Father and daughter from the two Washingtons.

Oh, I definitely like these two. Ronald looks like such a nice guy and Christina is absolutely gorgeous. Maybe they can break the "parent/child team goes out early" curse and make it at least more than halfway through the race.

This is my early favorite team. At least they look to be the least annoying. However, having the old guys be Ronald & Donald is going to be confusing as all hell.

I like them, too, and based on their hug in the promo, which looks like a pit stop hug to me, they'll make it past the first leg.

My first impression of Christina was that she resembles TAR7's Kelly. Looking at their photo again, Ronald's facial features are similar to POW Ron's. It's a stretch, I know, but I always compare the new batch of racers to those from seasons past.

I applaud him wearing the Who's your Daddy shirt. Yeah it's corny as hell, but it's funny.

Here's hoping he's the next Yau Man

He does look quite a bit like Yau-Man, which scores him even more points for me.

Oh, my God, I am such a sucker for the father-daughter teams. They look adorable.

Wow, Christina hold degrees from Duke and Princeton? I think I'm already starting to love her. Same for Ronald. Being the oldest of five sibling probably wasn't easy, so he should be able to handle most everything that gets thrown at them.

So, I'm basically saying that I have pre-love for this team, all the way. I hope they do avoid the parent/child curse.

Gah. Burn that shirt. And didn't I just hear him say, "Who's Your Daddy?" out loud in the commercial I saw tonight during Survivor? I think I already yelled at him to shut up through the TV. He could've at least said it à la Toby Keith.

Although I do get a good vibe from the Christina.

I will have to start watching our local CBS affiliate to see if they are going to do any news stories on Ronald.

Will definitely be looking to root for them.

Oh my God -- Christina is a friend of mine from Duke! I haven't seen her since we graduated, but she is freaking brilliant and a real humanitarian.

Wow, this is really weird -- I've never personally known a reality show contestant before!

I really like this team too. I get the vibe that they will work well with one another. They seem to be quite sincere. Not sure where I came up with that conclusion, just a feeling I guess.

Ronald is a VP at a Paper Company.

OMG, he works for Dunder Mifflin!!

Think they can make it past, like, leg 4? I have my doubts. Not a good track record for father/daughter teams.

Based on their write up I think this team is my favourite underdog team. They seem likeable anyway, despite the "Who's Your Daddy?" thing (does it look photoshopped into the picture to anyone else?)

It is funny to think that he's a workaholic at a paper packing company. Obviously a job that requires passion.

Tacoma is famous for it's terrible paper mill odor, so he should do well in stinky situations!

Now THERE's a conversation starter at TARCon. "So, I hear your city stinks. No, I mean literally."

Tacoma really does stink at times.

I work down near the Tide Flats and on the days when it is low tide (at starting or quitting times), it really stinks between the eau de Dead Fish and ear de Paper Mill.

And despite extensive searching, none of the local media so far have even made a peep about a Tacoma man being a contestant on TAR.

Drats.

More importantly, the conversation stopper could be, "so, I hear your town stinks... and you're a VP of said paper mill". Yeah, that'd be nice.

Been there, remember the aroma. Ick.

Maybe he's like HRG.

Not much to say about these folks yet except that I'm glad the "Who's your daddy" bit was fed to him. And shame on you, Phil, for doing that.

I like these two. And I like their bonds with Azaria & Hendekea and, apparently, Kate & Pat.

Given the hand they were dealt after two sets of bad directions, I think they did decently enough on this first leg. I hope they're here for the long haul, though.

Okay, the having him afraid to disappoint her and her responding that she's never disappointed got to me. Nice team.

They also know how to treat a donkey.

The softy in me, can't help but to like them. While I coud live without the "Whose your Daddy?" line, I'm sold on Ronald wanting to spend time with his daughter, and not disappoint her. And I like Christina, for apparently not taking it too personally, that he wasn't always there.

Still, they really need to run better legs. But that fight next week, doesn't look good.

I think the Who's your Daddy was okay, but only in this context. He is very clearly being cast as the Dad- it's his role to play, and he's being a cheesy, out of touch with what is cool Dad by using that line- meaning he seems like he's a normal person. (Please don't prove me wrong and tell me he's another working actor).

I think this team is really great- and I enjoyed them this episode. However, some of the conversations they had, and the next week on... make me think they have some deep issues. Hopefully TAR will help them bond.

They probably won't be eliminated next week, not after that fight in the preview, but they're on borrowed time. Otherwise we wouldn't have seen the big emotional moment of tears and bonding at the mat chat.

I think they'll be the third or fourth team out.

I really like them. It's great to have a father/daughter team, and nice to see an Asian team again on TAR. I wonder what the fight is about next week. I bet it's going to be the tired stereotypical high expectations Asian parent and the stereotypical overstressed Asian child.

Their intro was kind of weird - she said she wanted to get to know her dad, almost in a way like they don't even know anything about each other.

They seem to be a really likable pair. It really, really helps that they're not also from Los Angeles.

I thought it was silly how he was singing as he rode the bike and his daughter was hanging on for dear life. I like them, but I don't think they will make it far. I'm keeping my fingers crossed and hope they make it past the 5th elim.

The "Who's your daddy?" yelp thing was totally egged on by the producers. I don't think the guy would have said it on his own. I officially love him for the little kiss on the forehead he gave their donkey. Awwwww.

I was thinking while watching them and their spontaneous alliances - wouldn't it be an interesting season if all the teams were parent-child? It could make for really weird pit stop dynamics, with half of each team getting together to talk about their eras and what's wrong with kids today, and the other halves all getting together to complain about their parent nagging all the time. :)

I thought they were cute and sweet and reasonably competent considering the bad directions and all, but the fact that they got so much face time at the mat makes me think they're leaving sooner rather than later (editors need to get their story arc in early...). I just loved the dorkitude of him happily making up his own words to Danny Boy while riding a bike across a tightrope with his kid dangling below. You just don't get to see that sort of thing anywhere else.

I loved Ronald singing his own words to Danny Boy as they cycled across the ravine...so had me laughing out loud. He cracked me up when they were walking the donkey and he said to his donkey "you're not gonna let these little ladies pass you are you? Oh you're a gentleman!" So cute.

Yeah I'm worried that they will be going soon with all the mat time they got. The arguement next week doesn't look good.

I've found that when someone makes the previews, especially when it looks like disaster is going to happen, it doesn't and the team is safe for at least that week. The promo monkeys just like to mess with our minds.

Even if i hadn't liked them from the get go - Christina totally won me over by telling the screeching couple not to yell at their donkey. I hope they do well because it's nice to have a good parent/child team hang around for a while.

I'm not sure quite what to think about him yet. There was something about the way he said (twice) that he didn't want to disappoint her, I got the feeling that he wasn't nearly as concerned about her being disappointed as he was about him being disapointing, if that makes any sense.

I don't know about that. While it's usually the case nine times out of ten, Cyndi & Russell, Hayden & Aaron, Joseph & Monica, and Duke & Lauren were all very unfortunate (or fortunate, in that third case) exceptions to that. So Ronald & Christina could be unfortunate exceptions, as well, which I really hope doesn't happen.

I agree. I also remember a preview of Shalola and Doyuine getting stuck in the sand. Everyone was all "oh, that means they're safe". Sure enough, they got stuck in the sand, and not only did they get eliminated, but they got Not-so-Gutsy-Grannied "do not pass go, do not collect $200" ignominously sent straight to the pit stop.

I hope the same fate does not befall Christian and Ronald.

Wow. They could've finished higher on the first leg, but something really bad happened on the way to Cleggan. Apparently, they got not one, but two flat tires. They had to use their spare and Kate & Pat's spare, and Ronald didn't come off well in that video at all.

They seem nice enough. The only thing that struck me is when Christina said that she wanted to enjoy what time they had left together.

Christina, if he is running around the world on this show, he is not on death's doorstep. He's probably got quite a few years left in him.

Hee! Keram, I thought the same thing! I also wondered how young Christina must be to see her sixty-year-old dad as ancient? Hopefully the bike riding and Danny Boy singing has reassured her he's got lots of pep left yet!

Yeah, I'm not sure how Christina thinks Ronald's age is indicative of him being close to Death's door. I mean, Pat and Donald are both way older than Ronald.

The 'Danny Boy' moment -- a sixtyish asian making up the words while pedaling a bicycle across the tightrope -- might be the most surreal TAR moment that never had anything to do with Charla or Hellboy.

(As for Christina's concern about her Dad not having "much time left" -- that is a realization that comes to many folks of a certain age, when they become adults and see that for their parents, at least, the road ahead is shorter than the road behind. He may have thirty years left, but that realization comes, and if Christina's overstating it, I can't get too upset at her for same.)

I like this team.

In that video with the flat tires, Ron does come off a little bad...until he says, "this is a bugger of a situation". The way he says it makes me giggle every time.

Also, Christina kept telling him to be positive and nice and what not, which does make me wonder what he's like when he's trying less hard not to disappoint someone. Her constant "Daddy" got a little annoying after a while, but it was still much more bearable than Lorena's tearful frustrations with Jason ignoring her directions.

I like her a lot, but I found him a little bit intense and wierd. That constant "I did it for YOU! I want you to be proud of me! I could never have done this without your encouragement! I don't want to disapoint you" throughout the second half the episode just seemed a bit much to me. If he's being as critical and overbearing as it sounds like he's being next episode based on the preview clip, a part of me really won't be surprised. Still it's early days I suppose.

I agree that Ronald comes off very intense -- probably the most intense parent half of a parent/child team ever -- and certainly weird. I mean, we get it. You're doing this for Christina. You're doing this for your daughter. Is that going to be your mantra this entire race? Move on, please, Ronald.

I REALLLLY hope he lets up on that. I like Christina and I WANT to like Ron but at times it seems he was trying too hard to either say he doesn't want to let her down, or trying too hard to make that believable to the viewers. (The "Oh Danny boy", the shirt, the "not bad for an old fart" line makes him seem a bit too...desperate to look like he's hip.) And then the flat tire video didn't do him any favors. Dude, the ministers didn't HAVE to stop or give you their spare, so why be rude to them and virtually demanding they back up?

Well, the previews, for once, made things look much more positive than it turned out. Ron was gigantic gasbag. That is a daughter with some amazing patience, because that dude needs a punch in the head. And then a dunk in a ditch.

Also, what a horrific turn around from last week's "I just don't want to disappoint you"-"You never disappoint me!" family niceties to the shouting taskmaster "You have disappointed me!" of this week. It's kind of scary how quickly he turned from kind of okay to wailing, flouncing asshat when things didn't go exactly as he wanted. Not to mention: the things that they lost time on are things Christina had to take because Ron sucks. You wouldn't have had to go searching for bikes if you didn't quit learning knots so quickly.

Well, Ronald certainly did move on from his "not wanting to disappoint Christina" mantra, and has now moved onto his "be an asshole to everyone, including Christina" mantra. Dude was unbearable tonight.

Still love Christina, though. But I kinda wanted them to go out so that Kate & Pat would be saved, entirely because of Ronald.

Oh poor Christina, another "I'm with Stupid" contestant. Let's say a prayer for the poor dear.