The Amazing Race

I love this show. I have traveled all my life, for work and for pleasure so I can identify with the concept. I know how they got the idea (I guess it was Affleck/Damon) sitting around after missing a Eurail train and laughing because they couldn’t understand the hotel employee that gave them directions. Then after they finally got on the right train they found out the hard way that the rail car they were on got left behind as the rest of the train went on to their destination. They sat there and said…this could be a show.

Everyone who travels internationally has a funny story or two from every trip they take. That is part of the charm of traveling: to experience new things and to learn. I just wish the show would teach them some of the real world lessons, like before you drink 10 beers while crossing the English Channel, you should know that they close the bathrooms while they dock the ship. Or, no matter how drunk you are, you really shouldn’t tell a bar full of Englishmen that in the U.S. soccer is a girls game…men play football. Know that in certain parts of Spain the phase “Hamburger” is taken very literally. If you need directions in Italy, ask three people not one, then take the majority opinion. And when you decide to walk to save money, find out just how expensive the cab really is, you may be surprised.

No, the show doesn’t really catch the true lessons you learn while traveling. And you never see them in the bar after making mistakes; laughing about it over a beer. But all-in-all, it is entertaining TV.

My wife and I go back and forth on whether we would be any good at this show. Most of the time I think we would rock. We know each other’s strengths, and we can usually agree on a good course of action. Other times we worry we would kill each other. If a mistake was made (and it will be made) we would Monday-morning-quarterback each other (I would have gone that way).

I think I would prefer to do it the old fashion way: I’d rather laugh at the mistakes at a bar over beers then be sent packing.