The Weavers. Love 'em or hate 'em... And that, folks, pretty much sums up — in two words — The Amazing Race: Family Edition... The Weavers. From their energetic Christianity, to their tragic, melancholic family bio, to the rampant near roster-wide show-encompassing Weaver heckling (probably the most notable uttered by Alex Linz, who tagged Linda Weaver with "Ding dong the witch is dead!") to Talledega Super Speedway to a runaway Amish buggy to a magical riverboat blackjack dealer named Roy — it was a Weaver rout in a personal supernatural drama that etched every chapter in the Family Edition's odd landscape.

By David W. Taylor (Email The Author)
Reality Reel Media
01.23.06

<img src=http://www.realityreel.com/images/weaver_family.jpg align="left">February 8, 2006 will mark two years since Linda Weaver lost her husband and the Weaver children — Rolly, Rachel and Rebecca — lost their father, Roy Holland Weaver III, in a fateful racetrack accident at Daytona. As one would rightly assume, the Weaver world instantly deflated. This life-altering chasm in the Weaver household would set the stage for their unearthly Amazing Race trajectory, popping-up in the very first leg with Linda Weaver getting run over by a hurtling Amish buggy (an allegorical nod to the Daytona mishap) piloted by her two daughters, in Pennsylvania. The ironic surrealism that entered the Race at this point — and surrounded the shrouded, spiritual Weavers — would soon mushroom into a whole host of eerie weekly unseen-hand-of-fate gestures that became rather unnerving — one has to surely admit.

Yet the catalyst for the whole Amazing Race adventure and for the larger context of the Weaver family's supposed aloofness, and all the off-shoot subplots, would have to be, sadly, that terrible moment at Daytona. And to this day and ever onward, Linda Weaver will remember the event and, most deeply, the man, her husband, Roy Weaver: "Well, he was the strength of our family. He was a real strong leader and he was a real encourager..." Linda sighs. The words incapable of imparting the totality of such a life so deeply felt...

"... his death was a very publicized and very horrible thing," Linda goes on. "And so every time people would see us, like in a Walmart, or anywhere, it was, Oh! Are you OK? I mean everybody would quiet their voice and be kinda sad for us. Which I appreciated yet we couldn't get past that. And so doing The Amazing Race we kinda said like it was a stage in time where we were going to have something new to think about, if that makes sense. It wasn't so much our thinking... but our community's thinking. I mean I went to a wedding and three people started crying, you know. This was before the Race. We just couldn't get past the death as far as how people looked at us.

"And so, I think that now they look at us different!" laughs Linda... "Which helps."

"I think one reason we initially even did the Race, or desired to do the Race... and I know you've heard this because we've said it before but... once he left, you know, and his leadership left it was kind of spiraling around here. And I had to take the leadership role and it was rather difficult right away because I wasn't necessarily used to it. And so we did the Race to try and get our family dynamic back in order.