When Steve and Allie check into first to the Pit Stop for the seventh leg of The Amazing Race, Phil asks them if they noticed that the theme of the leg has been the number seven.  What he really should have asked them is if they’ve noticed the theme was carelessness.

We normally hear the foreboding clash sound that CBS likes to use to indicate when a team has made an error once, maybe twice, an episode.  This week?  A whopping five of the biggest and most preventable blunders in The Amazing Race history!

(I certainly have to qualify my claim with preventable because there have been plenty of worse blunders on the race that topped what the Detour-botching racers did this week.  But, in terms of being preventable?  I’m not sure the Ox Trot mistakes can be topped).

At this point, when CBS emphasizes that, for the Ox Trot challenge, the exact number of coconuts must be transported to receive a clue, we are not surprised when one boneheaded team leaves something behind.  This week, it happened three times.  That’s 50% of the racers!  How is this possible?

The task was anything but complicated – that’s why five of the six teams chose it.  Load a pile of coconuts into a cart and drive the cart via ox to the beach to receive your next clue.  All of the coconuts must make it to the beach in order to receive your next clue.

This is a Detour, so both team members are allowed to partake in the challenge.  Even if teams are lazy and don’t watch where every coconut they threw into the cart lands, how do they not check the area surrounding the cart for any coconuts that may have accidentally bounced out of the cart?

Three different teams were in such a hurry and were so careless, they didn’t take the ten seconds to walk around the cart and make sure every coconut was in the cart.  The teams certainly had that time as they were waiting for the ox to be attached to the cart.  And yet, Brent and Caite, Jet and Cord and Carol and Brandi all made the same mistake.

The only good thing to come out of their blunders was entertaining television.  There was a point during approximately season 10 of The Amazing Race when the show had become very predictable.  Teams got in their order and there was not a lot of movement amongst the teams during the leg. 

Not this week!  With all of the teams having to go back and retrieve the one annoying coconut they left behind, the order of the racers during the leg was very fluid and thus entertaining.  I’m an unabashed Jet and Cord fan, so to see them make the same mistake Carol and Brandi did and fall in to last crushed me.  What’s that?  Hope is not lost?  The female couple made the same boner than the cowboys did?  Hooray!

Oh, no, wait, hope is lost.  Everyone’s favorite cowboys were not done making mistakes this leg.  Even after Carol and Brandi’s mistake allowed them to build a sizeable lead on last place, the boys had to go and leave their bottle from the roadblock in their schooner and swim off with out. 

While it is amazing that they found the Pit Stop without the clue inside the bottle, it was likely to their detriment.  If they got to the beach and didn’t know where to go, they likely would have figured out that the clue was in the bottle and swam back and retrieved it before Carol and Brandi had time to catch up.

Unfortunately for fans of Oklahoma cowboys, their calmness was their downfall this week.  Instead of freaking out about where to go like most of the couple teams would, they just searched for the Pit Stop.  No problem, right?  It must just be down the beach, right?

(How difficult was that puzzle/map if teams could find the Pit Stop without even having a map?  Shouldn’t it have been a weensy bit more challenging?  Would Boston Rob from Survivor have been able to figure it out without even putting it together?)

Once again, however, The Amazing Race throws us a twist – it’s a non-elimination leg!  This means Jet and Cord get to stay, woo hoo!  This was an episode without their signature music and we simply can’t have that again.

The question that remains is – what the heck happened this week?  Were the teams just exhausted for an early morning start, 5,000 miles of traveling and a full day in The Seychelles?  I certainly hope so – the carelessness this week was infuriating to watch.

We’ve listed five other questions need answering as we head into the dog days of The Amazing Race and narrow down to our final three teams.  Tell us what you think and what questions you want to see answered.

1. Can Steve and Allie get by without their backpacks?
2. How will Carol and Brandi handle being the unanimously hated team?
3. Will Brent and Caite ever get their foot out of their mouth?
4. Can Jet and Cord overcome next week’s looming Speed Bump?
5. Will fatigue continue to play a roll as the race continues?