Some Things are Certainly Amazing About This Race

I am, for some reason, simply baffled watching The Amazing Race this year.  I shouldn't be.  I know that I shouldn't be, but I am.  Last night's elimination was no big surprise, Ty and Aja were behind from the word "go" and never got to catch, but the way other things unfolded simply didn't make sense.

First, look at Starr and Nick.  There they were, in the lead, their driver insisted that he knew where he was going, and yet Starr made him pull over so she could ask directions of people who didn't speak any English.  Not really the brightest thing ever.  By the time they got going again, they had slipped to fourth place. 

Now really, that was just fine.  They may have been in fourth place, but they couldn't have been more than 90 seconds behind first.  But, when Nick and Starr got their lead back a little while later, everyone else was disheartened, particularly Tina (of Ken and Tina, the separated couple that might get back together).  The teams had still done very little during this leg of the race, there was no way they were going to be going to the pitstop anytime soon, and yet she seemed really disappointed.  Why?  While it is true that a lost driver can cause a team's elimination, falling 15 seconds behind while on a boat towards the beginning of a leg of the race wasn't going to make any difference. 

So, I was moderately perplexed.  Probably I should just chalk it up to human nature to be disappointed, but then I firmly believe that human nature has to be altered.  Okay, probably too tall an order, but not necessarily a misplaced one.

What well and truly perplexed me were the actions of Kelly and Christy (the divorcees, who you can tell exactly why they got divorced simply by watching on the show).  They were on their boat, on the way to the floating restaurant when they spied another team doing something else.  Did they proceed on their way to the restaurant, the destination specifically spelled out in their clue?  No, no they didn't.  Instead, they redirected their pilot to where the other team was, leaping ahead of where they were supposed to be. 

Why, I beg you, can teams not follow directions this season?  If someone tells you to go to a restaurant for your next clue, do you decide to head to a basketball court instead?  No, not if you have a half a brain and want to win.  If you have a half a brain and want to win, you go to the restaurant and count yourself lucky that you saw in advance a location that you might have to head to later.   Kelly and Christy just opted to hop out at the basketball court, start shooting some hoops, and only then decided that they actually ought to follow the instructions.  What was going through their mind? 

I know that I shouldn't get so vexed about these things, that I should just accept the world the way it is and right off the foolishness as reality show nonsense, but it's really hard to do that.  Plus, it truly distressed me that Kelly and Christy were able to be so dumb and still not get eliminated.  I have my fingers crossed though, and I'm hopeful they'll go down next week.