The Amazing Race has a not so amazing second leg

So the teams traveled from England to Ghana this week and … not much happened.  The Detour involved selling sunglasses to people who don’t seem to have much money to begin with which made the task a bit difficult for some. I’m not too keen on these types of challenges because they seem to take advantage of the locals who just might need that money for, I don’t know, food or other necessities. It did seem like the locals were well aware of this fact and a lot of them did their best to screw with the team members who had to do the selling. Many of them did learn “I’ll come back” meant no sale, while others had to learn the art of the haggle and not allow the customer to run away with the product. Nick. At least the woman put on a show before she dashed away with the glasses (but she did eventually come back and pay for them).

The Road Block was a choice of putting up a TV antenna or pushing a bizarre coffin through traffic to the Hello Coffin store. Yes, Hello Coffin. It’s actually pretty cool to have a coffin custom made that signifies something important in your life, although kind of a waste to put it in the ground. I don’t know, maybe they keep them on display once they’re occupied. The Road Blocks are always a puzzle to me because I always think the teams pick what seems to be the more difficult of the two tasks. I would think pushing a coffin from one location to another would be pretty simple and quick and would get you to the Pit Stop faster. Hanging an antenna, hooking it up to the TV and getting the signal tuned in properly could take much longer, but I would have chosen wrong yet again. Turns out, pushing a coffin through a maze of bumper to bumper traffic is much harder than finding a TV broadcast signal.

And speaking of traffic, things finally kicked into gear this week as several teams were trying to get to the Pit Stop. Traffic was backed up for what seemed like miles and no one was moving, but one cab driver decided to create a third lane right down the middle of the highway and the others quickly followed. Maybe it was the editing but there seemed to have been more than a few near misses and I’m surprised that there wasn’t an accident. Earlier in the day when teams first arrived, Andie and Jenna were the only team (that we saw) give money to people begging on the streets while they were stuck in traffic. Andie hoped it would give them some good karma, but it just didn’t work as they found themselves the last team to check in. In first place this week: Brooke and Claire. Volleyball players Katie and Rachel checked in second. I don’t even remember seeing them in the race this week!

“When your team mate is doing the Road Block you certainly have that element of feeling helpless because you can’t help them.” – Thomas defining the word helpless.

“I’m just so proud I haven’t soiled myself.” – Connor
“Yeah, I think I might have.” – Jonathan, during their kamikaze cab ride to the Pit Stop.

Clacked by Chuck Duncan
on Oct 03, 2010 @ 22:08 EST5EDT