Amazing Race Rob: Beekman Boys Opened My Eyes
Monster-truckers Rob and Kelley unfortunately reached the end of their Amazing Race journey on Sunday night. ET catches up with the pair, who share their dismay at Sunday night's inter-team money grab, and Rob explains how the Beekman boys changed his perspective on gay couples.
ETOnline: What did you think of Nadiya and Natalie taking the Rockers' money and splitting it with Trey and Lexi?
Kelley: I just thought that was crazy!
Rob: I can tell you that we didn't know anything about it. And we had a lot of questions toward us about the commercials because I guess they were sayin' somebody stole the money and then they showed our picture, which I thought was crazy. But it was definitely, as far as I'm concerned, I felt that it was a rule violation and I felt that both teams should have been eliminated from the race.
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ETOnline: Did they tell you ahead of time that you couldn't do something like that?
Rob: Yes they did. They told us you couldn't touch anybody else's things, you couldn't take anything from anybody else and... I guess whatever the deal was, they said they just picked it up off the ground, and even though they knew whose money it was, it wasn't a violation of the rules. So... we didn't make the rules, we just lived by them. We would never take anybody's money, or anything from anybody. So... as far as I'm concerned I'm glad I didn't have to wake up today and go to anybody in my town that's seen the show, and explain myself for taking somebody else's stuff. ... I can tell ya from the minute that we met the twins, they would do anything to win the race. That was their M.O. from the beginning.
Kelley: But they let you know that up front. They were hardcore, and they would do what it takes. The other two I was really shocked.
Rob: The other two played the angel role, and when they were involved in that last night, it totally surprised me and Kelley to see the two Texans, Trey and Lexi, be a part of something that was wrong. Absolutely wrong.
ETOnline: Well, actually it seemed like the rockers turned a negative into a positive.
Kelley: Oh absolutely! They handled it with grace and charm. They just went out, and went back to work, and earned themselves some money and went on their way. Didn't say anything. Didn't cry, didn't complain, didn't talk to anybody. Just picked up the pieces and went on. They were definitely an inspiration.
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ETOnline: And what did you think after watching last night's show of all the Bangladeshi people who had given them money?
Rob: Well, I can tell you that they went to the financial district, where the people there have money. And you know, by them getting the money, I thought it was...
Kelley: It was very gracious of them to chip in and help out. It shows there's humanity everywhere.
ETOnline: In terms of, you being eliminated last night, if you could go back and do it again, would you have done anything differently?
Kelley: Um, probably we would've taken the first Metro, and then gotten the cab from there. The way it worked, you had to take one Metro that didn't have a lot of stops. But then you had to get off of it, and run a couple city blocks, and cross a couple streets, and then get on another one. And that's the one that had a lot of city stops. So yeah, we still woulda took the first Metro, but we probably woulda got a cab right there and continued on our way. But hindsight is 20/20 so, we just went along with... we talked to locals there, and they said that definitely the Metro was the way to go, that traffic was horrendous, and we wouldn't be able to get through. But after watching the show, I guess they didn't realize that traffic wasn't heavy that day.
Rob: Well, but I can tell you that we are totally happy with our decisions and what we did, because we didn't follow anybody. We were very independent from day one. And if we did it again, we would still be independent. Because we'd never let anybody else influence us, or make our decisions for us. And so, we wouldn't change our life now. We've done quite well in life. We live a very blessed life. And we wouldn't change anything that we do.
ETOnline: Throughout the whole race, which challenge did you find the hardest?
Kelley: Uh, for me the hardest challenge was the day I had to make the scale. The heat was intense. We were wearing long-sleeves. My long-sleeved shirt happened to be a long-sleeved thermal shirt, 'cause that's all I had with me. And so the heat was intense, I was already dehydrated before we got to that task. Drinks were in the trunk of the taxi, we didn't take time to stop and get 'em. So when we got to the task, I chose to do it and then it was in the heat of the sun, and everything was so hot, I had to keep moving these fifty pound logs to stand on. And it just... that was extremely challenging for me.
ETOnline: It seemed like that would be harder depending on each contestant's height too.
Kelley: Oh, absolutely. I was definitely too short for it, so that's why I had to keep standing these stumps, one on top of each other. And then get on top of them. And then, do my ropes, or hang my scale. And when you moved the legs, you'd be out of position, so you'd have to move, they were about fifty pounds a piece, the stumps. And I had to move those continuously every time I did something with my scale. So it got very, very tiring. And then I just got so dehydrated that I had to sit for a minute.
ETOnline: And Rob, what was the hardest challenge for you?
Rob: I didn't feel I had any hard challenges. The biggest thing was I had to eat the frog fallopian tubes. And that was another case of us listening to the twins, [who said], "Sit down and eat it, Rob! Sit down and eat it!" And we didn't finish reading our clue. Not just the situation there. None of the stuff was... bad taste and it just stunk. It was really stinky, and you know, they were telling us frog fallopian tubes. It's a mind game. But there was really no hard challenges. I can't say that anything that we did was too tough.
ETOnline: I wanted to ask you both, what did you learn about other cultures on the race?
Rob: We travel a lot in our business. And so we see a lot of different cultures all the time. As far as the cultures, I don't think I learned too much. With the exception of a lot of those people in Bangladesh, they work hard every day, and they don't have anything to show for it for the most part. The biggest thing that I learned along the race was, you know, to keep your mind open to other lifestyles as in Josh and Brent being a gay couple. I never knew that it was more of a love thing, than something that they just decided to do. And it opened my eyes to not be so... I guess you would say... dumb to other people's lives. It's not for me to judge anybody. I think that was the biggest thing for me. I learned that it's not my place to judge people. And so it opened my eyes to that situation.
ETOnline: What was the number one thing you missed about home when you were on the race?
Kelley: For me, it was my family. I really missed my family, and my mom, and my dad, and my son, they live with us. So, we interact with them every single day...
Rob: Well, Kelley's kinda tellin' a story. She misses her horses more than anything.
Kelley: Probably, they were at the top of the list too.
Rob: And you know, I didn't really... my life is so grounded and surrounded with Kelley, that we were together. So there wasn't a whole lot of things at home that I, you know, missed. I love my wife so much, so to be with her...
Kelley: Maybe a daily shower would've been nice.
Rob: Right. A daily shower probably would've been the best thing.
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ETOnline: So Rob, in your online profile, you had said you hoped that the race would bring the two of you closer, and I wanted to ask you if it has?
Rob: I would say that yes it did, because of the things I just told you about. Of me opening up, and not being so judgmental about different people. It made me, and that used to bother Kelley, and that was really the only thing that we ever had differences of opinion on, was she says, "It's not for you to judge anybody." You know, in another life that's for God to judge, you're not to judge people, and I think I learned that on the race, and it brought me and Kelley closer.
ETOnline: So one last question. I wanted to ask you who do you think will win the race?
Kelley: I don't know. Our favorite people on the show are the Beekman boys, but we also like Abba and James. I think they're real smart players, the Beekman boys are more the lucky players with a lot of courage and guts. So either one of those would be happy for us.
Rob: And you know we really didn't have any issue with anybody on the race at all. I mean we got along with everybody. But after last night's episode, I definitely do not want to see the twins or the Texans win. Because I feel that they were one-hundred percent wrong in what they did. The Texans more than anything showed their true colors when they were so phony about being this wholesome, Texan, God-fearin' people. It would really upset me if either one of those teams won.
The Amazing Race airs Sunday nights at 8/7c on CBS.
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