7:28 AM. Danielle and Dani. They correctly interview that they're "hanging on to this race by a [streaked] hair," but they also insist that they won't give up. They're hoping that "slow and steady" will do it for them. They should hope so, because otherwise, I don't know how many options they have. I'm not sure they're going to come up with bursts of speed.

The 9:30 flight to Rome leaves with Lake and Michelle, Fran and Barry, Dave and Lori, and Monica and Joseph on board. Lake frets over being stuck with everybody else, unaware that, very soon, he will wish he was stuck with these very same people.

Ray and Yolanda get to the airport and get a flight that will get them to Palermo at 2:00. Not bad. Danielle and Dani are right behind them, and they get the same thing. There is a certain resigned, "Sucks, huh?" kind of vibe between these two teams when they greet each other, as if they're well aware that, in all likelihood, they're going to have to fight it out to stay out of last place.

In Rome, Eric and Jeremy look at their tickets for the first time (good one!) and notice that they're getting into Palermo after BJ and Tyler, because they didn't get the same connecting flight. They'll still be ahead of the rest of the teams, but not with BJ and Tyler. The members of the Choad Family take off for Palermo in two shifts.

And then we are in Palermo, with Italian flag flying. BJ and Tyler get a taxi to the Teatro Massimo.

Now, we are in Rome with the middle group, where they'll all be connecting to Palermo. Lake and Michelle figure out for the first time, however, that they aren't on the same connecting flight as everyone else. Lake tries to get on the earlier connection, but it turns out to be full. Once the other flight to Palermo leaves, he sits and curses himself over the lost opportunity and the fact that they're going to be on this flight all alone. "There's not one of those sumbitches on this flight, dang-it," he says, making colorful use of his patented fauxfanity.

Commercials. Nope, still not going to see King Kong.

When we return, Michelle is comforting Lake at the airport gate by telling him that somebody else will make a mistake, but that they won't. "'Cause I have you as a partner, and you don't mess up," she says, trying to be comforting. I'm not sure he's amenable to being comforted. Lake and Michelle are then joined by Ray and Yolanda and Danielle and Dani, who apparently got a later flight to Rome but the same connection to Palermo. This trailing pack takes off.