The Amazing Race 10: Episode 2

This week's episode of the Amazing Race taught us that bickering teams with decent navigational skills almost always have an edge over the directionally clueless -- no matter how positive their attitudes. But if I had to pick a team as travel guides for my next vacation, I'd take eliminated cheerleaders Jamie & Kellie over quarrelsome duds Peter & Sarah every time.

This week, teams left the Great Wall of China and headed to Outer Mongolia. Two buses, leaving two hours apart, carried teams on the first leg of their journey.

1st bus: Tyler & James, Duke & Lauren, Peter & Sarah, Dustin & Kandice, Rob & Kimberly
2nd bus: Jamie & Kellie, Erwin & Godwin, Tom & Terry, Lyn & Karlyn, Mary & David

The two hour delay gave teams on the second bus time to clown around together at the bus station. Kentucky coalminer David was even cajoled into dancing. The Race has been especially eye-opening for David's wife, Mary, who'd never met any Asian or gay people before. Her assessment? "Damn, I like 'em!"

Both buses arrived at a train station, where all of the teams were forced to wait for a train to Ulaanbaatar. Because everyone was on the same train, the first-bus advantage was rendered completely moot.

While the locals outside the station were amazed by Sarah's prosthetic leg and her ability to run on it, they weren't impressed enough to pay for her demonstration, although Peter did ask.

In rainy Ulaanbaatar, teams cheered as their reckless cab drivers made dangerous attempts to pass cars on the muddy streets. Some of the cabbies were better than others at finding a temple, where teams observed a traditional religious dance. Teams entered in groups, as the dance was only performed every ten minutes.

Cheerleaders Jamie & Kellie had a passenger on the train write directions to the temple in Mongolian, so they were the first team to arrive. The temple dancers, wearing oversized masks, performed a short skit before handing teams their next clue.

The clue directed teams to drive to Terelj National Park in old Russian military jeeps. Several of the teams were lucky enough to find native English speakers in town, and asked them for directions. David & Mary just grabbed a cool local guy smoking a cigarette and had him ride with them to Terelj.

Along the drive, the old jeeps started to break down. Tyler & James, who were in seventh, got a flat tire, only to discover that their jack was also broken. Rob & Kimberly stopped to help, but Lyn & Karlyn slowed down, but didn't stop to assist the models. "It's not like we're being mean," Karlyn said. "We just want to win."

Rob & Kimberly couldn't remove their jack from its compartment, they drove on ahead. Fortunately for Tyler & James, a couple of locals lent them a jack and helped them with the tire. Before long, the models were back in the race.

Jamie & Kellie, who left the temple first, had trouble navigating and then stalled their jeep. By the time Jamie was able to help Kellie restart their vehicle, they'd fallen into last place.

When teams arrived at the national park, they had to ride horses, following a guide to a meadow where their next clue was waiting. Peter & Sarah were the first team to arrive, followed by the Miss USA contestants, Dustin & Kandice. So that Sarah's prosthesis didn't get caught in the stirrup, she put a fake foot and shoe on the end of her leg. Kandice donned the required protective (and furry) Mongolian hat and yelled, "I'm a Mongolian, baby. Get me some barbecue!"

Within eyesight of the park, David drove his jeep into a mud pit. Unable to get the vehicle out, he and Mary were forced to wait for a replacement. The smoking guy took it as his cue to leave. And several teams arrived in the meantime, including Rob and Kimberly.

As Kimberly mounted her horse, she asked Rob, "Can horses smell fear?"

He replied, "No, that's bees and dogs, I think."

But Kimberly might have been on to something. Minutes later, her horse rode under a low hanging branch, clotheslining Kimberly and knocking her to the ground. Their guide had to chase down the horse as Kimberly sat and cried.

Kimberly's fall wasn't even the most dramatic of the day. Kandice fell off her horse, caught her foot in the stirrup, and was dragged for several yards, before the horse broke free. She was fine, though she lost her Mongolian helmet in the process.

Just when teams thought their animal ordeals were over, they reached the next cluebox. A Detour forced teams to "Take It Down or Fill It Up."

In Take It Down, teams disassembled a traditional tent shelter used by nomads. They then packed the tent components in a specific manner, so that the tent could be strapped onto a camels back. The task was more complicated than it was physically demanding.

In Fill It Up, teams drove an ox-cart to a stream, filled up jugs of water, then drove the cart back to a large barrel and emptied their pails into it. It took at least two trips to the stream to collect enough water to fill the barrel, and success was entirely dependent on the mood of the ox.

Peter & Sarah attempted to pack up the tent, but couldn't figure out how to do it properly. So they switched tasks, only to be given the most temperamental ox this side of Manila. The ox ran away, sending empty pails falling off of the back of their cart.

Sarah's frustration boiled over, and she started to cry. And Peter stopped everything to lecture Sarah on why things were going to be okay. She told him to keep driving the ox-cart, but Peter refused to budge. He projected his own frustrations onto Sarah and scolded her for "losing it."

Sarah replied, "I'm just getting teary. I'm not losing it." Eventually, she convinced Peter that her crying didn't mean she was giving up, and they continued with the task.

When Peter tried to drive the cart again, the ox ran away a second time. The couple switched Detours again, returning to Take It Down. There, Duke & Lauren were already loading items onto their camel's back.

Other teams had more success with their oxen, though the rides weren't smooth. Rob, seated on the back of the bumpy cart and holding the water pails, blamed the uncomfortable ride on his driver, Kimberly. He shouted orders at her as she led their ox.

Kimberly could only listen to Rob complain for so long before she yelled, "Shut up!"

Rob thought for a split-second before replying, "You shut up!"

Dustin & Kandice finished Fill It Up around the same time Duke & Lauren finished Take it Down. Both teams were excited to receive their clue, which directed them to drive to the Hotel Mongolia.

However, the clue specified that teams needed to ride their horses back to their jeeps, wearing all of the safety gear they'd worn to the Detour. Kandice had lost her helmet when she fell off of her horse, and she and Dustin couldn't remember exactly where that had happened.

Their guide thought he remembered where Kandice's helmet had fallen, and he went to retrieve it, as they waited. In the meantime, several other teams completed the Detour, and last place team Jamie & Kellie had arrived. When they noticed Dustin & Kandice standing around, Kellie told Jamie, "I think they're done and they're just, like, chillin' or something."

Like Peter & Sarah, single moms Lyn & Karlyn started on the tent task, only to give up and switch to the ox-cart. While they were switching tasks, Jamie & Kellie started Take It Down.

Both teams finished their respective detours at the same time, and were now in a race to avoid last place. They rode to their jeeps...only to find both vehicles stalled.

Jamie & Kellie found some men who explained that they needed to take a bar from under the hood, insert it in a hole in the jeep's grill, and actually crank their car to start it. After Lyn & Karlyn tried and failed to crank their own car, they got some help, too, and were on the road soon after the cheerleaders.

Once teams were on the road, they were able to relax and make up. Sort of. Peter attributed his team's problems to Sarah's meltdown, not acknowledging that he'd been pretty molten, himself.

And, in their jeep, Rob clarified his surly behavior to Kimberly. "I wasn't yelling at you. I just didn't know how else to say it."

At the Hotel Mongolia, teams encountered a Roadblock: "Who's ready to aim high?" One team member needed to complete a traditional Mongolian training exercise, by shooting a flaming arrow and igniting a target 160 feet away.

Peter ignited his target first, and he and Sarah ran to the nearby Pit Stop. For finishing in first place, the couple won trip to a Mexican resort. While interviewing them at the mat, Phil asked Sarah, "Did you ever expect, in two legs, to be in first place?" To her credit, Sarah took Phil's awkward choice of words in stride.

Tyler & James finished in second, followed by Lauren & Duke, Tom & Terry, Dustin & Kandice, and Rob & Kimberly. David completed the Roadblock next, and on his way to the Pit Stop with Mary, she twisted her ankle. They still finished in seventh, followed by Erwin & Godwin.

On their drive to the hotel, Jamie & Kellie became convinced that they were driving the wrong way. They asked some locals, who told them to turn around. They did, soon passing Lyn & Karlyn going the other direction.

When the cheerleaders pulled over to ask for directions again, they realized they'd made a mistake in doubling back. "Today is our stupid day," Jamie said. They turned around again. But, by this point, they were too far behind Lyn and Karlyn, who finished ninth.

At the Roadblock, Kellie tried to finish strong, but she never got the hang of using the bow. After several hours, her arm was too tired to shoot another arrow, and the team walked to the Pit Stop for a mercy elimination.

Next week: Duke and Lauren don't have the money to pay a cabbie. And Tom & Terry fight with Dustin & Kandice, after the Beauty Queens cut in line.