Just a few minutes after the doctors leave for a travel agent, Jason & Amy are off the mat. They explain that they are happy to be aligned with Travis & Nicole because the couple is a great example of marriage and the daters explain they are pleased with their "little Race family."

At the travel agency, Travis & Nicole get the disheartening but should be unsurprising news that there is only one flight the next morning all the teams will be on. Why "unsurprising"? Because it's the Amazing Race and airplanes usually keep one team from breaking away AND because they are heading to Norway and the Arctic Circle. I wouldn't imagine that there are a ton of flights from Portugal to the top of the world.

Here's a brief analysis of how different the last two legs were travel-wise: The last leg spent nearly a half an hour or half the episode in airports; This leg spends not even half minute in the airport. Not wasting any time with delays and missing flights this time around.

When they land they must then all take a ferry to their next destination. So we get a quick look at the ferry ride with a few too many of the teams impersonating Titanic’s Jack Dawson. How many is too many for this tired movie impression? Anything more than one is too many for my tastes.

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