Amazing Race: Worst. Roadblock. Ever.

Last week I was thinking about how taxing the race must be after you've been dragged halfway across the world. Last night we saw the toll it can take. Man, Wandiree hit the wall hard. I could almost feel their mental and physical exhaustion as they sped along the Autobahn headed in the wrong direction--twice! It hurt because I know that's the kind of thing I do when I'm feeling out of it. I'm not sure how much Wanda's rampant Spanglish really contributed to the team's demise, but Desiree sure didn't help things by letting her Inner Teenager take over her personality. I'm not saying I'd behave much better under those conditions. But I'm pretty sure I wouldn't have found it so hard to complete The Lamest Road Block In The History Of This Show. Man--I've seen children's Easter Egg hunts that took more skill than that Travelocity product placement monstrosity. All the tasks/detours/road blocks in this episode were stupidly easy ("Take a ride in a fancy car while someone else drives." "Slap your knee three times while wearing lederhosen."), but "Find one of the many gnomes hidden under a very few clearly marked containers in a small field" was so terrible I'm officially boycotting Travelocity to protest.

Anyway, watching Wandree bumble through the Germany leg, the big question I had was why on earth the Pink Ladies would continue to follow a team that was obviously going in circles. The answer, of course, is that the Staten Island girls are simply terrible racers. In fact, the Frats' first lucky break in their remarkable string of lucky breaks through Moscow and Munich was when the Pinks forgot their bag at the pool and had to get out of the Frats' cab. Dumping that deadweight helped set them up to win yet another leg. I have to say, they didn't seem too psyched about the safari they won. I think the question on their minds was, do any women in Africa have breast implants, and if not, are we still obligated to take this trip? Boorishness (boobishness?) and luck aside, they're clearly the strongest team so far. That doesn't mean they'll win (just ask Rob & Amber or Colin & Christie), but at this point it's hard to imagine how they and the Hippies won't be in the Final Three.

Also observed:

• Did anyone complete that dance detour correctly? It didn't look like it to me. Those judges were the opposite of that hardass Russian trolley cleaning supervisor.
• We got to see Franimal's one strength: navigating with a map in a car. Kudos to them. Too bad so much of the race does not involve navigating with a map in a car, but instead requires skills they do not have. Like performing traditional German beerhall dances.
• I did not know the city of Munich had erected a gigantic monument to peace back in the 19th century. Given what went down in Germany in the 20th century, I think it's safe to say it turned out to be the least influential/inspirational monument in the history of monuments. But hey--still a great place for a pit stop!

To summarize, it now looks like there are two excellent teams and a bunch of other pretty bad teams, one of which will make it to the finale. I think it's more likely to be Rolanda, Michelle/Lake (who really needs to step it up if he's going to play the designated psycho role properly. I find him more annoying than eeeeevvillll) or MoJo than any of the others, but who knows? I just hope the tasks get more interesting.