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Rob & Kelley (married monster truckers): They secured a fifth place finish on the first leg. As I said earlier, the previous leg’s placement is easily, often and unflinchingly erased. This type of playing ground leveling will hurt the weaker teams the most and the monster truckers have already proven careless with the lack of clue-reading last week. They will just have to settle for “not being the first team eliminated” this season.

Since you only get one chance to make a first impression, there you have my initial feelings about these teams. My last wish that I will put out there into the universe is that I hope the challenges improve over the next month otherwise; it will be a long lame season.

So long, Shanghai. One leg was apparently enough in the city as the teams are now heading to the Surabaya, Indonesia, and the Alun Alun Stadium there. This gives us back-to-back legs with a sports-themed destination. More important, the winner of this leg will claim this season’s Express Pass, which will let them skip any task on a leg.

Abbie & Ryan acknowledge what I surmised in that they have a sizable target on their backs with the extra money in play. The producers attempt to give some insight into twins Natalie & Nadiaya by letting them explain their parents come from warring sides in Sri Lanka and they can persevere in other countries. Sorry, they still annoy me. Then, Rob explains that Kelley was married to his best friend, who died in an accident with his monster truck. They seem genuinely in love and it is sweet but I don’t think it will be enough to prevent their elimination.

With the first five teams converging on the airport counters, it becomes clear that any time lead time is predictably erased. All the teams have secured airfare to Surabaya with a stop in Jakarta, except the monster truckers. Rob & Kelley decide to take a chance and connect through Hong Kong without realizing (or just ignoring altogether) the fact that there is a four-hour layover in Hong Kong. That would put them about two hours behind the other teams when it is all said and done.





While Rob & Kelley appear to whiff on their branching out, James & Abba have connected with the ball by placing their names on the standby list for a connecting flight in Jakarta that leaves about an hour before the flight they (and everyone else in Jakarta) have tickets for. Based upon these two developments, dare I say “Welcome to the Foregone Conclusion Leg of Amazing Race 21”? Okay, I said it, which means, based upon my track record, that this definitely won’t be the case.

Time for the second most reliable equalizer on the Race: the closed location with a sunrise opening time. Such is the situation facing the teams at Alun Alun Stadium. So, although heavy metal buds James & Abba are able to secure the first number at the stadium, there is probably enough time for all the teams to catch up, including deluded stragglers Rob & Kelley, who are convincing themselves that they are still in the front of the pack. Yup, all the teams have caught up and we get a glimpse at emerging alliances: Twins and Longhorns have made a pretty solid pact and Amy & Daniel appear to be still be chummy with Abbie & Ryan, who swooped by them for the $2 million opportunity last week. We will see if these partnerships hold.

Following a commercial break, the realization of their dead last placement at the clue is lost on Rob as he is convinced that being in last is exactly where they want to be until it comes time to hit the mat. He says it is their way of sliding under the radar. Personally, I don’t really know any competitive person who prefers to be in last place but maybe this backwards strategy will work out for them. I doubt it. It’s these types of comments that make me want to be right so badly this leg, just to prove how asinine and futile this line of thinking is on the Race.

At the break of dawn, the teams are faced with their first task this leg and it is not much of a challenge but rather an exercise in showing off Indonesia culture. In the order they grabbed a number, the teams have to ride a moped alongside two bulls that are outfitted with a rider between them. Propelled by the rider basically treating the bull’s tail as a crank, the bulls easily outpace the mopeds. But don’t worry, teams, you get the clue just for showing up and completing the task. It’s the equivalent of the purple Field Day Participation Ribbon. This just guarantees that the order they do the task is the same order they get to the next clue on the Genteng Kali Bridge, which is nicely displayed in what looks like a basketball goal.

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