San Francisco, 2:04 PM. The plane touches down. Everybody runs through the airport, and then Wil and Tara duck into a bookstore to do some research. (And that's research in the sense of actual research, as opposed to research in the sense of "strategizing.") Wil picks up a book about Alaska. He holds it up to the camera with a look that appears to be grim determination. Or else the airplane food was a little gamey. I'm always suspicious of those little crackers. Anyway, Tara browses, looking at a different book. She explains that she's trying to see whether anything rings a bell. I'm thinking she must at least remember that they were looking for a place with planes, because I can't believe she's looking at everything in Anchorage.

Ladies and gentlemen, here is Blake's Moment Of Greatness. Blake shows Boston a little craft project he's been working on. "I felt kinda bad," he explains, "because Wil lost his route info. So I made him some new route info." He reads from a little piece of paper he's tucked into his clue folder. "Route info: Fly to Siberia, and find the most desolate place possible." HA! He laughs at his own joke, and quite honestly, he deserves to. Chris and Alex can't help laughing, even though they look like they're trying not to because they normally think Blake is sort of a dork. I know how they feel, because seriously, when Blake unleashed that particular piece of snark, he jumped about twenty points in my estimation. Yay, Blake! When it comes to Wil, Siberia humor is always in order.

Wil and Tara look through Alaskan guidebooks, looking for something that will tell them what the hell it is they're supposed to be doing when they arrive. I don't know how long it took her to find it, but the name "Rust's Flying Service" sounds vaguely familiar to Tara. Damn. I have to give her credit, though -- it's a nice save, as much as I was hoping it wouldn't happen. She calls up Rust's and basically seems to say something along the lines of, "Are you the ones who are having a bunch of teams show up there as part of a big TV show?" Hmm. There's something about that that strikes me as not fair, or at least very much not in keeping with the spirit of the game. If we go down this road, then I would think that next season, once you land in a city, if you're stuck there overnight, you could make phone calls to all the local hotels and attractions and stuff, asking them whether they know anything about this show coming through town, even if they aren't your first destination in the morning, and then you'd have an idea of what might be in store the next day. It just chips away at the way it's really supposed to work, which is that you follow your clues from one place to another, rather than relying on the meta-fact that it's impossible to execute a big production like this without providing a lot of advance warning for people. In other words, even though they're on TV, I almost think it's incumbent upon the Racers to pretend they're not, you know? Fortunately for Tara, though, nobody seems concerned about this except me, and the flying service confirms that indeed, they're the ones she's looking for. She gets off the phone and gives the Weasel a big thumbs-up. But of course, when he comes over and wants to share some high-five style moments with her, she wants no part of it. No hug for you! As they walk along the concourse, she points out that they still have no idea where they're supposed to tell the pilot to go when they get to Rust's. Wil immediately just says they'll follow everybody else. The man certainly does downshift from Arrogant Snot to Pitiful Hanger-On without much difficulty. I wonder if he gave himself whiplash.