» Gary & Dave: TAR 2 Options

[strategery]

it was Gary who ultimately did them in with the bonehead decision to switch Detours in Coober Pedy. After he had conspicuously failed to search through the pile where the opals were located, and was instead opting to try and scrape shale off the walls of the mine!

But wasn't it really both of them making the bonehead decision, and both of them searching in the wrong place for the opal? I recall Gary being the first one to suggest that they switch Detours. But I don't recall Dave trying to talk him out of it, or getting overruled somehow. And I don't recall Dave saying "Hey, Gary -- why don't we search over there where everybody else is looking." To me, they were both addled by fatigue, and have equal responsibility for their exit (after the Gods and various clerks, of course).

[Jedzz]

Way long ago, a few months after TAR2 ended I think, Dave posted an explanation. Apparently, he was deathly ill while in Coober Peddy, and was too exhausted to do anything but throw all the decision-making on Gary (I think they might have been both sick at the time, now that I think about it, which is how they wasted time mining the walls instead of searching the rock pile). Dave: "The biggest thing I regret is ever saying "Gary, you're right."

[OttoZilch]

Dave: "The biggest thing I regret is ever saying "Gary, you're right."

Dave is underrated. But to be fair, weren't they already behind by the time they switched Detours? Sure, they could have gotten lucky with the rockpiles but even their impressive navigation to the Detour that made up some time, they'd have flopped at the Roadblock, which seemed to take Gary forever ("We've only got 3 more hours of daylight!")

[Jedzz]

From the editing of the episode, all four teams had already checked in just before Gary & Dave got to the Roadblock, so it didn't matter how well they did there. If I recall correctly, the two arrived at mining after Tara & Wil and Oswald & Danny had already started, but watched both those teams find the opals. So, I suspect that they would have had a good shot at staying in the race if they had stuck with the task at hand. What really killed them, though, is getting stuck on the last flight to Coober Peddy, behind all four other teams.

[strategery]

If I recall correctly, the two arrived at mining after Tara & Wil and Oswald & Danny had already started, but watched both those teams find the opals. So, I suspect that they would have had a good shot at staying in the race if they had stuck with the task at hand. What really killed them, though, is getting stuck on the last flight to Coober Peddy, behind all four other teams.

This debate piqued my interest so I did a little research -- checking the tape and searching the web. A few points:

• Gary/Dave did reach the mine while Oswald/Danny and Tara/Wil were still there, but did not see them both find opals. Indeed, one of the reasons Gary cites for switching tasks is that "they've looked for 45 minutes -- 30 more than us" without finding anything. (I think that would be a reference to Danny and Oswald, whose charter plane arrived 30 minutes before Gary/Dave's -- I think G/D ended up not as far behind Will and Tara.) The editing makes it look like Oswald/Danny find their opal as Gary/Dave are debating the switch, but I'm a little dubious. Either way, Wil and Tara were still there.
  
• As they are driving back to the Big Winch & Metal Tree to get their golf clubs, Dave says "why didn't we just go golfing half an hour ago." That not only indicates how much time they lost, but also points to their main problem (in my view): Because they were looking for opals in the wrong place -- depsite the example of both other teams -- all of their time spent at the mine was simply a waste. Maybe if they HAD seen another team find an opal, they would have figured out they were looking in the wrong place. So staying could have been faster than Bald Snarking the Detour, but they probably would have been eliminated anyway.
  
• The Detour tasks were not that far apart. This map of Coober Pedy shows the Big Winch in the middle of town, with an arrow pointing the golf course on Seventeen Mile Road (it's 2km from the edge of the map or, per this site, 3.5 km from the town center). I couldn't find a map showing the Opal Quest mine, but one site said it was 2km southwest of town, and another said it was in the Lennon Field, which can be seen just south of town on this map. Neither seemed hard for the racers to find -- the mine tours run by Opal Quest are noted on many web sites. (Coober Pedy is apparently the opal capital of the world, and the majority of its residents live underground to beat the heat; info.)
  
• The charter flights were only 15 minutes apart, the first landing at 2:45pm. Chris/Alex, having won the Fast Foward, went straight to the pit stop and arrived at 3:35pm -- which seems like a long time given that it was less than 30 miles from the airport. (Oswald and Danny were told to go 23 km north on the Stewart Highway; it's toward Alice Springs and the aiport on that map, and though it appears there to be heading west, it soon turns north.) The other 3 surviving teams arrived at the pit stop shortly after 5pm, indicating that the tasks and associated extra driving took Oswald and Danny about 1:35, while for Wil/Tara and Blake/Paige it was more like 1:10 to 1:15. Even though Dave and Gary didn't play any extra holes atthe golf course, I doubt they made up much time by switching.
  
• All in all, I would guess that Gary & Dave reached the Roadblock about 30-45 minutes after the other teams -- that is, at about 5:30 or 5:45pm. I didn't think it took Gary much longer than the other teams to do the Roadblock (after the other two teams had finished, Oswald also said it was gonna take forever, but they hit the mat only 3 minutes behing Wil and Tara). But taking Dave literally -- that they had 3 hours of daylight left -- would be suporting evidence, I suppose, since sunset was at about 8:30pm.

So just barely missing the 2nd charter flight did hurt them, but not as much as the opal mine blunder in my view -- and I think they would have had to avoid both problems in order to survive this leg.

Apparently, he was deathly ill while in Coober Peddy, and was too exhausted to do anything but throw all the decision-making on Gary

Hmmm. Maybe Dave also decided that the first thing to do after the race was to start blaming. :) Actually, I would bet they were both sick (for the reason Jedzz suggested). From what we were shown, it looked to me like they both took part in the discussion about what to do. But at one point Dave does say to Gary: "Choose it."

ETA: And even though I disagree on some points, I very much appreciate hearing the reports from long-lost interviews -- I only wish I'd been watching the show religiously back then. So thanks, Jedzz.

This post has been edited by strategery: Apr 30, 2006 @ 1:50 am.

[Ambi]

I think they might have been both sick at the time, now that I think about it

I don't remember anyone ever claiming that Gary was also sick in Australia. Dave's story of being deathly ill was independently confirmed by Tara at one point (I can't remember if she posted that here or if someone reported it back from a TARcon).

[fluttergrrl]

Oh my! A thread about Itchy & Scratchy! I wonder if they are still pals today. It was getting a bit mean near the end.

This post has been edited by fluttergrrl: May 2, 2006 @ 3:01 pm.

[Turbo]

Last I heard, I think they are still friends.

[Race Birch]

What I wanna know is where the "Thunk" for their team nickname came from. Did Miss Alli think of it? Or did another forum poster?

[Miss Alli]

That one is my fault.

[Race Birch]

Well, what brought on the name?

[NotPatrick]

From the recaps:

Peggy and Claire get to the club at about the same time as Gary and Dave. After he and Dave get the clue from the dancer, Gary laments that if he had had a few more minutes with her, he could have gotten her number. [THUNK.] (That was the sound of that joke hitting the floor like a dead body.)

I think that pretty much sums it up...

[Race Birch]

NotPatrick
I think that pretty much sums it up...

Yeah, it does. Thank you!

[spentcigarette]

Count me as one of the few Gary/Dave fans. While they're no Kevin/Drew and I cannot for the life of me differentiate the two, they did provide me with a couple of laugh-out-loud moments. My personal favorite? (Paraphrased, of course, because my memory isn't that good.)

The bald one: Hey, look at the natives over there.
The scrawny one: They're not natives, they're people. It's not 1800 anymore.

They were pretty consistant racers, too, which I don't think they get enough credit for. The race seemed to be dominated by Tarawil and Boston, but G&D usually finished in the Top 3. They did make one fucking stupid mistake, though, which deservedly led them to elimination.

This post has been edited by spentcigarette: Aug 13, 2006 @ 5:08 am.

[Race Birch]

spentcigarette
While they're no Kevin/Drew and I cannot for the life of me differentiate the two, they did provide me with a couple of laugh-out-loud moments.

I'll help you out with that. The scrawny one was Gary. The bald one was Dave.