Once again we come to that place in the road where we have to make a choice and determine what we know and what we don't know so that we can pick the right direction in which to proceed.
In EP3, the arrival of DENNIS at 2:25PM on the afternoon of July 10 seems to have effected TPTB's best laid plans and made them add an extra 24 hours to the pit stop on the battlefield in Middleburg, Virginia. I hope our teams enjoy all the family campouts they are experiencing!
So instead of driving to Dulles International Airport (IAD) in the early morning hours (between 1AM and 3AM) on Sunday, July 10th, they actually drive the 30 miles to IAD on Monday morning, July 11th.It must be early in the morning when the teams arrive because the departure ramp in front of the main terminal and the main concourse leading to the departure gates is completely devoid of people! There are two probable flights for our eight teams both leaving at 8:15AM: Independence Air Flight No. 1530 arriving in Charleston, SC (CHS)at 9:55AM and United Airlines Flight No. 5555 arriving at 10:03AM. We have a report that five teams were on the Independence Air flight so the other 3 teams ended up on the United flight arriving 8 minutes later.
The next spotting of the teams is at the Convention and Visitors Bureau office in central Charleston where they picked up a clue taking them to the Battery Park. The clue probably had something about finding the spot where the first shots of the Civil War (The War Between the States, for us Southerners!) were fired. This was the first bombardment of Fort Sumter in Charleston harbor which started the war. We have no idea how the teams reached the Visitors' Center from the airport. There is no indication that there were SUV's waiting for them but getting six people into one taxicab is a stretch (four family members, cameraperson and sound person) So maybe they took buses.
At the Battery we find our DETOUR task clue. For sake of a title we call one task CLEAN which entails that they proceed to the municipal pier area and find a shrip boat on which they will clean and count a quanity of shrips. In DIRTY the teams proceed to a designated area and must drive jeeps through a muddy course in a prescribed time. It is muddy, it is dirty, and teams get stuck. They get out and push (Papa Aiello is in the back at the start and then in the front seat). It seems to last forever.
We have identified the Bransens, the Linz, the Schroeders and the Paolos doing the CLEAN shrip task and it is possible that they finish first. Doing the DIRTY task are the Aiellos, Weavers, and Gaghans.
Before we continue on our journey we must stop and consider what in the world has happened to the Godlewski Sisters? They are not seen at Dulles Airport, they are not seen in Charleston they are not seen getting clean nor getting dirty. So the question is since they probably arrived at IAD third or fourth they made it onto the first Independence Air flight and arrived amongst the first in Charleston. They then probably figured out quickly where to find the Battery and there we now suspect that they found the First Fast Forward. And being first they wisely took it. This task may well have been something to do with Fort Sumter, keeping the Civil War thread alive. When they completed this task, they would then be able to proceed directly to the pit stop which we now know is in Huntsville, Alabama.
Now Dennis again raises his ugly head to complicate the lives of our producers. There may have been two flights available for the teams to catch after completing the Detour. Both are Delta flights connected through Atlanta. The first flight would leave at 12:47PM arriving in Huntsville, Alabama at 3:47PM and the second flight leaving at 3:36PM and arriving at 7:15PM. But on the afternoon of July 11, Dennis was smaking into Huntsville and all airline flights were being cancelled! If the teams could have taken these flights, they would have been able to complete the two tasks at NASA SPACE CAMP and then enjoy an overnight pit stop rest at the Huntsville Marriott Hotel.
So we think that TPTB chartered two buses to take the teams to Huntsville. The buses would leave at 3:00 and 6:00 to keep the same three hour difference. The trip would take about 9 hours so the first four teams would arrive at the Visitors Center in Huntsville at midnight. Here they would pick up SUV's and find the NASA SPACE CAMP where the next clues were located. It seems that the teams completing the CLEAN DETOUR finished first and got on the first bus along with the Godlewski Sisters (the teams would be the Schroeders, Linz, and Bransens) The teams doing the DIRTY DETOUR would be in the second bus along with the Paolos who goofed up somehow (which is not unexpected) had the Gaghans, Aiellos, and Weavers.
At the Space Camp it is the middle of the night, but we know that special crews were on hand to do the tasks (this is also a better time since the camp site was empty of annoying tourists and campers!)
Getting the first clue leads them to the Aviation Challenge Building and the Centrifuge! This we think is the ROADBLOCK and the producers have made another change and two members of each team take part as they rev up to 3.5 G's.(And only having two members of the team ride the centrifuge keeps the two Gaghan kids off the machine, they probably wouldn't be allowed on anyway for safety reasons) We see two Linz, two Schroeders, and two Bransen girls doing this task. And these are the three teams (along with the Godlewski Sisters) who we now believe arrived first in Huntsville at around midnight.
After completing this task they find their way through a maze in the Rocket Park and under the Space Shuttle find a clue taking them to the Space Museum and some kine of computer task (remember AOL again is one of the sponsors - shades of Budapest) Whatever the task the result takes them to the AstroTrek Building where Phil awaits them at the matt. Since we do not see the gorgious sisters anywhere we think they sped off directly here to the pit stop after arriving in Huntsville.
The second bus arrives around 3AM at the visitors center, get into their SUV's and head down the road to the Space Camp. One team however gets horribly lost and does not arrive here until 5AM by which time everyone else has completed their tasks and headed off to the Marriott Hotel. We now suspect that they got their 12-hour rest and left for the next leg later in the afternoon (between 2:30 and 4:00)and we're back on schedule.
Who got lost and came in last? Remember it is 3AM, it is dark, it is raining hard and there is no guide. My guess is the Aiellos who have shown that they can not read a map.
