The Amazing Race 16: Episode 9: Dan & Jordan Fast Forward to Pitstop, Brent & Caite U-Turn Carol & Brandy

Dumb & Nasty Mean Beauty Queen Caite and her equally Bone-Headed boy friend, Brent, U-Turned Carol & Brandy, who the Dumb & Bone-Headed referred to, constantly, as the Mean Lesbians. This ended Carol & Brandy's run on The Amazing Race.

As Carol & Brandy, full names, Carol Rosenfeld & Brandy Snow, neared Phil, on their way to elimination at the Pitstop, Brandy was letting loose with some choice vitriol directed at the Nasty Mean Beauty Queen, including the suggestion that YouTube be used to view the Mean Beauty Queen's infamously idiotic answer to being asked why she thought so many Americans could not locate the United States on a map.

Brent & Caite's full names are Brent Horne & Caite Upton.

I'd not heard Caite's special Beauty Pageant Moment before. I now have. I took Brandy's suggestion and found a YouTube video. She is even dumber than I realized. Over 47 million people have viewed this moment of historically significant idiocy.

Brother's Dan & Jordan Pious provided some amusement as they Fast Forwarded to the top of the Singapore Flyer, it being the tallest ferris type wheel in the world. Jordan is mortified of heights, but he manned it up and crawled from one Flyer pod to the next, from the highest point, 541 feet above the ground.

I must say, Singapore is looking really good. The Amazing Race did a much better job this time at giving viewers a good look at Singapore.

Like I said, the Mean & Nasty kids U-Turned Carol & Brandy, which made them have to do the Ice Cream Sandwich Detour after successfully completed the Boring Drum Detour.

The Sandwich & Drums were followed with a boring Roadblock where the links on an anchor chain had to be counted. First to the Roadblock was Brent & Caite. Brent chose to count. I was sure there was no way he'd be able to count to 521. But he did. On the first try. As did all the teams.

This made the Mean Nasty Pair second to the Pitstop, after completing one more task, that being riding the Mega Zip on Sentosa Island. The 1,200 foot long zipline looked fun.

The McCoy boys, Jet & Cord, made it to the Pitstop in 3rd, after riding the Mega Zip without their cowboy hats, which then mysteriously showed up as soon as they were finished zipping.

The annoying, supposed Rhode Island detectives, Michael Naylor & Louie Stravato, came in 4th.

That left Carol & Brandy in last and eliminated.

Before previews of the next episode, Jet & Cord did a promo for the Country Music Awards Show, next Sunday, thus putting off The Amazing Race for 2 weeks.

The Amazing Race: Cowboys Jet & Cord Back in 1st Place

I still don't know which one is Jet and which one is Cord, but the Oklahoma Cowboys had a couple firsts on the latest leg of The Amazing Race. They came in first at the Pitstop. And they are the first team ever to have done so after starting a leg in last place, with a Speed Bump thrown in to slow them down.

Jet & Cord for the win.

It is down to 4 teams, I think, with the elimination of the Father/Daughter team of Steve & Allie. The backpack less pair had a hard time with taxis, getting around the island city of Penang in Malaysia.

It was over 5,700 miles of flying to get the teams from the Seychelles to Malaysia. Upon landing teams had to find the Snake Temple. I don't like snakes. I did not like that temple.

The Snake Temple clue pointed the teams to a Detour. You could either haul giant incense sticks up 150 steps and light them to get the clue that directs them to the Roadblock. Or balance a 32 foot flagpole on your forehead and walk 120 without dropping it.

Jet & Cord had a little taxi trouble, but eventually made it to the flagpole option, which they breezed through, which lead them to their Speed Bump, which had them finding some spices for tea. The Cowboys breezed through the tea, now in 1st place at the Roadblock, where Cord, I guess I do know which one is which, Cord is the one in the black hat.

Anyway, Cord smashed coconuts, found a colored one, made an arts and crafts display, lit it on fire and floated it out to sea to the approval of some religious guy who handed him the clue to the Pitstop, the Pinang Peranakan Mansion, which Cord & Jet quickly taxied to, to win 1st place.

The other teams had taxi woes, task woes, all sorts of woes. Steve & Allie tried the flagpole Detour and quickly bailed. They were doomed.

So, it's down to 4, the Cowboys, Brent & Caite, Michael & Louie and the Mean Lesbians, Carol & Brandy.

Jet & Cord for the win.

The Amazing Race 16: Steve & Allie 1st to Pitstop in the Seychelles

Finally a good episode of The Amazing Race. And the Detective, Louie & Michael did not come in first again, which made it an even better episode.

Father/Daughter team, Steve & Allie, were the first to see Phil in the Seychelles. Steve seems like a nice dad. Allie seems like a nice girl. But, don't be praying and involving God. That's just tasteless.

I knew nothing about the Seychelles, other than it being islands in the Indian Ocean. The Amazing Race is at its best, for me, when it is showing me a place on the planet about which I know little. And it helps if that place is amazingly scenic, which the Seychelles is.

The Detour and Roadblock were good this time. In the Detour teams could either fill a cart with coconuts and bring them to market, pulled by an ox. Or lead a huge turtle across a field, tempting the turtle with a banana, then after successfully moving the turtle across the finish line, carrying a lot of bananas to the market.

Steve & Allie were the only team to successfully move a turtle. The Mean Lesbians, Carol & Brandy, tried, but their turtle did not like them. Later we learned, according to dim-witted Brent, it's anonymous that all the teams do not like the Mean Lesbians. Phil asked Brent if he meant to say unanimous.

The Mean Lesbians bailed on the turtle to try their hand at tossing coconuts. We'd already seen Brent & Caite get told they did not have all their coconuts. Brent proceeded to have a fit and say he was quitting. Later, when complaining to Phil about the Mean Lesbians, both Brent & Caite complained about how negative the Mean Lesbians were. To my eyes and ears Brent & Caite are way meaner than the supposedly Mean Lesbians.

Dan & Jordan got all their coconuts, close behind Steve & Allie, to the next task, a Roadblock. An underwater bottle had to be retrieved which had a map to the Pitstop. This map had to be assembled back at shore.

Meanwhile, back at the coconuts the Cowboys, Jet & Cord, had not been having a good day of it, last off the plane, last ticket to a helicopter ride, which brought them last to the coconuts. Jet & Cord had an easier time of driving their ox than Brent & Caite did. But, they too did not have all their coconuts. Soon the Mean Lesbians were also to learn they did not have all their coconuts.

It got confusing all the teams going back and forth with their coconut wagon trains. If I remember right the detectives made it in the water and on the way to the Roadblock ahead of Brent & Caite, but boat woes slowed the detectives. But the 2 teams made it to the beach at about the same time and decided to work together to beat the Mean Lesbians. Brent & Caite were #3, with the detective #4.

The Cowboys were ahead of the Mean Lesbians, I think the Mean Lesbians were still dealing with coconuts when the Cowboys were on the way to the Roadblock. The Cowboys made it to the beach and quickly ran to find Phil who told them, to their great happiness, that they were Team #5.

But, unfortunately the Cowboys had not read their clue in the retrieved bottle that directed them to the Pitstop. How many times have teams made this type mistake on this Amazing Race? So, Jet & Cord had to swim out to thier boat to get the bottle, while the Mean Lesbians, who thought they were out of it, made it to the beach.

But, Jet & Cord knew where the Pitstop was, they did not have to assemble the map. Of course, editing kept us guessing, a little. In the end, Jet & Cord came in last. In a non-elimination leg. So, the good-natured, funny Oklahoma Cowboys are still in it.

One more odd thing. Steve & Allie left their backpacks with the turtle. Allie wanted to go back and get them. Dad insisted they not do so, that they can run the rest of the race without whatever was in the backpacks. So, why could they not simply go get the backpacks after they checked in? Was that boat ride really that far? It was perplexing to me.

Next week they race to Malaysia. I hope that's another good leg. Cowboys for the win. Anyone for the win but Brent & Caite.

The Amazing Race 16: Detectives Louie & Michael Come in 1st Again

Three weeks in a row the formerly bumbling detectives, Louie & Michael, have made it to the Pitstop as Team #1.

They are starting to get a tad cocky. I guess with good reason. But after one of the detectives successfully detected a special cluster of grapes, it got grating the number of times he mentioned he had eagle eyes.

This week they were still in France. France was not being all that interesting. They were racing in the Champagne region. Next week The Amazing Race finally gets out of Europe and goes to an island republic in the Indian Ocean, Seychelles.

The Roadblock and Detours this week were tiresome. For the Roadblock, rappel down a hole to a cave where bottles of champagne are stored. Hunt for the marked bottle.

At the Detour choose between hunting over a big vineyard for a special cluster of grapes. Or stack champagne glasses into a pyramid and then pour a giant bottle of champagne into the top glass.

The hunt for the grape cluster seemed the smart choice. But smart is in short supply with some of this group. Though, brothers, Dan & Jordan, did stack the glasses, successfully, it took a long time.

Jeff & Jordan spent a lot of time lost again, as did several of the other teams, going back and forth between towns looking for their next clue.

Steve & Allie had a little fender bender that rendered their car inoperable til Steve duct-taped a fix.

Brent & Caite, what an annoying pair, with Caite being the annoying one. She is the stupid beauty queen who made a stupid remark that, apparently, a lot of people heard, but I missed, at some beauty pageant. I'm guessing Caite's parents thought they were naming her Kate.

Caite pouted when Brent thought the hunt for the grape cluster Detour choice was the way to go. Nag, nag, nag. The Cowboys, Jet & Cord showed up and quickly found what they needed. This caused Brent & Caite to switch to stacking glasses. Brent was now sure Caite had been right all along, when he saw the brothers succeed and leave. Brent & Caite finished the stacking, Brent started pouring the champagne, and then, oopsie. Collapse.

Back to the vineyard, where soon, Jordan & Jeff showed up. They tried the glass stacking first, for some illogical reason, stated by Jeff, and then switched to the vineyard, upon glass collapse. At the vineyard, Brent & Caite eventually found a grape cluster and made it to the Pitstop.

Jordan & Jeff looked for grapes, with flashlights, well after dark. I didn't get why Phil did not just show up in the vineyard to eliminate them like he did when he eliminated Joe & Heidi last week.

I liked Jordan & Jeff. I did not know til recently they'd been on Big Brother, with Jordan winning. I've not watched Big Brother since that BB All-Star abomination where that nasty Boogie Mike Malin person won, even though he had not been an All-Star and was only on the show because actual All-Star, Will Kirby, would not go on without Boogie, hence the travesty.

I hope next week's tasks are something other than laboriously looking for some needle in a haystack.

The Amazing Race 16: Episode 5: Louie & Michael #1 Again After Eliminating Joe & Heidi With U-Turn

I have not liked the "U-Turn" twist ever since it was introduced on The Amazing Race. The U-Turn pretty much lets one team eliminate another, not by racing better, but by forcing another team to do whatever Detour task the team had not done.

In the latest The Amazing Race episode it was Louie & Michael Blind U-Turning Joe & Heidi. Since Louie & Michael were in 1st place with Joe & Heidi in 2nd, it was no mystery who U-Turned them.

This was a very odd leg of The Amazing Race. It did not start with leaving the previous episode's Pitstop. Instead the Pitstop was a bus ride from Hamburg, Germany to some spot in France.

After finding a clue in a hunk of bread it was off to the location of some, apparently, well-known WWI battle. Teams had to put on WWI American Doughboy uniforms and choose a Detour between In the Trenches or Under Fire. All chose Under Fire because the other choice had to do with figuring out a message in Morse Code.

The WWI battle scene may be the most elaborate ever done on The Amazing Race. It was sort of bizarre. The teams had to crawl under barbed wire while soldiers were shooting at each other, bombs were going off and bi-planes were flying overhead.

Joe & Heidi made it out of the battle in second place, only to find they'd been U-Turned, which sent them back into the trenches to figure out the Morse Code message.

Meanwhile, Jeff & Jordan, nice kids, but a couple of the dumbest clucks ever to run the race, were far behind, got lost, bickered, finally got to the WWI battle to find their special Speed Bump. They completed that quickly and then started in on the Under Fire Detour, while Joe & Heidi kept trying to figure out the ridiculous Morse Code thing.

Jeff & Jordan got their clue directing them to ride old style bicycles to the Pitstop where they checked in in 7th place.

Phil then had to hit the trenches to tell Joe & Heidi they had been eliminated.

I did not like this episode of The Amazing Race. What does the U-Turn thing have to do with racing? And to have such a thing where the 2nd Detour task is pretty near impossible, thus, effectively letting one team eliminate another. This did not make for good TV. It may have been a Jump the Shark moment. I would imagine plenty of viewers found the U-Turn annoying.

I'll probably keep watching.

The Amazing Race 16: Episode 4: Detectives Louie & Michael Eat Sauerkraut & Come in 1st

In the 3 previous legs of the latest iteration of The Amazing Race detectives, Louie & Michael seemed a bit inept to be in a profession that requires the ability to observe and detect.

But, last night the pair were firing on all cylinders, taking a taxi when the Oklahoma Cowboys, Jet and Cord took a Metro Train, the detectives leaped to 1st place and stayed there all the way through a plate of sauerkraut, a big boot of beer, making it to the Pitstop after wandering through Beatles-Platz to find the Indra Club, a place were the Beatles played and the Pitstop for this leg of the race.

I forgot to mention, when the teams checked out of their Argentina Pitstop, the new clue told them to fly to Hamburg, Germany to find a clue on Jungfernsteig Street.

The teams found various routes to Germany. I hate the airport jockeying on The Amazing Race.

The plate of sauerkraut was a detour option. It was either that or kick soccer balls at 5 targets. The kraut seemed, to me, the easier option, but most, including the Cowboys, opted to kick balls.

This leg had an Intersection. Teams had to pair with another team. And then one from each team bungee jumped with one with whom they were intersected. In my opinion The Amazing Race should lose both the Intersection thing. And bungee jumping. Enough with the bungee jumping.

Some amusement was provided by Jordan & Jeff, they being the pair who Jeff says should not reproduce, due to being too stupid. This week they got a bad taxi driver who relied on a GPS in which he'd programmed the wrong info. This eventually had Jordan & Jeff in last place, a position they were to keep all the way to the Pitstop.

But, this was a non-elimination leg. Jordan & Jeff have to complete a special task in the next leg. These are usually easy. But with this pair, nothing seems very easy.

Steve & Allie came in 2nd, Joe & Heidi, 3rd, Jet & Cord, 4th, Carol & Brandy, 5th, Dan & Jordan, 6th and Brent & Caite, 7th.

The Amazing Race 16: Episode 3: Cowboys Jet & Cord Team #1 Again

Another good Amazing Race episode. This makes 2 good episodes in a row.

The Oklahoma Cowboys, Cord & Jet, continue to leave the other teams in the dust, continue to be upbeat and funny. And continue to make it to the Pitstop in 1st place.

We started the leg with Brent & Caite needing medical attention so they did not start the race at their 4th place 1:20am start time. Apparently the pair had forgotten to drink water and were dehydrated.

When they checked out of the hospital they found they were not too far behind, because they found the easily confused detectives, Louie & Michael, still at the Pitstop hotel.

The first clue had teams taking one of two buses on a 6 hour ride over the Andes Mountains to Bariloche, Argentina. In Bariloche teams had to drive to a saloon called El Boliche Viejo, supposedly a place where Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid hung out.

At the saloon the teams had to play 5 card stud poker against a Travelocity Roaming Gnome, win a hand and get their next clue.

I found the poker playing boring so I'll rush us past there. Suffice to say, Jet & Cord, dating lesbians, Carol & Brandy and Joe & Heidi got to the gnome first, with Jet & Cord the last of the 3 front running teams to beat the gnome. The clue told them to go to the Pena Gaucha.

When bus 2 arrived, 4 of the 6 teams made it to the saloon with few woes, but the brothers, Dan & Jordan, had troubles shifting their car, again. And the formerly sick, Brent & Caite, got lost and bickered.

At Pena Gaucha teams ran into a Roadblock involving using a lasso to rope a cow-horned bale of hay. Hard to guess who was going to have no trouble with this one. Yup, Cowboy Jet hooked the horn on his 2nd try. The clue told the team to head to Puente Nirihuau.

How do these people find these places with such vague clues? And no route markers.

With the Cowboys now back in 1st place Carol and Heidi had trouble with the roping.

At Puente Nirihuau, the Cowboys found a detour. Horse Sense or Horse Power. In the Horse Sense one teams found a bandit who gave them coordinates and a compass. This was not a fun detour to watch.

The Cowboys assumed Horse Power would involve riding a horse and be right in their power zone. Instead it was a goofy polo game thing involving wooden horses and hitting a ball across a goal in 9 swings or less. The Cowboys quickly got their ball where it had to be and were handed a trophy with the name of a nearby ranch, which was the Pitstop.

Most of the teams opted for the bandit detour. This was not a good choice. This led to some more angry Brandy & Carol bickering.

Jordan & Jeff, I like this pair, they don't bicker. They kept messing up by trying to give their bag of loot to the wrong guy. Finally Jeff read the clue again and realized their mistake. Jeff is funny. He said, "We're so stupid. We definitely should not reproduce."

Louie and Dan got past the lasso Roadblock, while Shawne had a hard time. The teams that gave up on the bandit loot hunt, then had trouble with the polo game, with Monique & Shawne giving up and going to the bandit loot hunt option.

Monique & Shawne could only be saved by it being a non-elimination round. It wasn't. Phil was sorry to tell them they had been eliminated from the race.

It will be interesting if the Cowboys get into some difficulty to see if the brothers continue with their upbeat, humorous ways, or if they fall into bicker mode, like way too many are prone to do.

The Amazing Race 16th Edition Starts Tonight With Oklahoma Cowboys

That is a pair of Oklahoma Cowboy brothers who will be racing tonight on the start of the 16th season of The Amazing Race.

Seems like we just ended The Amazing Race, in Las Vegas, at Wayne Newton's home. And now we are already back racing again.

I'm guessing I'll be watching, though The Amazing Race has not seemed as amazing to me, as it did when it first came on my TV screen.

We start the race in Los Angeles again. This seems to now be the default starting place. I hope we don't start with someone being eliminated, before they even get started, again, like last season. I didn't like that.

One big difference, for the start of the race, is this time the racers will not be running to cars and driving themselves to LAX. This time the racers must make their way to LAX via public transportation. That should be very interesting, depending on where the starting point is. Los Angeles can be very confusing. I hope they are banned from using taxis.

The first leg of the race has them taking off from LA to Chile.

In addition to the Oklahoma cowboys we have another beauty queen, though this time not Miss America, this time it is a Miss South Carolina Teen USA, whatever that is, named Caite Upton. A Big Brother winner, Jordan Lloyd is racing. I quit watching Big Brother after that creepy Boogie guy won the All-Stars Big Brother, when he should never have been on the show, because he was not an All-Star, unless by All-Star, you mean, Big Creep.

I have no idea if Jordan Lloyd is a boy or girl. I guess I'll find out in a few hours.

There is also a pair of undercover detectives from Rhode Island racing. Now, I know nothing about undercover detectives, but it would seem to me that going on a popular TV show is not a great way to keep your cover.

I hope the 11 teams and the 40,000 miles raced are fun this time.