Amazing Race 17 Ep. 3

Has there ever been a Non-Elimination this early in the race before?
I kind of got the feeling that Kevin's dad was unhappy about letting his son down, but okay about not being in the race any more. He seemed to be okay with the idea of hanging out by a pool and sipping Mai Tais for the next few weeks.

Kevin really has to stop treating his dad like some sort of lame cow he has to drag around the world with him. Enough with the "I don't know if my dad can" stuff, especially right in front of him. 59 is not exactly one foot in the grave...don't you remember Grandpa Don from a few seasons ago? the man was in his 70s and rocked in every way possible. ("I used to mine gold when I was a kid!") Lay off, Kev.

Glee boys singing to Samson the Cab Driver was adorkable.

I sure hope they leave that decoder banner up so that when those guys go back to the school the next day they can see it. Thing 1 and I were laughing out loud when they started drawing circles around the kids in the dirt.....and then other teams did the same thing!! Oh, Herd Mentality, you are a strong and powerful force.

I'm pretty good at geography, but I think I would have had to take a few stabs at that map challenge....before this show, I'd have been hard pressed to say exactly where in Africa Ghana is. (I took a course on geopolitics in university, and one of the first days, the prof gave us blank maps of each continent for us to fill in with the names of the countries. It was unbelieveably hard....North America and Europe were pretty easy, but when you have to decide which one is Uraguay and which one is Paraguay, it gets a little tougher. And Africa was a disaster...the class average on that continent was about 3%. You know Chad and Malawi are somewhere on that map, but man, where, exactly???The prof was puzzled as to why the class all got Nepal, because that had never happened before, and we all replied it was because of "Raiders of the Lost Ark".)

If I had been Vicky, that one "shut up" of Nick's would have been the end of the race for me. I don't care how unhappy or frustrated you are, you DO NOT speak to your partner like that. Ever. And guess what douchebag? You could have read the clue about the supplies yourself, too. I have a very low tolerance for anyone who keeps yelling after their partner says "I'm sorry" in that sad, beaten little voice. And if Chad can tone down his inate douchiness, then so can you.

I like Mallory, I really do, but she had got to lay off the White Man's Guilt for a bit. Not everyone in Africa is worthy of your pity, you know. Just because those kids don't have Nintendos and Fruit Roll Ups does not mean they are without justice and freedom.

Again, I can only imagine the conversations those kids had at dinner that night..."A big bunch of loud, screechy Americans came today, and hardly any of them know a damn thing about geography or pushing a bicycle wheel, and for some reason, they ran around us drawing circles in the dirt. One of them hugged me, and I was afraid he was trying to adopt me. So strange."

Best Line of the Night: from the Gleeks- "In Phil we trust". Also from the blonde doctor- "The kids were the best part of the day.".

The Volleyball girls are jerks. They haven't pulled out the "we're competitive" card yet, but they will, I'm sure, when they do something morally dubious. They don't even say "please".

Until next week!