TV: Amazing Race 9 - Ep 3

Wow.

I think I made a mistake by hitting the delete button at the end of what felt like an action-packed episode. I may have already lost track of several details and thoughts I had while watching.

- The hippies were risking a hospital visit jumping in front of VWs like that, but it was comical.

- I have a fear of heights (as mentioned previously) but zip line with that sort of scenery would be worth the temporary panic.

- A long bus ride followed by a very long flight that practically went to the other side of the planet == very sore rear for me. Fortunately very little of that ordeal was aired, so any painful flashbacks were avoided. Thank you producers.

- Moscow is quickly rising on the list of places I must visit in my lifetime. The artwork and architecture on some of those cathedrals look amazing (thus the name of the race). I imagine Western influences (e.g. fast food restaurants) will make the city less unique the longer I wait.

- Hats off to the two contestants who overcame their fear of swimming to complete a task. If I ever find myself crazy enough to enter this thing, it will be an absolute must to find a partner who would deal with the swimming related road blocks.

- Team Mojo provided another very brief highlight this week, but I'll not elaborate.

- I would have chosen to scrub the bus. I think the music and monotonous opening of dolls to find a tiny clue would have driven me batty (though it would have been cool to check it out the entertainment for a little while). Bad luck in a "find the needle in a haystack" type challenge has eliminated the best of teams in the past. But who could have predicted that the trolley station would be the needle?

- The Florida team proved me wrong this week. They stayed focused on the doll task and were the first to complete it first when they could have been distracted by some pretty dancers. Meanwhile the Double D's may have been distracted by the guys leading to their big mistake.

- Each team made at least one potentially fatal mistake or got stuck somewhere, so by the end (actually middle) of the leg they make all cancel each other out in interesting ways.

- Looks like an exciting car ride is in store next week.