The Gaghan family becomes the fifth team eliminated from 'The Amazing Race: Family Edition'

Red turned out to be a bad color for the Gaghan family, as a poor Roadblock performance in Costa Rica led to their elimination in the sixth leg of The Amazing Race: Family Edition.


The Amazing Race: Family Edition's sixth episode began with the teams departing the first of the competition's "several" non-elimination pit stops, the Panama Canal. From there, the teams were instructed to travel to San Jose, Costa Rica on one of three charter buses. The Paolo family, who used the last leg's Fast Forward to jump into the lead, were the first team to arrive at the bus station and secured their spot on the first bus. Afterward, the family proceeded to willingly help the other teams -- except the Weavers, aka "Team Florida" -- find the charter bus tickets.

Once the teams completed the 600 mile bus ride and arrived in San Jose, they had to locate a designated public parking lot that held their waiting rental vans and drive 35 miles to the top of Volcan Poas, where they would find their next clue at the rim of an active volcano. Even though they were on the second charter bus, the Weaver and Gaghan families lost their advantage when they were unable to find the parking lot before the final charter bus (carrying the Branson and Godlewski families) arrived in San Jose. But after that, the teams discovered that all their charter bus jockeying had been a big waste of effort -- once they arrived at Volcan Poas' designated bunching spot park entrance it turned out that the park was closed until morning, putting everyone in a six-way tie for first place.

The next morning, the teams had a mad sprint to the Volcan Poas clue box. Once there, they were instructed to drive to the Doka Estate coffee plantation and cautioned that the first of two Yields was ahead (a Yield allows one team to force another team to wait at a designated spot until the sand runs out of an hourglass.) During the drive to the plantation, several teams discussed using the Yield to hold up "Team Florida." After another mad scramble, the Paolos managed to be the first team to arrive at the Yield marker -- after which they announced that they using their Yield on the Weavers (a decision cheered by several of the other bystanding teams.) With that out of the way, the other teams then proceeded to the plantation's Roadblock, where one team member had to search through 800 pounds of coffee beans and find the one red bean.

Meanwhile, the Weavers were forced to stand helplessly at the Yield marker while most of the other teams ran past them after completing the Roadblock. Although they had finished last in the previous non-elimination leg, the Godlewski sisters jumped to the head of the pack by completing the task first, followed by the Paolos, the Linzes, and the Bransens. Although she had received the advantage of a huge head start, Tammy Gaghan struggled to complete the task, allowing the Weavers to catch up and eventually pass her team.


After completing the Roadblock, the teams drove 94 miles to the beach town of Jaco, where they had to find a man named Javier in the Roca Loca Surf Shop. Once there, they were faced with a Detour: "Relic" or "Ripe." In "Relic," the teams had to traverse six swinging rope bridges in a rainforest and bring back four different "Mayan relics." In "Ripe," the teams had to mount fifteen heavy banana bushels onto a hanging track and use the banana plantation's homemade pulley system to transport them to the processing plant. All of the teams except the Paolo family choose the "Relic" option. Meanwhile, Tony Paolo’s experience as a New York City sanitation worker paid off for his family, as he was able to use his strength to haul the bananas. Once the teams have completed their Detours, they were instructed to find the Pit Stop in Quepos.

At the Pit Stop, Papa Paolo’s strength propelled his family to another first place finish, where each family member was rewarded with their choice of personal vehicle -- a Segway, Vespa, jet ski, or all-terrain vehicle. After a tight sprint to the finish line, the Linz and Bransen families were right behind them in second and third place. In fourth place were the Godlewski sisters, for whom having to start the leg by begging for money appeared to turn out to be a mere minor inconvenience.

Meanwhile, the Weavers were able to overcome having their van stuck in the mud at the Detour and remain in the Race while the Gaghan family's luck finally ran out after three consecutive second-to-last finishes, making them the fifth team to be eliminated from The Amazing Race: Family Edition.

Next week on The Amazing Race: Family Edition: Does father know best?