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We hauled ass in the Diamond Lane East on the I-10 back to LA. Despite the rain, which had turned heavy, we made good time. We didn’t see any other teams on the roads, or even in the parking lot.

We took the shuttle to the International terminal and jogged inside to the designated counter marked by our red & yellow route flags… flags you never stop getting excited to see when you’re on The Race.

“Welcome to Qantas,” the nice-looking Australian at the QANTAS counter said.

We were the 1st team to check in – a good feeling, if only symbolic. We asked for seats close to the front of the plane, then hung around to finally meet and speak to everyone – anxious to see which teams would be on our flight, which would be on the second flight, and even more importantly – which team would be stuck with the dreaded Double Detour.

There were 8 hours to kill until our flight left – the first in what would surely be a long line of long waits.

The Race is exciting and full of surprises, not the least of which is how much down time there actually is. Not that any of us would complain – but it’s actually the down time – the sleeping in airports, the sleeping on sidewalks, the days without eating – that makes The Race so difficult. The challenges themselves are tough to be sure, but the lack of sleep and malnourishment is what really wears you down.

After a few minutes, the teams began to show up in bunches. Gary & Mallory, Kris & Amanda, and Jen & Keisha would be the 3 teams on the second flight, and having figured QANTAS out last, it would be Kris & Amanda who had the unpleasant feeling of having that Double Detour hanging over their heads the whole way to Australia… an unenviable position to be in.

But unlike the team that had been eliminated right at the start of our season, at least Kris & Amanda had a fighting chance.

All you have to do is beat 1 team. Anything can happen.

Everyone greeted each other warmly. We knew each other a bit from watching each other’s seasons, so less small talk was necessary, which was fine by us. Small talk has never been Zev’s thing.

The 8 teams on the first flight boarded our plane feeling good that we wouldn’t be racing for last – first is nice, but not-last is all that matters. We were glad to have that be the other flight’s problem.

But halfway to Australia, the tables turned.

The in-flight intercom crackled. The Pilot came on to tell us that a man with a pacemaker needed emergency medical attention… meaning we would have to drop him off in Honolulu… meaning we would have to go an hour out of our way, land, and spend an extra hour and a half to two hours refueling…

So thanks to one sick dude getting on a plane too soon after his heart surgery, our 90-minute lead had turned into a 90-minute deficit.

Don’t get me wrong – we’re human beings first – we all knew getting the guy the attention he needed was more important than our Race, all things considered… But as the Sick Man WALKED OFF WITHOUT ASSISTANCE in Honululu, I’d be lying if I said every one of us wasn’t staring daggers through him.

It was a brutal way to get The Race started, but The Race is a metaphor for life – You never know what’s coming. Sometimes guys with pacemakers get in the way.

Hopefully the guy’s ok.

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This is a pretty odd story, if not a little twisted. A child beauty pageant is taking heat for awarding an autistic girl “Best Personality” – from the mother of the girl.

Child beauty pageants are controversial to begin with, so it really seems like Leonie Myles, the mother of Tahnee, was asking for trouble getting Tahnee involved in something like that… particularly considering the nature of Autism and the fragility that can sometimes come with it as far as self-image is concerned.

Ultimately this may not be that big of a deal, but it’s still an interesting situation… and even though it’s in Australia, it feels like a very American issue.

Here’s the link – let us know what you think.

This is a story from a few years back, but it’s one of our favorites…

Jason “J-Mac” McElwain, an autistic basketball player, got into a high school game in the 4th Quarter and tied a school record with SIX 3-POINTERS IN FOUR MINUTES. An incredible feat for anyone, let alone someone with autism.

We had the pleasure of meeting Jason when we went on CBS’ The Talk a few months ago. Great guy. Zev has a pretty nasty 3-Point stroke also – he’s been known to get on hot streaks of his own in our Men’s Rec League hoops games – so we asked if they could find us a hoop on the lot to conduct a little shoot-out… but there was no hoop to be found. The showdown had to wait.

But whenever J-Mac’s ready, Zev’s ready.

Our friend and fellow Amazing Racer Mike White just sent us this video with a note that said “Every once in a while, something reminds you of the sweetness and absurdity and beauty of life…”

Well said, Mike.

Zev and I were both raised Jewish. Neither of us really practices or does anything religious anymore other than occasionally to please our parents, but our families are Jewish, so there’s a definite connection there.

Zev’s parents practice Kabbalah. My dad’s what you might call an Anti-Semitic Jew, but my mom has strong feelings about her religion and thinks about going to temple a lot… in no small part because her parents, my grandparents – Harry and Jean Grundman – were in various concentration camps, including Auschwitz, during World War II. Both obviously survived those horrors and have gone on to raise a family and live long and productive lives.

Anyway – the point is that that’s our connection to this story, about an 85 year-old Jewish man who also survived World War II and recently went skydiving as one last “Screw You” to Hitler.

It’s about adventure and positivity, 2 things we’ll try to stress the importance of here on our blog, if not in our lives.

Here’s the link. It’s a pretty cool story.

A few months ago Zev and I went to Venice, CA, just to hang out. I decided to film Zev because he’s funny to film. I figured the mix of Zev and a colorful place like Venice might be a good mix. You be the judge.

(Please excuse the format… I didn’t realize I was supposed to turn my phone sideways. Rookie mistake. Won’t happen again.)

-J

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As if sensing the moment was upon us, the wind started to pick up and carried a sideways rain with it.

“Now I’m going to tell you what I need from you,” Phil shouted over the wind.

“Here we go bud,” I said to Zev under my breath.

Phil seemed to look everyone in the eyes all at once. He’s good at that.

“I need you… to bring me… Queensland and Northern Territories Aerial Services.”

Everyone looked at their partners, trying to process it.

Phil said it again, more slowly.

“Queensland… and Northern Territory… Aerial Services.”

As we had walked past the field of paper airplane-looking things, I noticed that each paper airplane had the name of an airline on it.

My mind went to work.

Queensland. Is that England? No – Australia…

…Australia… Airlines….What’s an Australian airline?

Suddenly Dustin Hoffman was in my head.

Rainman. Why is Rainman in my head?

Because “Qantas never crashed.”

QANTAS. An Australian airline. Queensland And Northern Territories Aerial Services. There it is.

“I got it,” I said quietly to Zev, breathing a sigh of relief.

“What is it?” He asked.

I leaned in close, making sure nobody else could hear.

“QANTAS.”

Another pound. The excitement was there, but now thankfully the pressure subsided a bit. We still had to find the thing, but at least we knew what we were looking for, which we were pretty sure put us in better shape than most.

Phil raised his hand. It was time.

“ON YOUR MARKS… GET SET…. GO!!!”  

His hand dropped. We all took off, scrambling as quickly as we could across the rugged dunes into the field of paper airplanes. There were hundreds and hundreds of them, sitting atop tall wire poles – but they were laid out in a grid of rows and columns to make them easier to move through.

Zev and I picked a row.

“You look left, I’ll look right,” I told him as we moved quickly but cautiously, taking care not to miss anything.

We could feel the other teams in there with us, but the adrenaline was pumping too hard and we were too focused on what we were doing to actually see anyone. We kept our eyes peeled, but as we approached the end of our row it seemed we had seen every airline except QANTAS.

Finally, at the very end of the row, I saw one – 2 rows over. I ran towards it, pulled it down from the top of the pole, and tucked it under my arm to make sure nobody could read it.

“Got it Zev!” I yelled.

“Yeah!” He yelled back.

Together we started running through the field back to Phil. We got to him second. Mel and Mike were already there. They were movie fanatics like us, but I didn’t have time to ask them if Rainman had led them to it also.

“Congratulations, here’s your clue,” Phil said after looking at our planes.

He handed clues to Mel & Mike, then to us. Zev and I hi-fived each other as we moved aside and ripped ours open, bumping ever-so-slightly into the Cowboys who had moseyed in behind us.

ROUTE INFO: FLY TO SYDNEY, AUSTRALIA AND TAKE IN ‘A SOUTHERN SWAN ON THE ROCKS’.

 

Australia was a spot neither Zev nor I had been. We were excited to be heading there, but as Zev would repeatedly point out, this was as much a business trip as anything else… It didn’t matter where The Race took us, we were here to win. 

We grabbed our backpacks and ran over to the first in a line of eleven brand new 2012 Ford Focuses. We had our tickets already, so getting to the airport quickly didn’t really matter other than for the purpose of getting seats close to the front of the plane… but it felt like getting the first car and leaving the windmill farm first and getting to the airport first would be a good way to let The Race Gods know we were in it to win it this time.

So we tossed our bags in the trunk of that first car – despite the fact that it was canary yellow – hopped in, and I floored it out of the wind farm.

We headed East on the I-10, back towards LA and LAX, where we knew we had a good 8 hours to kill before that first flight to Sydney.

But we didn’t care. The Race was ON.

 

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This is out-of-control, off-the-charts amazingness that shows what incredible achievements people on the spectrum are capable of…

‘BRAIN MAN’ Daniel Tammet – A high-functioning autistic savant –  recited a series of 22,514 numbers over a five hour period after seeing them once. His memory skills include learning to speak Icelandic in one week. Click on Brain Man video link to watch a great piece about him…

Brain Man video

One of the things we want to do here on this site is shine a spotlight on the talents of kids – and adults – on the Autism Spectrum.

Thanks to the Race, we’ve had the privilege of meeting a lot of great people and going to a lot of great Autism-related events, and one of the things we’ve learned is that kids on the spectrum generally have something they LOVE above all else, and they devote an incredible amount of time and passion to THAT THING.

For Zev it was two things really – The Amazing Race, and The Lakers… but we’ve met kids who love game shows, bugs, chemistry, sports, music, geography… the list goes on.

This is an article about Jacob, a boy genius who has Autism and is “so far advanced in his Indiana university studies that professors are lining him up for a PHD research role.”

It’s an incredible story, and we want to hear more like it. Please share other stories like this with us that you may know of… what is YOUR child on the Spectrum into? What is THAT THING, and what are they doing to pursue it?

We really want to know — please share your experiences with us.

We want this to be a place that highlights the gifts that Autism gives, rather than focusing on the negatives.

Much Love,

Z & J

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When we dismounted the bus, all we saw were windmills. Everywhere. Not the Don Quixote, European kind – the clean energy kind… the kind we knew could really only be found in one place in the LA vicinity:

Palm Springs.

We knew where we were. Hopefully the others didn’t.

Palm Springs. The desert. Someone forgot to tell the sun.

It was one of the coldest days of the year in Southern California. The wind was whipping, there was a light drizzle, and that great ball of fire in the sky was fighting a losing battle against the cloud cover… but the adrenaline rush starting to course through everyone’s veins was enough to counter the elements.

Creature comforts have no place on The Race. We knew the second time around they would make us earn it, and we were ready.

We moved to another part of the wind farm and walked past a field of paper airplane-looking things which were clearly meant for us… meaning there would be a challenge at the starting line again, just as there had been our 1st season when a team had been brutally eliminated right at the starting line.

The ever-rising tension leapt up a few more notches as we lined up in front of Phil and took our places for the big moment. After 4 days of seclusion it was nice to finally lay eyes on Phil, who held the key to our release.

Phil is The Race, and The Race was about to start.

“It’s nice to see you guys,” Phil said, giving us all the once-over. “Are you ready for this?”

We assured him we were. He looked around.

“All of you have been through this before. Unfortunately – for various reasons… misspelled words… untimely pee breaks… lost passports…”

As he said each of these things he looked over at the people he was talking about – first Big Easy, then Jen, then me. I bowed my head in shame, remembering the incident and taking responsibility one last time, then put it behind me once and for all.

“…For various reasons, none of you managed to go home with the 1 million dollar prize. This time, one of you will.”

At that, we all let out a cheer.

“When I say go,” he continued, “You will NOT run to your bags. Instead, you will run into that marked field over there and bring me what I need. When you bring me what I need, you will receive your next clue. The first 8 teams to do so will be on the first flight to your first destination. The last 3 teams will be on the second flight, which is scheduled to land 90 minutes later.”

90 minutes. An eternity on The Race.

The tension managed to find new heights.

“IN ADDITION,” Phil went on, always full of surprises and happy to be so. “The LAST team to bring me what I need will face a DOUBLE DETOUR – meaning the 1st detour you encounter along the way, that team will have to do both sides of it.”

OUCH.

So whoever got the answer to this first challenge last was basically U-turned right out of the gate. As history showed, U-turns are not easy to come back from, so that sounded almost tantamount to elimination… but anything can happen on The Race.

“Yes. That’s going to be tough to come back from,” he said, reading our minds.

“And that’s not all…” Phil kept going, clearly enjoying it now. “I also have some good news. The FIRST team to reach the 1st Pit Stop will be awarded an Express Pass.”

A murmur of excitement passed through us – like Dorothy had just told us she found the Wizard.

“For those of you who don’t know, an Express Pass is basically a get-out-of-jail-free card that allows you to skip a challenge whenever you’d like… a nice thing to have if you ever find yourself falling behind the pack. I bet some of you would like to have that, am I right?”

We all nodded like kids wanting dessert. Express Passes had only just been introduced on The Race the season before, but we all knew how huge they could be in this game.

I looked at Zev beside me, shivering just a little less than I was.

“You ready?” I asked him.

“I think so,” he said. “But I need to pee again.”

“Hold it.”

“Ok.”

We gave each other a pound.

“DBL,” Zev said.

“DBL.”

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