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"Burly Girls, Bowheads, Young Studs and the Old Bunch: Days 4-6" - September 23

DAY 4: WAKE ME WHEN IT'S OVER

We (and I mean the Levitra.... er, I mean the LOPEVI Tribe) awaken cold,
wet, depressed... and one man short. Travis (of the Bob Barker shirt) says he "slept like a baby... I woke up every two hours." And we're hungry, too. We've lowered ourselves to eating worms and bugs (which might come in handy in a future challenge) for our protein... sort of the PENULTIMATE Atkins diet.

The only thing we can do is to try again for fire. That might be the morale booster needed. We turn to the device that failed us on Day 2 and trade off rubbing hard and fast. Soon, we get smoke... then a small ember that we blow gently on to fuel it. We call over Lea (whom we call "Sarge") for help in keeping the fire going and building on it. It would've WORKED... but then the voodoo princes above decide to rain on our parade... LITERALLY! We better get drinking water SOON...before the girls (who HAVE fire) destroy us!

AFTERNOON 4: MIND GAMES

J.P. is getting paranoid, so he asks "Bubba" (Travis) if his name came up before Tribal Council last night. Bubba admits it was... and that makes J.P. even MORE nervous. It's three young and buff guys (J.P., Johnny & Brady) vs. the five older crowd, according to him.

Bubba then tells J.P. he's too big a threat... and "so friggin' dangerous". In fact, according to Bubba, there were 17 threats at the start of the game... since there's only one winner.

REWARD CHALLENGE: HOLD THE LINE

To Challenge Cove we go and the ladies find out that Brook has been booked a flight off of Vanuatu. The Reward Challenge essentially has us on a beam with numbers painted on our biceps, 1 through 8. Each member, in numerical order, has to pass the OTHER tribe members on the beam and get to a platform. We cannot fall off or touch more than one member at a time or we have to start over. First one with all eight on the finish platform wins. (Read it through a few times; took me that long to understand it, too.)

Everyone is drooling about what the reward might be, HOPING for something good. And it is. Two pillows, three heavy blankets and a rope hammock with stakes to help the tribe sleep better. Not only that but, if WE win, WE get a flint denied to us yesterday! In fact, the flint will be given to us after the first Challenge we win! After Yasur sits Scout out for this Challenge, we get on the beam.

Brady is our #8 guy and he starts. He pushes Johnny (#7) off the first time but manages to clear him and J.P. (#6) easily. Getting past Chad (#5) is a different matter. Brady tries to balance both him and the one-legged wonder on the beam at the same time. They're a bit shaky as Brady moves on, but everyone's still on. The girls are having THEIR difficulties but are going smooth and slow... and get one girl to the end just as Brady gets past Sarge (#4). Bubba (#3) doesn't like this Challenge... since he only learned to swim less than 50 days ago and doesn't want to fall. As Yasur's second girl goes in the drink, Brady passes Rory (#2) and Chris (#1) to even the score.

Johnny takes his time passing J.P... enough time for Yasur to go up 2-to-1. He falls off trying to pass Sarge, which means the ladies have a chance to cream us. Soon, it's 3-to-1... then 4-to-1. And Johnny is STILL stumbling, forcing himself and Chad into the water (and making Brady wince). Chad nearly falls off the beam again returning to his position, but survives. A ray of hope happens when the #4 girl touches two tribe members at once and has to restart. But Johnny just CAN'T capitalize, falling off trying to pass Bubba! Soon, it's 5-to-1... then 6... oh, you know the rest! Yasur kicked our asses... AGAIN! They get to sleep warm and comfy tonight... and we go back, humiliated once more.

NIGHT 4: TALKING 'BOUT YOU

With hermit crabs walking all over, we return to camp... angry at how the last girl shimmied her way to a class-less victory. But a win is a win, and there's no penalty for excessive celebration in THIS game. Rory has the biggest problem with the dancing... and he walks away to chill out. This gives Sarge a chance to talk to the others. He feels that, since it looks more and more like we'll keep losing, Rory and his mouth has got to go.

DAY 5: PSYCHO CHICKEN

A new day shows new promise... though none of the wild fowl that roam the girls' camp made their way to OUR side of the island. Too bad their cooking skills aren't as good as their hunting skills... which were bad enough. Let's move on, shall we?

IMMUNITY CHALLENGE: BLINDED BY THE LIGHT

"So far it seems the spirits haven't responded to the Stone.
Depend upon your tribemates; you can't do this on your own.
When you put it all together, it takes agility, skill and trust.
Tonight, the dreams of victory for one will turn to dust!"

That's true: the Spirit Stone hasn't done $#!+ for us since we got it. We decide we've been neglecting it and we erect a post to place the Stone on top of it, raising it on high so that the spirits snap out of their trance and HELP us! As soon as we finish... it rains? (SPOOOOOOOKYYYYY!)

Back to the Cove we go and the babes put the Immunity Idol back in Uncle Jeff's hands. There are large puzzle pieces around and a watch-tower. Ohhhhhhh, it's that 'Loud Leading the Blind' game! My tribe is good at that... well, the tribe COVERED by me is good at that. Saboga won it on "Survivor: All-Stars". Maybe the spirits ARE helping us at last.

Seven members of each tribe will be blindfolded and tied together in groups of three, two and two while the eighth directs them around the beach to gather pairs of puzzle pieces around the beach and in the water. Once all 24 pieces are on our mat, the blindfolds come off and we assemble three flat puzzles on a stairway, from bottom to top. First one to get all three puzzles together gets to stay home tomorrow night while the other goes to Uncle Jeff's Stone Temple of Doom to boot someone out. The men will ALSO get their flint if they won, so this is DOUBLY important for us!

We elect Sarge (since he has the loudest mouth) to guide us. Yasur choose Scout (how appropriate) to lead and they sit out Dolly. At the count of "go", Lea shouts out like Sgt. Hartman on a bad day, yelling directions to the guys while Scout tries to do the same. It's difficult, though, and we're soon down 5-to-2. Sarge is getting frustrated, particularly with Bubba's inability to hear his instructions. We make some headway, though, and pull ahead nine-to-six as the girls have THEIR difficulties.

Then Chris drops our tenth pair on the mat... and on his shin (YEEEOUCH)! J.P. and Johnny trudge out to sea to get the second water pair, with Sarge shouting his lungs out with directions. One team gets our 11th piece... but Yasur is starting to catch up. And Rory shouting for J.P. to hurry up with the last pieces is making Sarge VERY angry. That's when Scout makes a serious mistake: she forgets there are TWO pairs of pieces in the water and they only got ONE. Sarge commands J.P. and Johnny to the mat...and we can take our blindfolds off and charge to victory... we hope!

As we work on the first puzzle, Scout is informed of the one remaining piece in the water and sends out her girls to get it. We struggle with the puzzle, and Yasur manages to get their final piece and start on THEIR puzzle. We manage to finish our first puzzle... but so do the ladies, right on our tail. They have trouble (and arguments) with the second puzzle as we sweep through it. It's only a matter of time, now. We fit the final puzzle together... and climb to the top, victorious at last! We get IMMUNITY! We get FIRE! And, best of all, we get to rub it in the girls' faces!

NIGHT 6: RAG DOLL(Y)

So while we enjoy fire and drinking un-polluted water, Yasur heads for
Tribal Council... and votes out Dolly (who I figured as the first one out to BEGIN with). At least the tribes are even in strength... though they still have a hammock, blankets and pillows.