‘The Amazing Race 14′: Christie and Jodi are heading home

The day after their elimination from the sixth lap of “The Amazing Race 14,” flight attendants Christie Volkmer (left), 37, and Jodi Wincheski, 40, chatted about their experience on the CBS series and how painting a trunk of an elephant in India helped them recover from some rough days in the competition.

Q: I really thought you were going to avoid elimination last night.

Christie: It was hard to watch. Even though we knew what was going to happen, it was really painful to watch. My entire family was here. I wouldn’t tell them when and anything would happen.
Jodi: We [lost] by two minutes.

Q: Jodi, last evening you kept talking about your daughter and how running “The Amazing Race” would show her that she can do anything in life. How old is she?

Jodi: My daughter is 11. She was sitting next to me on the couch, and she started crying, and I started crying. We were a big mess of tears. But it is good to watch it with her, and it’s a really good experience with her.

Q: I would have loved to be able to do that Speed Bump where you got to paint the elephant.

Christie: I love animals. I have a parrot, rabbit and dogs — so to be able to get that close up to an elephant and touch it. It was so nice to be that close up and look him right in the eyes.

Jodi: He was moving his trunk around.

Christie: Animals are very therapeutic, and we had such a tough time the last couple of days so to be able to pet the animal was therapeutic for me.

Q: Did you two have a favorite location?

Jodi: I think every place was really pretty. I think every place you go has something cool to take away from it. I was really glad that we went to Russia and India because those are places I probably wouldn’t go on a vacation. So it was amazing to see them and to get thrown into the culture. When you do the race, you don’t have a choice but to really interact with local people, which is really different when you go on vacation.

Christie: India was probably my favorite simply because it was so opposite from our life here as far as the culture and the living arrangements and lifestyles.

Q: Christie, I have to ask you what that was like for you to do that running in your thong underwear and bra in the subzero temperatures in Siberia.

Christie: It was actually fun. At first, it was very intimidating. But once you step out there and you are freezing, you forget that you are embarrassed because you are so cold. The day after, I had [a lot of] requests on Facebook to be friends — all men.

– Susan King, L.A. Times staff writer

[Photo: CBS]

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This entry was posted on Monday, March 23, 2009 at 2:27 pm by Susan King and is filed under Amazing Race, News, Tips & Advice. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a comment, or trackback from your own site.