THE AMAZING RACE

One of our favorite TV shows is THE AMAZING RACE.  It's an amazing show, and different from many of the other so-called reality TV shows in that the players race each other, with the last team at each leg's finish line being eliminated.  There's no tribal counsel, or voting off of competitors.  The players control their own fate, though they may be affected by bad luck.  Anyway, 11 teams of two players compete with each other in an around-the-world race, performing tasks of varying difficulty all along the way, many matching the culture of the particular location, with the winning team at the end of the journey winning $1 million.

I started watching the show from the very first episode of the first season, and I was hooked.  I'm a cartographer by trade, and I love maps and travel, so this "race" had me intrigued.  My wife, who was out that evening, arrived home about halfway through that first episode, and she watched it with me, getting hooked, as well.  We faithfully watched every episode of each season from that point on.  I have never missed it, and now watch it regularly with my daughter.  I was so intrigued by it that, at one point, I downloaded the application and determined that my wife and I should attempt to do it.  The only thing that stopped us was the fine print, which stated CBS, the network that airs the show, would not be held responsible should injury or loss of life occur during the race due to natural disaster or political uprising in a country the race passes through along the race.  That was my first indicator that this might not be just another vacation.

Anyway, my daughter and I are enjoying the show now, and we usually like to root for the father-daughter teams, of which there have been plenty.  We also dislike the teams that are just plain mean to others, or to their teammates.  To us, there is no room for bad-mouthing other cultures just because you may not understand the language or because their standard of living isn't up to that of our own country.  You shouldn't get points for being nasty.  I really love the locations and the "wanderlust" always grabs me when I see some of the foreign lands that they encounter.  Northern Europe and South America are two areas I'd like to see someday, and that's entirely due to watching THE AMAZING RACE.

While we watch, I always ask my daughter if she feels like she can do the particular task the the racers are doing, just to gauge her interest.  I think it's very possible that we could do the race when she gets older.  In hindsight, I'm not sure my wife would've been able to handle many of the obstacles and tasks on the race.  She wasn't a very athletic person, and I'm sure she would have found many of them difficult.  At one point, I figured my brother and I could do it, and we'd be pretty entertaining, too, for a TV audience.  I'm sure we would end up fighting throughout, but we'd be competitive.  My brother is about 6' 6" tall and fairly athletic.  I'm 6' 2", and while I'm not as "in shape" as I used to me, I have no doubt that my smarts, along with my brother's brawn, could be a good combination.  Now I like to think about my daughter and me competing.  I think the teammates need to be able to get along.  That's what would've worked for my and my wife.  My brother and I would probably end up fighting the whole way.

Anyway, THE AMAZING RACE is a great show, family-friendly for the most part, and will get your adrenaline pumping and anxious to travel the world.  Check it out, if you can.  Sunday nights at 8 on CBS.  THE AMAZING RACE is brought to you by blogger Eric at AWAY FROM THE THINGS OF MAN....

Have a great weekend, everyone!