And now, Gretchen's Adventures In Shopping. She's got a little time before their flight leaves, and she's decided that it's time to get herself a little backpack to start to carry the stuff she's accumulating. You can only travel with trash bags for so long. She goes to a little shop and checks out a pale blue backpack, but she declares it too expensive. The other ones, too. She finds another place and inquires about a "senior citizens' discount." The guy laughs, but she does wind up with a smart little blue-and-white backpack. "Don't you look snazzy," Meredith comments, and she laps it up. Heh. It's true what they say, that when you are stripped of your toothpaste and travel Yahtzee, you learn what truly binds you to your beloved.

The three trailing teams get on their flight. And proudly! Because they have stuck together, and now they are tied for...third place! The Amazing Map explains that everyone is now on their way to Lucknow via Delhi, and when they get to Lucknow, they'll head for the palace where their clue is located.

We move to Lucknow, where there are both bicycles and elephants, which is awesome. The first flight lands at 9:44 AM, and the teams go in search of a taxi. Rob and Amber and Ron and Kelly are directed to a booth for prepaid taxis, and they...prepay, as directed. Both teams head out and get in cabs, with Ron and Kelly apparently getting out a bit ahead. "Very fast," Ron says in the cab. "Mow 'em down like grass." Heh. If he were completely spazzing out and accompanied by someone also completely spazzing out, he would be Christie. In the cab, Ron says, "The only thing I could equate this to, is this is kinda like when everyone was tryin' to get the heck outta Baghdad. Because it's bein' bombed." I'm glad they added that clarifying comment, because I thought it might have been the skyrocketing real estate prices. By the way, did you know Ron was a POW? Did you know things sometimes remind him of Baghdad? Because sometimes, things do. Their driver then pulls into a gas station, and they start complaining. As some of the EEFPs pointed out, it's hard to know what they want the driver to do if he's low on gas. Keep going until he runs out? Make some along the way? If he's out, he's out, people, and yelling at him probably won't make him fill the tank any faster. At any rate, the Rob and Amber cab does not need gas, and once Ron and Kelly get going again, they realize they've been passed and lament their bad luck. I'm always amazed how teams will think to ask the driver whether he knows where he's going, but not think to ask how much gas he's got. It might at least be worth the question, even if the answer weren't entirely reliable.