Hi There! Thank you SO much for following us on twitter (@Ernie_Halvo @CindyCHalvo) and keeping in touch!!! We loved our experience on the show and are so thankful for the opportunity. After actually running, we have such a new found appreciation about the entire production. You cannot even imagine the number of people involved and the intensity of the logistics surrounding the Race. It is really a world-class show with the best production crew you could find.
Sometimes the clues are obvious but sometimes they are really obscure! In this leg, we heard the abacus lady was extremely difficult to find. The area where teams were searching stretched for miles and miles, and teams would run back and forth across the stretch and pass her up multiple times. The only identification was the red umbrella and the red/yellow color scheme of her clothes, and the abacus. It must have been hard to know what to even look for. Some of the teams didn't know what an abacus was! It's funny, because Cindy grew up with an abacus that her mom used, lol.
On our season, sometimes the clues were really easy and we knew right away. When the clue box is around, that's the easiest way to find it. We only saw that clue box 3 times - in Malawi in the stadium, in Hamburg at the train station and in Atlanta at the flight school. They found much more creative ways to hide the clues! The toughest clue for us was the first one in Taiwan. It was so hard to know to look at the digital display with red and yellow balloons on it! good thing the rest of the season's clues weren't as difficult or most of us would still be lost somewhere in a foreign country!
It's so easy to watch from our sofas and think "why don't they see her! She's sitting right there!" but in reality, there's no camera zoomed in on her, pointing out the exact location to you. You have the whole area to look around and when you're frantic or panicking, your thinking isn't clear. Plus, the racers are tired/jet lagged from the long trip, and probably hungry since all they ate was airplane food... and well... Fallopian tubes (ew).
Thank you again for watching and for asking questions!!!
Hi Ernie & Cindy!
I just LOVE how you guys are still involved in the TAR community. I always love reading your tweets and opinions on the current race! Always nice to see fans of the show win it and still enjoy their experience even after the show has aired!! Thank you guys for sharing your experience of being on the race with us all! Ernie and Cindy love
My question for you guys: With multiple teams walking straight past the lady with the abacus this leg, I wondered if it's actually quite difficult to see and find the clueboxes/Phil/cluegivers as they make it appear really obvious on TV. I know when you're racing hard you're tired and hungry etc, so does that come into play a lot when you're paying attention to detail? On your season, did you see very many markers around the locations and clues?? Sorry to bombard you guys with so much, but I just adore you two!