Cowboys Lasso "Amazing Race" Top Spot
Loner cowboys Jet and Cord rode off on the early bus, lassoed a llama and rusltled up the fixings for a German torte to claim first place in this week's leg of "The Amazing Race."
Lagging throughout the episode, which took contestants through more than 500 miles of Chilean countryside, the indominitable grandmother and her granddaughter ended their season's journey before host Phil Keoghan at the pit stop
Jody, known as Nana, later said, "I've proven to myself that I can do physical things and I'm going to keep on doing them." Meanwhile granddaughter Shannon said she was proud of the way her grandmother kept going, even after getting kicked in the head by a cow.
The cowboy's habit of playing their cards close to their vest did figure in their victory as they showed an aptitude for keeping crucial information to themselves.
The first to discover that a transfer would get them to Puerto Varas faster than waiting hours in the station for a direct bus to depart, the two arrived at the connection point in Temuco only to discover that two other teams had the same idea and those four had tickets for a bus to Puerto Varas that left half an hour earlier than theirs.
When they went to exchange their tickets for the earlier bus, they learned that the earlier bus left from another depot, about 10 minutes away. The waited smugly with the others as the departure time for the early bus came and went and watched as other two teams began asking questions and fled in a taxi in a fruitless effort to catch the bus.
With an early lead secured, they moved smoothly through the challenges which involved dressing a llama for a ritual ceremony and collecting eggs from a hen, milk from a cow and other supplies from a pantry to deliver to a pair of cake bakers in the kitchen.
Only one other team encountered any significant obstacle, although more than a few contestants got kicked by cows as they tried to collect all the ingredients for a cake.
Brothers Dan and Jordan had so much trouble driving their stick-shift auto that they took a wrong turn and got lost. But they still managed to finish in eighth place, ahead of detectives Louis and Michael as well as Nana and Shannon.