Mar 16: Wilmington, NC

Mar 16: West Branch, MI

Mar 16: Nobelsville, IN

Mar 21: Baltimore, MD

Update: Additional open casting calls are popping up across the country.

This is your chance to make it big!

Update: Open casting call being held in Miami.

Update 2: More casting calls are popping up around the country.

The most striking change this season is the absence of the Amazing Yellow Line. Instead, it has been replaced by the new Amazing Red and Blue Lines on a new higher definition globe. It’s a cool graphic, but I’m holding out hope for the return of the AYL.

It looks like they’ve got a new batch of editors for this season. The split screen transitions are an interesting choice. I’ll have to see how I feel about them as we get further into the race, but they do provide a sense of time and what’s going on at different points. I also notice that they made more use of the on screen time stamps. The last of the bungee jumpers each had the time of their jump displayed on the screen, something they haven’t done in the past.

Not sure I care so much for the remixed theme song. Drum track is too pronounced, and the electric guitar just don’t do it for me. I prefer the more acoustic version from previous seasons.

Counting minutes until the race starts.

Wonder how the deaf young man will fare on the race.

Getting the airport drama out of the way quick. Must be a full episode. #amazingrace

The gay son looks like he’s blind. Must be the deep sunken eyes. #amazingrace

Looks like shoddy Swiss construction. #amazingrace

Nice of Phil to learn a little sign language. #amazingrace

Like The high tech new graphics. Not sure about the new music. #amazingrace

@WoodysWorldTV Nah. Even IKEA furniture is sturdier than that. #amazingrace

In mere minutes, we arrived in Europe and watched teams start screwing up. Preston & Jennifer managed to get lost on the way to the train station and miss their train, putting them way behind the rest of the teams. It was no matter though, as the teams were bunched up that night and let loose in packs the following morning.

Christy & Jodi pulled ahead with help from the locals, but blew the lead when they had trouble finding a taxi in the morning. They went from first to middle of the pack in the blink of an eye and struggled to stay in the race, barely beating Preston & Jennifer in a race to the pitstop.

The required bungee jumping task made an early appearance this year, showing up in the first leg. And at 700 feet, it’s the second highest in the world. And if I’m correct, the second highest ever shown on the race. Lots of the usual drama with heights. The most intriguing moment for me was when Luke took the plunge. We got to hear every other contestant scream their way through the plunge. But Luke was strangely silent. Wonder if it was from him not screaming, or the crew simply not putting a mic on him.

I’m not sure who planned the cheese carrying task this year, but the prop department really needs to do a better job next time. Those backpacks they were given were more rickety than an IKEA bookcase. I’d be surprised if more than 2 of them survived the task intact. Instead of carrying them, most people were forced to carry/slide the cheese down the hill. Although a few people had the bad luck/good fortune to have their cheese wheels get away from them and roll down the hill. This meant they only had to get themselves down the hill and then go retrieve the cheese wheels. Certainly cuts down on the exhaustion.

All in all, this was an exciting start to the race and one that I think will go down as a classic. After all, nothing says fun and entertaining like watching people carrying heavy objects fall down on their butts.

I have spent some time over the last couple weeks updating the look of the site. I’ve been trying for something that is easy to read, nicely organized, and good looking. I think I’ve hit all those marks with the new site. Let me know what you think of the design and navigation of the new site. I’d love to hear your feedback.

Until next time, have a great day!

No spoilers, please. I and many others like to watch the episodes fresh without knowing what will happen.

I’ll start the speculation: They’ll start and end somewhere in the United States. I’m going to guess San Diego.