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The Amazing Race: The Yak Chats with Eliminated Team Daniel and Amy

With Leg 2 taking us to far away Indonesia, the 10 remaining teams battled it out to stay in The Amazing Race. Even though the playing field was pretty much leveled when the teams got to “race” the bulls, the ever-popular, often-lost Taxi Drivers ended up putting Amy Purdy and Daniel Gale as the last team to reach the Pit Stop. YakkityYaks had a chance to chat with the eliminated racers to find out what happened when Surabaya became “Sure, ya – bye-bye!”

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The Yak: I have to know, because it seems to happen to at least one team every season – How frustrating was it to essentially be eliminated because of a cab driver?
Daniel: It definitely was frustrating that we were unable to find the next clue as quickly as everyone else. Really, the cab drivers that we encountered were incredibly helpful or as helpful as they could be. It’s definitely frustrating that we were unable to find it quickly.
Amy: We’re athletes and we’re extremely competitive, so that made it even harder; knowing that we had exhausted all of our resources trying to find that location. In that area, hundreds of businesses had Wijaya in the name and there were tons of different Wijaya Motor type businesses, so we had pretty much gone to all of them. It was just trial and error trying to find the right one, especially since our cab driver didn’t know the exact location. Honestly, they were part of our team in getting there, so we switched cabs a couple of times. It got frustrating, but we just had to hand it over to the stars and hope that things line up for us.

Amy, how do you feel knowing that the elimination didn’t have anything to do with your leg slowing you down at all?
Amy: I’m grateful for that because I knew going into this race no matter how athletic and skilled I may be, I’m still running on mechanical legs and something could go wrong at any time. We were very prepared for it. The majority of the stuff in our backpacks was leg equipment. We sacrificed a lot of comfort just to make sure we had what we needed in case there was a mechanical failure. Going in, my biggest fear was thinking, “What if something happens with my leg?” I’m not just representing myself, but an entire community who are so capable and so able. I wanted to be a strong representation of that, and I think that I was. I’m so grateful, and my legs felt so good. That’s part of where the tears were coming from was just realizing my legs are not playing a negative role in this. I’m running just like everybody else, and I’m ready to keep going, but then, unfortunately, it was cut short for us.

Looking back at the first leg, when you helped out Abbey and Ryan by helping them find the lady with the abacus, it caused you to end up coming in second place. Do you regret helping them at all?
Daniel: We certainly don’t have any regrets about that. Like Amy said, we’re extremely competitive, but what is at the nature of us is giving. We run a non-profit organization that creates opportunities for injured veterans and young adults and kids with disabilities to get into snowboarding and skateboarding, sports like that. It was after a long leg of the race that we were being extremely competitive on, where they caught us with our guard down a little bit. It was more instinctual for us to help somebody who was in a bit of distress. Amy and I are both competitive snowboarders where we race in something called Boardercross, which is basically a Chinese downhill, where the first man to the bottom, wins. It’s about a sixty-second race, so when were racing snowboards, we’re on for 6o seconds. We’re sprinters, and although we’re extremely competitive, something that is drawn out over a couple of days, you’re not always on and they caught us in a moment when we weren’t all the way on. That kind of gave us a whack in the head and we definitely reset. The beginning of the second leg definitely showed that. We were really set to win it. We were out of the gate second, and we pretty much maintained second place through that whole leg until we got caught up in the cabs.

Speaking of the cabs, do you know how long you spent looking for Wijaya Motors and that clue?
Amy: We actually don’t know exactly how long it was. You lose track of time. It was long enough for us to realize that something’s wrong here. We had pretty much gone through one Wijaya Motors after the next, and after a handful of them, we realized this is not going to be as easy as we thought. We were up there for quite some time.

When you finally reached the Pit Stop, it came down to your team and Gary and Will. Do you know how far behind them you were?
Amy: We don’t know how close we were. I don’t think we were too far behind. At one point we went back to the balloon challenge, just to try and start back at the beginning for our search, and Will and Gary were there, so we thought, “Okay, well, we know we’re not out.” At that point, we had gotten a few more ideas of where Wijaya Motors could be and we headed that direction, but all of those places were not the right places either. I think their cab ended up taking them directly there, so we may have just been a little bit behind.

When you found out you were picked for the race, did you do anything special to prepare yourselves?
Daniel: Yeah, we did. We definitely watched every single episode of every single season. We worked out a lot. We ate really well. We worked out some more. We probably watched some more episodes. We really focused on the gear that we took. Like Amy said, we had a number of pieces that in case something went mechanically wrong with one of Amy’s legs, we had extra pieces for the feet and the prosthetics. We really focused on our packs, and we had really become minimalists as far as carrying stuff goes. I knew that if I needed to step in and carry Amy’s pack, not that she wasn’t capable of carrying her own pack, but just in case I needed to so that we might be able to move a little quicker, and that happened a number of times. For us, packing was a real significant piece to that, and then we worked out again. [laughs]
Amy: My biggest thing was making sure my legs were in order. Just in having prosthetic legs, I’m running in carbon-fiber sockets, so knowing that we may end up in places that had humidity, and since all the places we went were highly humid, my legs may have ended up fitting differently depending on the humidity of the area, so I worked with my leg maker quite a bit to get the legs just as perfect as possible for every situation. We live in the mountains, so we trail ran and we rode cycles and mountain biked. We put ourselves in different situations to see how my legs would hold up.
Daniel: Then we worked out again! [laughs]

What was the hardest challenge you faced during the race?
Amy: For us, we realized that the set challenges – the Detours, the Road Blocks – those were all quite easy. It was just a matter of getting the job done.
Daniel: I don’t know if “easy” is the right word, but it was something that we were very capable of tackling, so we would get a strategy going, mow things down and then move through them quite quickly. The biggest challenges were not the challenges themselves.
Amy: The biggest challenges were really the going from Point A to Point B. When we went into this, we had a strategy because we had watched all the other episodes, so we decided that even if it takes a bit longer, we were going to find English-speaking cab drivers because then we could have a full conversation and come up with game plans with them. Yet, when you’re just dropped off in the middle of these countries and there is not one person who speaks English within a 10-mile radius, that strategy goes quickly out the window when you just have to quickly get in the cab and go. So, for me: the language barrier, trying to find locations and being in these hectic cities where the cab drivers don’t necessarily know every business there.

What was your favorite part of the race?
Daniel: You know, the overall experience was just unbelievable and we’re extremely grateful to have just been selected and have the opportunity. For us, even though we were out second, we really are just looking at all the positives from it. Being able to see all of the amazing places that we were able to go to, and meet the other teams, who some of which will be life-long friends for us.
Amy: I think one of the coolest parts is that although we didn’t get much time to spend with the other teams, but even in the small amount of time, you really end up bonding with them because we’re all having the same experience. We all have such interesting backgrounds. For me, I knew how capable we were as a team, and I knew how capable I was individually, but of course I knew that my leg could be a disadvantage at some point. Yet, all the teams had a challenge of sorts. Everybody had some sort of adversity they were facing and trying to get through on the race, so I realized that the playing field was actually quite equal for all of us. That was kind of a big eye-opener for me. Also, for me, the best part was ripping the clue open because you could be going anywhere in the world and you have no idea where.

Speaking of the other teams, were you able to bond with any of them and have you been in touch since the race ended?
Amy: We didn’t get a lot of time to spend with them on the race. You have a little bit of time on airplanes, when you’re waiting for transportation – you can maybe just chat a little bit, but we appreciate all the other teams and we realized that everybody has their own story and their own background. There’s a handful of them that I know we’ll be in touch with forever.

If asked, would you consider coming back for an All-Star season?
Daniel: Absolutely!
Amy: Yeah, I think being athletes puts a fire inside of us to accomplish something, so because it was cut short for us, we still have it in us to want to keep going. It’s a challenge that we would be ready to accomplish if given another chance.

What’s next for Amy and Daniel?
Amy: After The Amazing Race ended, another race began. I’m a competitive snowboarder, and I’m currently one of the top in the World right now, so we found out about a week before the race started that our organization that we started together – Adaptive Action Sports – we helped to get snowboarding into the 2014 Paralympics Games for the first time. As soon as the race was over, we came back and I started training and our organization started working toward plans to train more athletes with disabilities to help make the US team to compete in the 2014 games.

That’s an awesome accomplishment! Congratulations and best of luck in the upcoming 2014 games!
Amy: Thank you so much!

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Were you disappointed to see Daniele and Amy eliminated from The Race? Leave us a comment below!

Interested in having your question asked to the eliminated racers? Join us in the forum for our live TAR show chat (EST time) or visit our TAR forum anytime and let us know what you would like us ask!

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Op-Ed: Big Brother 14’s Shane and Danielle Fans Have Twitter Users Suspended

If you’re a Big Brother 14 fan (like this very writer) who has recently received the below letter from Twitter, you may have fallen victim to a crusade by the fans of Danielle Murphee and Shane Meaney.

Hello,

This account was suspended for sending multiple unsolicited messages using the @reply and/or mention feature. These features are intended to make communication between people on Twitter easier.

Twitter monitors the use of these features to make sure they are used as intended and not for abuse. Using either feature to post messages to a bunch of users in an unsolicited or egregious manner is considered an abuse of its use, which results in account suspension.

For more information about these features, please visit our @Replies and Mentions help page:  http://support.twitter.com/articles/14023

Based on tweets (see below), it appears that Danielle and Shane’s fans are leaping to their rescue by reporting Twitter users who not only directly tweet negative comments to Shane and Danielle, but also users who make negative comments about the Big Brother 14 couple in general.

@AndrewWang26, @Shanielle_Army, @ShanilleFan and  @ShaneDaniMeaney appear to be the biggest culprits searching out anyone and everyone on Twitter who make negative comments, once found not only do they block the person and report them to Twitter for the alleged abuse, but they also notify one another to block and report the Tweeter to Twitter as well.  Depending on how old the Twitter account is, it only takes a few blocks and reports to have an account suspended.

Big-Brother-14s-Shane-and-Danielle-Have-Twitter-Users-Suspended

ShaneDaniMeaney

As you can see from the screen-cap below of an expanded conversation it appears that @Shanielle_Army is deleting tweets, tweets that were there minutes ago are now gone.

Shanielle_Army

In fairness they claim to only be reporting those accounts that were specifically created to harass and terrorize Shane and Danielle, this I agree with one hundred percent.  However, the person who brought this to my attention has been on twitter since February 2010 and their tweets about Danielle and Shane were between them and another user, neither Shane nor Danielle were tagged in the tweets.  In my humble opinion, it’s one thing to report those newly created accounts and another thing to report users who have obviously been around for sometime.  Reporting seasoned Tweeters and having their accounts shutdown because you don’t like what they have to say is infringing on their rights to free speech and that I disagree with.

Once you’ve contacted Twitter and promised to be a good boy or girl you should receive the following e-mail:

Hi,

I have now un-suspended your account.  Please note that it may take an hour or so for your follower and following numbers to return to normal.

Be sure to review the Twitter Rules, as repeat violations may result in permanent suspension:  http://twitter.com/rules

This is what I have to say to the people of Twitter – once the season of your favorite reality show is over, the participants are off limits.  Allow them to fade away into the darkness; by continuing to spew your dislike for them you’re only expanding their 15 minutes of fame.

What are your thoughts on the matter? We wanna hear your opinions? Sound off below!

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The Amazing Race: Yak Chats with Rob & Sheila

Season 21 of The Amazing Race kicked off last night as 11 teams rappelled, volleyed and ate their way through a leg that started in Pasadena, California and ended in Shanghai, China. Although we had some surprises with a Double Roadblock and an eating challenge in the first leg, the race ended with Rob Scheer and Sheila Scheer (nee Castle) as the last team to reach the Pit Stop. YakkityYaks had a chance to chat with the eliminated racers on a conference call to discuss their “gone too soon” chance at the final prize. Check out what they had to say below.

Also, stayed tuned for some exciting Race news you’re not going to want to miss!

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Rob & Sheila Scheer, The Amazing Race

The Yak: Sorry to see you go last night!
Rob: Wait… Where did we go? [laughs]

Looking back, what was the most difficult aspect of the race that you weren’t expecting?
Rob: I don’t know. I guess it boils down to one thing: the defeat.

Could you explain how you ended up getting lost trying to find the woman with the abacus?
Rob: We weren’t lost.
Sheila: It looked like we were lost.
Rob: No, we read the clue. The abacus – I knew exactly what it was. It’s an old Chinese apparatus for counting that goes back centuries. So, we stopped immediately to look on the Internet for a tourism-type indicator if there was anything special at The Bund about the woman with the abacus. The only thing we could find was that at The Bund there are three large banks, one being the Bank of China. One of the guys at the location said, “Oh, yeah. Bank of China. That’s where you want to go. There’s a woman with an abacus there.” We then spent 40 minutes looking for a woman with an abacus at the Bank of China. Everybody, whether they were British or local, kind of supported this theory that there was a woman with an abacus around this bank. One guy told us it was a carving on the back of the bank. So, then we went to back of the bank. So we get there, and they say, “Oh, no. It’s around the other bank.” It finally took us 40 minutes to get through the bank, and finally get out to waterfront to start looking.

Once you found the abacus and headed for the Pit Stop, you saw Jaymes and James pass you. Did you know at that point that it was between you two at the end, or did you think there might have been another team behind you?
Sheila: We hoped there was another team. We hadn’t seen the Beakman’s since the airport. Will and Gary had communicated to us that they were still searching also, which wasn’t true. They had lied to us. They were on the way to the Signal Tower when we had seen them, and they actually tried to deceive us and have us go toward the Signal Tower to look for the woman. We did not know on the foot race that we were so close and they passed us right there at the Signal Tower and came in ahead of us. We didn’t know until we got to the mat that we were the last to arrive.
Rob: There was nothing we could have done. We got the clue, we got out our map, Sheila was asking people about the Signal Tower, I found it on the map; that was all in about four minutes. We started running, and we ran as hard and as fast as we could since it was about a half-mile away. They passed us in the last 100 yards. Those guys are young and athletic, and they came charging up on us. We didn’t know they were there, and then there they were and they ran by us. I took Sheila’s pack, and we ran harder. They stayed ahead of us, and by the time we hit the steps, they were only 15 paces in front of us. That was that, but we thought that Will and Gary were still out there because just 15 minutes earlier, they told us they didn’t have the clue yet and that somebody told them where it was, so we should follow them. Then, they took off running toward the Signal Tower, so they already had the clue. When we were about half-way down to the Signal Tower, I told Sheila we had to stop and think about this. Right at that time, Trey and Lexi, who had just been at the Signal Tower, came running by and they told us it was the other way. So, we took off running with them, and we both got there at the same time and got our clue, but what we didn’t know is that seconds after that, they told the Chippendale’s guys where the clue was. So, the Chippendale’s got their clue and they took off running, so they just caught us.

Rob & Sheila, The Amazing Race 21’s first casualty

How do you both feel about how you finished the race, even though it was so close between your team and the Chippendale’s races (Jaymes and James)?
Sheila: That was tough because you know the Chippendale’s had been on the first plane, and it really, truly came down to a foot race right there at the end. It was really tough. The part about walking away from the race and we were completely committed. We wanted to participate in all the great challenges and completing this amazing adventure together, but as we walked away from the race, I think appreciating the country we live in and we were walking away together. We have this amazing relationship and this great life that we get to come home to, but we were very disappointed. It hurt.
Rob: I was pissed as hell. I was mad. I was really angry. I mean, we should have been there at the end on the last leg and we weren’t. I tell Sheila, “We shouldn’t have trusted anybody!” I look back and think, “Boy! What would I have done different?” I would have not, in any way, trusted anybody. I would have just kept to our own game.

Did you learn anything new about each other during the race?
Rob: The only thing I would say is that it was confirmation that I made a great choice in who my life partner is going to be. Did I learn anything? Yeah, I learned I made the right choice.

Which is tougher – The Amazing Race or planning a wedding?
Sheila: For me, it would have been The Amazing Race. Rob was our wedding planner, and he planned a beautiful wedding at Ghost Lake Lodge in Wisconsin. We were married August 5th, and it was beautiful.

Roadblock in Shanghai

The Yak: Congratulations on your wedding!
Rob: The wedding will be one of the highlights of my life. One of the happiest days for sure, but for The Amazing Race, as a 3-time World Champion, losing is not something that I take well. Losing on The Amazing Race has taught me one thing: it’s how to accept defeat with humility, and to not let it affect who I am and what I do. Being in The Amazing Race makes me more successful. Losing it does not make me less successful.
Sheila: It was heartbreaking, to be honest, to lose. To be the first ones out is horrifying, but we get to come back to a beautiful life in an amazing country. We have a partner next to us that we love, and we’re looking forward to a life together, so it’s not so bad.

So, now that the wedding is done, what’s next for the two of you?
Sheila: We opened last year a dinner theater in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. The dinner show seats almost a thousand people, and it tells the story of the Smokey Mountain National Park. The setting is in the 1930s.
Rob: The story is about how they threw the lumberjacks out of the park to make it a National Park. The lumberjacks were very competitive and they feuded over the last remaining tracks of timber, but instead of using guns, they competed to see who would get the land. We tell that story, but my life has been about promoting lumberjack sports and telling the history of the American Lumberjack. I’ve been doing it for 30 years and I’m only halfway done telling the story. We’re going to recreate log drives and put it on film, which is something that’s never been done before. We’re expanding the sport worldwide and unifying it. There are a lot of things that we’ll continue to work on every day that’s part of our true life. My life has been like an Amazing Race, and it’s going to continue to be like The Amazing Race. So, we’re thrilled to have had the opportunity to actually do it.

The Yak: Thanks so much for your time, and I wish you both all the best!
Sheila: Thanks, Jarrod!