Tyler & James Are 'Race' Champs
OK, people and faithful "Race" viewers, it's that time of the year when all of our favorite shows are ending, and "The Amazing Race" ends tonight.
The race starts off in Barcelona with Tyler and James, Lyn and Karlyn, and Rob and Kim starting us off for the big race for a million dollars. Teams must first travel to a church to search for their next clue. Off they go!
Teams are only given a few clues about the church, so they must ask around to find out which one they need to go to. Rob and Kim have been constantly fighting through the entire race (anyone remember Jonathan and Victoria, anyone?) and they have been keeping this race very exciting with their love-hate relationship.
Lyn and Karlyn are the first all female team to make it this far, so if they win they will be the first all-female team.
After the teams hit the church they must travel to the Eiffel Tower in Paris. At the airport, the ticket counter opens at 4 a.m. (of course) and all teams must wait for the counter to open. Rob and Kim snag the first flight out at 6 a.m., and there is no more room for other teams. Lyn and Karlyn get on a flight into a different airport that the ticket counter attendants tell them is closer to the Eiffel tower. Maybe it will be close enough to close the gap. Either way, all teams are on different flights Rob and Kim have about 1 1/2 lead time.Photos: Meet The Teams
Rob and Kim, and Tyler and James take a train to the Eiffel Tower while Lyn and Karlyn take a taxi. The taxi paid off because the ladies arrived first with Rob and Kim close on their heels.
Teams must now go to the Caen airport for their next clue. At Caen they get their first roadblock. One team member must skydive while the other rides in the front of the plane! At the roadblock clue block Kim takes a nosedive into the clue box. It was hilarious because Lyn and Karlyn barely blinked an eye when she fell and it looked like Rob couldn't have cared less. He barely helped her up! Ah, isn't love grand?
I have actually been skydiving before and it's pretty cool and a little scary. The professional who you are strapped to just jumps out of the plane and you go when he goes. It's an experience.
After jumping out of the plane teams must head to the train station to meet their partner.
Tyler and James jump back into first place and have to head back to Paris to visit a famous square for their next clue. The placement is jumping all over the place, Rob and Kim are in first, then Lyn and Karlyn are in first, it's a good old fashioned rat race for the millions. Love it.
Detour: art or fashion. In art, teams must pick up a painting and take it to an artist. In fashion, teams must travel to a fashion studio to create a jacket using the provided tools and fit it to a mannequin. Let me just say I think fashion is going to be a lot harder than it seems. Making a jacket and fitting it to a mannequin is hard, but all teams pick fashion anyway. Don't say I didn't warn them.
The lady judging the jackets was harsh. She was tougher than Nina Garcia on "Project Runway." Tyler and James finish first — they are models (go boys!) — then Lyn and Karlyn, followed by Rob and Kim. They must now travel to their final destination, NYC baby!
Tyler and James hop on a Continental flight at 11 am. Lyn and Karlyn go to the wrong airport and need to then travel back to Charles de Gaulle to get on a flight. Rob and Kim try some begging to get on an early flight and it works, so they secure themselves on the earliest flight leaving at 8 a.m., and possibly the million dollars with a lead like that.
Looks like it might come down to a plane ride for the million. (Sound familiar?) Surprisingly, there was room for Tyler and James but not Lyn and Karlyn. What fun would it be if Rob and Kim only got on the flight — that would not make for an interesting ending.
In NYC, they must go to the News Building for their next clue. Rob and Kim's cab driver have no idea where he is going, so they try and follow Tyler and James but their driver has no EZ pass for the tolls but the boy's driver did. They must now travel to the East Village ON FOOT (have fun on that one, that's about 25 or more blocks) to find The Alamo sculpture. There, a woman in yellow will give them their next clue. They actually ran past Ethan's old neighborhood. I saw the deli in the background!
After this, teams must go to Garrison, N.Y., 56 miles away to look for St. Basil Academy and the first one to arrive wins the million. Tyler and James are the first to arrive and are the new winners of "The Amazing Race" — Congrats!