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The Great American Road Trip, Episode 4: Great Flying Pinatas!by Abra White -- 07/29/2009
View Printable version of this article Last week on The Great American Road Trip (affectionately known as GART), the six families continued their RV drive down Route 66. In tornado-torn Kansas, they experienced the 1800's on Little House on the Prairie and stepped in buffalo poop at the amazing Tall Grass Prairie Preserve in Texas. Yucky. What was to be a super-awesome family cook-out ended up being a super-stressed King of the Road competition between the families. The Dads created their own burgers, the rest judged in a blind taste-test. Once again, Team Rootin' Cootes came out on top! The Favereys, the diSalvatores and the Ricos competed against each other in the End of the Road challenge. They scrambled through a maze, carrying HUGE Texan symbols like a lone star and Dubya's head, to a cut-out of the state at the end. The Favereys and diSalvatores breezed through the challenge, but it was too much for Family Rico and they were sent home. Our five remaining families are:
Our families are now halfway across the country, exactly halfway across Route 66. To celebrate, their next stop will be at the aptly named Midpoint Cafe, where, their travel guide promises, there will be a big surprise waiting. On the road with the Favereys, Mom Dee gets a little emotional about how wonderful and important this trip has been for her family: the people they have met, the sights they have seen. They would have never, EVER considered such a trip before, now she just doesn't want it to end. The Midpoint Cafe in Adrian, Texas is literally the halfway point on Route 66 between Los Angeles and Chicago. Our travel guide tells us that the cafe has been around for 60 years and still looks as it did in the old days. The families arrive to find GART host Reno Collier (have I mentioned how much I love his name?) waiting for them amongst a pile of freshly-baked blueberry pies. Uh oh, this has all the signs of a messy outcome. And the families are nervous too. No one is happy to see Reno because it usually means a challenge is looming. But, this time, he assures them this is not the case. All the families are at the Midpoint Cafe totally for fun. Instead of a challenge, they are going to have a pie-eating contest. No forks. No spoons. Hands behind your backs. A smash-your-whole-face into goopy-gooey-sticky pie-eating contest. In keeping with the Midpoint theme, our families are going to eat HALF of the pie, stopping only when they think they have reached the halfway point or when ten minutes is up. The winning team gets a $200 shopping spree at the Midpoint Cafe souvenir shop. There's lotsa neat Route 66 stuff like CDs, license plates, cups, teddy bears, etc. Certainly a cool trade off for burying your face into a gloppy pie. If you like pie-eating contests, it's a definite win/win. The crowd reaction is a collective exuberance. The Montgomery boys are especially pumped because it's messy and, well, they're boys. Ready, set, go! Pie-gorging commences. Dad Powerhouse immediately chooses strategy over commodity by drawing a line across the pie with his tongue. One side gets eaten, the other remains untouched. At one point, Mom Alecia snorts a big blueberry by accident, and then eats it. Ick. Every family has their own thing that works for them. Team Faverey nip at their pie one-by-one. Peck-chew-peck-chew. Team Rootin' Cootes flatten their whole face into the pie full force. Yum. Team Dysfunctional, well, lets mommy do all the work as usual. Silvio refuses to get his hair and "perfect tan" all purple and gooey. The boys think pie-eating is just gross. I suddenly have a lot more respect for Mama Amie. She bears the burden of those wussy, girly men diSalvatores and takes charge no matter what. Kudos! When Reno calls time, we see everybody is all purple (except Silvio) and a little sick to their stomachs. The winners, mostly due to their quick-thinking strategy, are Team Powerhouse! After a shout-out prayer of thanks, the Montgomerys raid the souvenir shop without mercy. After an extensive clean up, I 'm sure, our families are off once again to explore the Great American Highway, soon crossing the border of New Mexico. We get the privilege of yet another Ashley Faverey major tantrum/meltdown. This time, instead of gummi bears, she cries and whines over lack of sleep and attention. It must be a typical thing in their family because they wait her out until she returns all smiles and pink balloons. 
And speaking of hot air and balloons (nice segue, huh?), the families reach their next pit stop at Albuquerque's Balloon Fiesta Park. After a comfortable night's rest, they awake the next morning to find a hot-air balloon right outside their RVs all ready for take-off. Mama Dysfunctional is the first one aboard against her husband's avid appeals otherwise. Silvio just doesn't know what he is missing. With all this fun, you just know the dreaded King of the Road challenge will rear its ugly head soon. The travel guide requests that all families go to Albuquerque's Sunport Airport and bring a packed bag. Reno is there and he points out that the reward for this special challenge is a Southwest plane (not to keep Silvio) which will take the winners to Phoenix, AZ to be spoiled at the Wigwam Golf Resort and Spa. Sounds awesome! But first, they must battle it out through the hardest challenge yet: each family will have five minutes to get a shuttle-load of mannequin passengers onto the plane, safely seated and buckled in. The team with the most passengers on board will go to Phoenix and the other three teams will compete in the awful End of the Road challenge. 1 2 Next-->View Printable version of this article |
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