In a stunning reversal of fortune, married couple Fran & Barry won a leg in the Middle Eastern desert that ended with friends Eric & Jeremy battling best friends BJ & Tyler for last place. Wrong turns plagued the “frat boys” throughout, but a Roadblock in the hot Omani sun proved too difficult for BJ as he and Tyler arrived at the Pit Stop in last place. Fortunately, “the hippies” caught a huge break as this was the first non-elimination leg.
Departing the Pit Stop in first place at 11:54 pm, friends Eric & Jeremy opened their clue to discover they had to fly 2,300 miles to Muscat, Oman. Dating back almost 5,000 years, this oil rich nation bordering Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates is one of the oldest inhabited regions of the Middle East. Once in Muscat, they had to find a giant incense burner for their next clue.Having to walk across a bridge to sign up for a shuttle bus to the Athens Airport, dating couple Ray & Yolanda began the leg in an uncharacteristically rocky fashion. Yolanda joked with Ray when he wanted to make sure they were crossing the large bridge directly in front of them, saying, “That’s a damn shame. Let’s make sure we ask somebody if this is the bridge.” Ray didn’t take the joke well, replying tersely, “Just find the damn bridge.” After Yolanda asked Ray to stop cussing at her several times and think about his behavior, he retaliated by shooting her a bird. A stunned Yolanda remarked, “It’s pretty bad.” When Ray reminded her he was a grown man, Yolanda replied, “I can’t tell.” After that, the two crossed the bridge in complete silence.
With 9 am being the earliest shuttle to Athens, the first four Teams all shared a ride to the airport while last place best friends BJ & Tyler, starting nine hours behind, now erased eight of those hours by taking a 10 am shuttle.
Arriving at the airport in Athens, married couple Fran & Barry employed their newfound competitiveness by sneaking off to buy tickets on the earliest flight to Oman on Gulf Air landing at 10:50 pm. While friends Eric & Jeremy and dating couples Ray & Yolanda and Joseph & Monica all ultimately got the same flight by following the married couple, Fran & Barry said, “We’re beyond the genial that we were in the first few rounds. We’re gonna go for it and we’re not backing down.”When best friends BJ & Tyler finally caught up to the other Teams at the airport, Eric & Jeremy, Joseph & Monica and Ray & Yolanda all gave them the cold shoulder by refusing to offer up information. The best friends soon discovered that no tickets remained on the Gulf Air flight and instead settled for a Qatar Air flight landing at 11:45 pm.
Landing in Muscat, Oman, the Teams marveled at the intriguing country they had just entered. Jeremy remarked, “This is by far the prettiest place we’ve been.” Monica added, “Americans think they’re rich. These people who are rich here are crazy rich, billionaires.” Noting the Arabic writing, Ray said, “I don’t know what language they speak over here, but I can’t even look at these signs and figure out what it says. They’re all squiggly.”With the incense burner not opening until 6 am, relieved best friends BJ & Tyler caught up while Ray & Yolanda took the time to discuss their relationship problems. The pair couldn’t reach any agreement on how to get along, but Yolanda remarked later, “Ray and I have not been communicating well at all. I’m always left to figure out what’s going on. I can’t do that in a relationship and I can’t especially do it here, but somehow it’s just something we have to work on. No matter what, we have to get through this.”
The next morning at 6 am, the five Teams ran up the hillside where the clue box awaited in the shadow of the massive incense burner. Opening the clue, the Teams learned they had to drive 135 miles to the town of Sur, once a key center for trade with East Africa and now a sleepy fishing town. Once here, Teams had to find the ferry crossing known as Baith Al Battha.While dating couple Ray & Yolanda quickly fell into last place when they couldn’t even navigate out of the Muscat city limits, the other four Teams loosely traveled together as they encountered rocky terrain and flooded roads. The Teams all deeply appreciated the assistance they received from a small local man who guided them through the first flood they encountered. Monica cooed, “He’s so tiny. I just want to pick him up and take him home in my pocket.” In a second, more intimidating, flood with no guide around, BJ & Tyler and Joseph & Monica were hesitant to drive through it allowing fourth place Eric & Jeremy to pass them by. The “frat boys” barreled into the water that almost went over their hood. On their behavior, Monica noted, “Eric & Jeremy want to be first so bad sometimes that they just cut in front of lines.” BJ added, “That’s the frat boy way to just barge into a situation.”
Arriving at Baith Al Battha together, the four Teams minus dating couple Ray & Yolanda opened their clue to find a Detour. In this Detour, Teams had to choose between Camel and Watchtower. In Camel, Teams needed to use a block and tackle system used by locals to load a camel into a pickup truck. Then, when the camel was secure in the flatbed, they had to use a map and travel one mile to deliver it at a Bedouin camp. In Watchtower, Teams had to search among three watchtowers for an Arabic message box. However, not all watchtowers contained a message box. Once they found one, they had to travel one mile to a silver shop and deliver it to a man called Mubarek.After the four Teams took a ferry across the water, they all split off to their chosen task. While friends Eric & Jeremy started loading a camel, dating couple Joseph & Monica hoped a message box would be waiting for them in the nearest tower. The dating couple’s move forced best friends BJ & Tyler and married couple Fran & Barry to choose the next tower over where two message boxes awaited. As the two Teams headed back to the ferry to deliver the message boxes, Joseph & Monica discovered their watchtower was empty. Rather than run to the furthest watchtower, they instead opted to load a camel as Eric & Jeremy drove off with theirs secured in the flatbed.
As Eric & Jeremy quickly became lost on the expansive desert roads after taking a wrong turn, BJ & Tyler and Fran & Barry worked together with the help of a local who guided them to the silver shop. After delivering the message box, the Teams opened their clue instructing them to drive 80 miles to the village of Al Hawiyah.
Eric & Jeremy’s struggle to locate the Bedouin camp continued as dating couple Joseph & Monica successfully delivered their camel and began the drive to Al Hawiyah. The friends wasted so much time that when they finally dropped off their camel they saw last place Ray & Yolanda arriving at Baith Al Battha to begin the Detour. Frustrated with their uncharacteristically poor performance, the friends hoped to keep their slim lead over the dating couple who breezed through the task of delivering the camel.
Arriving at the sand dunes in the village of Al Hawiyah together in first place, married couple Fran & Barry and best friends BJ & Tyler opened their clue to find a Roadblock. In this Roadblock, one Team member had to dig through 117 sand mounds to find one out of six shuwas. This traditional Omani dish of spiced lamb is wrapped in a dried palm leaf bag and steamed in an underground oven. Once they find the shuwa, their dinner for the evening, they would receive their next clue.With the blazing sun above them, Barry and BJ ran onto the sand and began to dig through the mounds, hoping to uncover one as quickly as possible. With no luck between the two, Monica soon joined the pair while complaining about having to do the task at hand. Joseph, in response to his girlfriend’s protests, shot back, “You can really just be quiet and find that food.”
With Eric entering the fray, the four Racers continued to dig unsuccessfully through pile after pile while their teammates and many camels looked on. Jeremy cheered on his partner by yelling, “You gotta dig like a champion! You run to the pile!” As BJ began to grow weary from the heat, Eric and Monica started digging a little faster, and Barry uncovered the first underground oven. However, after a great start, he ran into issues when sand collapsed into the hole he was digging, burying the shuwa even further. The time spent digging out the sand allowed Monica to find a shuwa and excavate it from the oven before him. With first place in sight, an excited Joseph & Monica opened the clue instructing them to drive 150 miles to Jabreen Castle, an ornate fortress built by a sultan over 300 years ago and the Pit Stop. As Joseph & Monica left the sand dunes, an exhausted Barry pulled his shuwa out of the ground and sped off with Fran in hopes of catching the dating couple.
After Eric also found a shuwa, BJ’s mood began to darken as the heat and sheer frustration took its toll. When Yolanda ran to the piles of sand to begin the Roadblock, BJ didn’t react well to Tyler’s attempts at cheering him on, sniping, “How about you just let me dig until I find something? I had to dig for gnomes. I have to dig for food. You get to bungee jump.” Trying to steer his partner’s focus back to the task didn’t work either. When Tyler asked, “Have you missed any mounds,” BJ replied, “Only the ones I haven’t done yet.”Yolanda received unsolicited advice of her own when Ray told her to develop a pattern while digging, prompting Yolanda to mumble, “Your momma’s got a pattern going.” After silencing Ray, Yolanda kept digging and eventually found a shuwa deflating BJ even further. As BJ wandered from mound to mound in the 90-degree heat, Tyler continued supporting his exhausted friend until finally he uncovered a shuwa. After giving BJ a huge hug, Tyler exclaimed, “You did so good. We’re in a good spot right now.”
After a frustrated Joseph & Monica needed to stop for directions to Jabreen Castle, married couple Fran & Barry stepped onto the mat in first place. The thrilled couple gladly accepted from Phil a trip to Rome, Italy from Travelocity. A disappointed Joseph & Monica settled for second place.Arriving in third place, dating couple Ray & Yolanda acknowledged the relationship problems they encountered on this leg. Ray noted, “Even with the problems we had, we still managed to overcome those things and maintain our position in the Race. But we definitely have to get those things together in order to have a chance to win.”
While a wrong turn and mistaken shortcut by Eric & Jeremy made for a tight Race, in the end, the friends arrived in fourth place, their worst placement thus far. A tired Eric commented to Phil, “We thought we were doing pretty well and then today was just like, ‘Maybe we better rethink some things.’ It was horrible.”
Stepping onto the mat in last place, best friends BJ & Tyler breathed a sigh of relief once again as Phil informed the pair this was the first of several non-elimination legs. While the best friends needed to give up their money and possessions, they looked forward to the challenge of fighting back. Tyler remarked, “We’re going to be the humans we are and not the possessions on our backs. We’re just going to be complete BJ & Tyler.” BJ added, “Our fun loving, goofy attitude has gotten us this far and we’re still going to use it in the next leg of the Race. These other Teams aren’t going to see us coming.”
