And then, Tyler & James Got Lost...

Sunday night's episode of the Amazing Race was a bit of a blur for me, as we were in the midst of some commotion here at the Young house. Just about the time the show started, Kara, Chris, & Caden arrived to spend the night, because they had no power at home. And someone was a little cranky and did some heavy-duty howling. Then someone got a little tired, and I had to crank the volume down wayyyyy low so that he could sleep.

But here's a re-cap of what I did catch:

With my boys Tyler & James departing last for this leg of the race, they had some serious ground to make up. At first, it seemed hopeless, as all the other teams effortlessly made it to the Roadblock, while Tyler & James travelled around in circles and got lost. Apparently, following directions is not one of their strong suits.

The alliance of Kentucky, the Bama girls, and the Cho brothers adopted a new and annoying group name for themselves - as if their individual team nicknames aren't annoying enough - and they shall henceforth be known collectively as the Six Pack. I don't know why this bunch get under my skin, but they do. Truthfully, I think Dave & Mary are sweet people who probably deserve the money more than anyone. The Cho brothers are down-to-earth guys who are taking the time to enjoy the experience, and I admire them for that. The only team I truly detest in that alliance is the Bama girls, and they've tainted the entire group for me. They seem to have bickered with everyone who isn't in the Six Pack, and they kicked off this episode by getting into a rather animated argument with my hot boys. Don't mess with my men, ladies, or you'll have to deal with me!

Back to the race...At the Roadblock, teams had to swim out to some boat and get their next clue from the skipper or someone like that. Fortunately for Tyler & James, who arrived at the Roadblock long after all the other teams had jumped into the water, some of the teams weren't very masterful in the art of swimming, so they were able to make some quick ground right off the bat.

I'm not sure what happened between that and the Detour, (although I'm pretty sure Tyler & James got lost again), so I'm going to skip right ahead to what happened at the Detour. Teams had to chose between digging through some big mountains of salt for a salt shaker, or they had to take a boat ride out to an island where they would search for a sail for their boat with the help of a very vague-looking map.

(Oh, and by the way, if you're wondering what part of the country the kids were in this week...I have no flippin' clue. Wherever they were, the people seemed to be pretty fluent in English).

Beauty Queens Dustin & Kandice chose to search for their sail, while the rest of the teams opted to dig through piles of salt. However, they quickly discovered that while there were many shakers hidden in the snow-like heaps, most had pepper in them instead of salt. It didn't take long for most of the teams to change their minds and head for the island in search of sails; only Dave & Mary decided to stick with the task of digging through salt. Until Mary freaked out and told Dave she was going to do the other task, with or without him. But by this time, they were already well behind.

On the island, you'll never guess what happened. Tyler & James got lost. Again. However, they already had enough of a lead on the rest of the group - with the exception of the Barbies who were already on their way to the Pit Stop - that they were able to gain some ground anyways. But first, they flopped in some deep hay in front of the sails. Ah, yes, a good ol' fashioned boobie-trap. See, this year's Amazing Race is so lame, they've stooped to adding in these silly little obstacles that have the racers giggling rather than crying out in frustration. It really hasn't been a very interesting show so far, except that I get to see two hot boys for an hour every week.

Tyler & James hit the mat in second place, effectively returning them to the upper echelon of contenders for the $1 Million dollar prize. They were followed by Rob & Kimberly, the Bama girls, the Cho brothers, and in last place came Dave & Mary. I was shocked, however, when Phil offered them a reprieve for the second time! Definitely didn't see that coming again so soon! So next week, Dave & Mary will once again be marked for elimination and will have to finish in first or else be whacked with a 30 minute penalty. Those people must have horseshoes up their butts or something.

It's going to get interesting to see what happens when the Six Pack are forced to turn on one another. We got a glimpse of that this week, with the three teams duking it out in the bottom half of the rankings. With the Cho brothers in the lead of the Six Pack, Dave & Mary were following, just ahead of the Bama girls, and Mary was heard saying, "When we get there, we're gonna wait on the girls" - I don't think any team has ever held back to purposely tie for last place with another team. I would have loved to see how that would have been dealt with. However, it never happened, because the Bama girls jumped ahead when the Chos and Kentucky both stopped to get directions. And there was no way they were going to wait for anybody to catch up to them. As much as I dislike those girls, at least they understand that they're in a race! You're not there to make friends, people! Come on!

My only other observation was that, while my early impression of Rob was that he was a complete dickhead, I really do think I might have been wrong about him. He did flip out a little this week, but I'm starting to think he has reason to get frustrated with Kim. She can be a real ditz when she wants to be. You'd think at times she was deliberately trying to make him spaz out. He's a pretty strong guy for not trying stick her back up on a horse and directing her into another tree branch.

So that's enough yapping about the Race. I hope everyone has a spooky Halloween with lots of tricks & treats!