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As the second flight lands, their minds are still pondering the mystery of the missing team. Then…poof…Chad & Stephanie come walking toward them in the Oman terminal. I highly doubt any of them were excited to see them because now they don’t have that cushion that there is one severely trailing team.

The taxi cab shuffle ensues with Jill & Thomas hitting the location next (and well ahead of the others) getting the 7:45 a.m. time slot. A rather nondramatic footrace follows with remaining teams, who basically saunter up to the get their times. There appears to be an extreme lack of urgency on their parts. Anyway, Chad & Stephanie will be joining Jill & Thomas atop the tower at 7:45 a.m., which leaves Gary & Mallory and Nick & Vicki vying for last place.

Stephanie acknowledges that they made a huge mistake at the beginning of the leg but they are going to “wipe the slate clean and just move forward.” Thank you for the segue, ma’am, as the sun rises in Oman, we are treated to some non-Race doings.

It’s time for the aforementioned romantic interlude. Chad urges Stephanie to take a walk the next morning, as Chad’s voiceover explains that before coming on the race his stepdad gave him his mother’s wedding ring, so he could propose. He has apparently been carrying it around the entire race looking for the right time and place. The show’s location scouts must have done a good job in Oman as Chad expresses his love for her and drops to a knee. Of course, she says “Yes” and here’s wishing them that more patient and cooperative Chad 2.0 sticks around for the marriage. The producers then get the pleasure of switching their team status from “newly dating” to “engaged.”

Back to the race at hand. The first teams get their clue and are directed to Jebel Shams or the highest mountain in all of Oman. Since only 30 minutes will be separating first from last at this point, Nat & Kat and Team HSN get a move on. The teams have to drive themselves until they get to the mountain base at which time a safety driver will take them to their task.

Here is where the navigation decisions of the teams parallel Robert Frost. “Two roads diverged in a yellow wood…” and one team asks for directions while another just follows a suspiciously vague map – Brook & Claire are the former and Nat & Kat are the latter. It becomes clear quite quickly that local help is the more desirable of the two.

After getting their clues next, the newly engaged and the not (now or probably ever) engaged both opt for asking for help. This situation is ideal for local support because it is unlikely that you will get anyone in this area that couldn’t accurately answer “How do I get to the tallest mountain in your country?”

With the last pair of teams, Nick & Vicki head to a gas station for directions and Gary & Mallory bust open their map. I think that we know where this is heading. At the gas station, Team HSN pulls up behind Vicki as she is getting directions. In what appears out of just instinctive politeness, Vicki points Brook & Claire in the right direction. In what is exactly out of just instinctive rudeness, Nick breaks off another “dumba” toward her for sharing the information. Granted, this is a race and she should have kept the niceness in check but c’mon, Nick, let it go and be happy that you are obviously not dating someone with your abrasive personality.

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