by Gina Scarpa

Last week, on The Great American Road Trip, the families were relieved to find out that nobody was being eliminated.  The same can’t be said for this week, as the remaining teams continue their journey down Route 66.  Their first stop tonight is Independence, KS where Little House On The Prairie originated.  I feel butter churning in their future.  All this farmland could make me nutty… I’m a city girl at heart, what can I say?  I’ll just live vicariously through the show.

After making a stop at the home of the Ingalls family, the RVs head to the Red Buffalo Ranch for a good ol’ fashioned cookout.  The cookout, though, is the competition.  The dads are going to have 30 minutes to cook and the best burger will win.  Problem: Silvio doesn’t cook.  Man, what would he do without Amy in his life?  The rest seem pretty comfortable behind a grill so it seems that at least the DiSalvatores will be landing in the bottom tonight.

The families taste all of the burgers and rate them.  The bottom three families end up being: the DiSalvatores (obviously), the Ricos (which hurts my heart a bit), and the Favereys (who scored their own dad very low).  The Cootes win yet another challenge and this time, get a brand new grill as their prize.  Can you feel that jealousy setting in?

Before everyone arrives at the End of the Road challenge, the families stop to check out some buffalo.  Most of them just end up stepping in buffalo crap.  Sounds fun.  Afterwards, it’s a pit stop at Applebee’s for dinner, where it starts to become obvious that there is a divide among the teams.  On one side is the Pollards, DiSalvatores, and Ricos and on the other is the Favereys, Montgomereys, and Cootes.

In tonight’s challenge, which takes place in Texas, the bottom three families will have to take a bunch of giant items and fit them on a map of the state.  The family who can finish the fastest will win.  The Ricos do well but the Favereys beat their time, which makes more than just the Ricos anxious.  The DiSalvatores shocking work together well and finish with the best time, which means the Ricos are eliminated.  That’s too bad…they were a classy family and one of my favorite teams.  They’ll be missed.

Be sure to say hi to AMIE from the POLLARD family - she landed her role on the show from Realitywanted.com
http://www.realitywanted.com/amiepollard Read her story here http://www.realitywanted.com/newsitem/2062-exclusive-interview-with-realitywanted-member-amie-pollard-of-nbcs-great-american-road-trip

The Great American Road Trip airs Monday nights at 8pm on NBC.

(Image courtesy of NBC)