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Oops, I have gone on too long. It’s 8 p.m. (7 p.m. central) and we are off to the race.
It’s early morning in India and the Globetrotters leave the Pitstop in first to find a travel agent. Their next destination is Vienna, Austria. Flight Time is thoroughly enjoying dusting off his Governator impression, to which Big Easy jokingly (?) asks, “Are we going to have to hear that the whole time in Austria?” A little more than an hour and a half separate first and last but it doesn’t really matter because we soon find out that a 5:35 a.m. landing is the earliest, which all but one team chooses. The rebels are once again Jet & Cord.

Unlike last time, where they just blindly accepted the ticket agent’s word for it on flight options, the brothers actually choose a flight that lands about 30 minutes later because it only has one stop as opposed to two for the other teams’ flight. As they explain, “We will either win big or lose big...either way it will be big.” It’s this type of risk that hasn’t paid off for them so far this season and why I feel confident in placing them so low in my rankings. I hate being wrong (just ask my wife), but I hope I am about this. Personally, this risk seems unnecessary because if there was a delay of the other flight and all the teams are on it, then you have the assurance that you know where your competition is. The cowboys usually do well head-to-head, so I don’t get their rationale here.

The country boys have no such luck in delays as the first flight lands on time. The Amazing Race has now officially whored itself out to Ford. Sorry, Travelocity...but clearly this show is not a "one-sponsor" kind of show. I would say that it could be the Sister Wives of CBS reality competition shows but that is obviously the Home Depot /GM-loving Survivor (I’m sure I have overlooked a regular sponsor or eight of Mark Burnett’s baby).

Anyway, the teams climb into a “new 2012 Ford Focus” and are instructed by Phil, who would have made an awesome KITT, to put the car in reverse to get their clue via the car’s rear camera. And the winners of this leg each get one of these Foci. So, this leg is essentially a test drive for one team.

Without much drama, the teams throw the cars in reverse and read their clue on the pavement to go to Schloss Schallburg, which is a castle. I’m sorry, all the teams except Gary & Mallory who are fixated on trying to decipher the onscreen navigation system to get their clue. Again, I hate being wrong but these two knuckleheads are doing their best to invalidate my power ranking. Gary figures it out and they are on their way but the cowboys have landed and are on their way to the garage.
Jet & Cord don’t have the issue that Gary & Mallory had but they do have the sinking feeling that their flight gamble didn’t pay off like they had hoped. They know they are in last and have to be mistake–free.

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