Aiellos Exit 'The Amazing Race'

Bonding Experience Was A Success For Dad, Sons-In-Law

(CBS)  On Tuesday night's "Amazing Race: Family Edition," eight remaining teams continued their trek across the country, this time traveling by bus through the South. In the end, though, Tony Aiello and his three son-in-laws learned a valuable lesson: mud is also thicker than water.

"We got bogged down in the mud bogs," Tony Aiello told The Early Show co-anchor Julie Chen. "It took us forever to get through that. But we were determined we weren't going to leave until we got through it."

"We probably lost about two hours stuck in the mud," his youngest son-in-law David Alverson said.

Looking back, Kevin Kempskie, who married one of Tony Aiello's twin daughters, said they probably should have chosen the shrimp detour. But at the same time there are no regrets.

"We all agreed that we just wanted to have fun. That was an obvious one," Kevin said.

Matt Hanson, who is married to the other twin, agreed.

"We said let's have more fun because the first two legs we were all business, getting stressed out," he said. "It looked like a fun task and, us four, we thought it would be fun playing in the mud."

Bonding was the aim of their race. Tony Aiello said that the holidays were not enough to really get to know each other.

"I know my sons-in-law, Thanksgiving, Christmas times together," he said. "But we wanted to have an adventure together and really get to know the men that my daughters love."

The Space Center also provided ample opportunity for fun, even though they got the last number to get on the centrifuge ride, putting them in last place. As for the ride, "It was awesome," David said.

"It was surprising," he added. "I generally have a hard time with things spinning around really fast. But it was weird. Once we started to get to the 3.2 Gs, you could see the welds on the inside of the metal capsule and they were actually moving — looked like they were crushing in together. It was incredible. And it felt like this heavy weight on your chest, and you can feel your skin pulling back."

Being the last to join the Aiello family, David said the notion of competing as a team was "a little nerve racking, but it was a great time. We absolutely had a blast. We had a good time the entire time we were there, and that's just the way we did it."

After watching their race on TV, Tony Aiello said his daughter wished they were there to help them win it. "We had some serious thought about, maybe it will be my daughters and I going on the race. There was some debate."

Kevin quickly added: "I don't think they'll do any better. Sorry girls." But, just as quickly, he lowered his head and took it back. "They probably would do better than we did."

Next for this team is a camping trip. Wives and children will be joining them.