I agree with you about Erika. She stuck it out and finished the tasks even when they thought they were going to be last. How frustrating could it be to miss counting the bells again and again while the other teams seemed to breeze through it? And where was their help? They helped other teams early on and what did it get them when they needed help? Nada. I was so proud of her when she finally got the number correct. And you know what ... I would be whiny too if I had to sun up and down a bunch of stairs and *then* walk who knows how far in those stupid clogs all because they skimmed the clue. The episode was edited to put her in an unflattering light, but I felt the exact opposite about it ... I though she came out looking like a fighter and not a quitter.
According to the Wiki (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_Race_15) Maria did 2 roadblocks and Mika did one. I really wanted to like the Poker Chicks, but Maria just didn't have the physical strength to race with someone else who also was not all that strong. I felt bad for them since you could really tell that they tried their best. They tried ringing that darn bell over 70 times. After swinging the mallet that many times, swimming the brook twice and trying to whack the golf ball dozens of times it's really no wonder that they simply ran out of gas. My question is ... can you skip a roadblock? Or do you have to quit if you can't do it? What would have happened if it were a non-elimination round?