Ok, so we finished Critter Country and got the next one along with our paper hats, which meant we could seperate. GD divided it up so that he had the majority of the numbers to find, since he was the fast one. He had to go to Fantasyland, Toontown, and Tomorrowland, while I just had to hit Pooh Corner, Adventureland, and Main Street. I had a panicky moment when I thought I couldn't read the lightbulb wattage in the Main Street Cinema, but I finally found bulbs clean enough (or perhaps my eyes adjusted).
I got back to the meet point we had decided upon - the ODV that sells postcards across from Village Haus. I knew he'd take longer than I would. I had the actual leg paper in my hands, so I figured hey, I have some of the numbers, I can start narrowing down the postcards. I start looking through them. Fellowship shows up and joins me. Ubergeek's team does the same. We're looking and looking and no one is finding it. I realized that none of these cards matched my numbers. The other teams wander away.
GD shows up looking happy when I hit him with the bad news. We head for Main Street and look at postcards at the Photo Shop. We try Frontierland and Adventureland but they don't sell any. We're heading to NOS when GD realizes I have made a humongous blunder.
On the
back of the paper is the last step, where you take the numbers you have found and put them together for the barcode you need. I had completely forgotten the back and was using the "raw" numbers on the front of the paper. I'd like to say in my defense that the way it was set up on the front seemed enough, but again, it was entirely my fault and I take the blame on it. It was a crushing blow.
We really started to flagellate ourselves then. We took off our 1st place buttons from a previous MA. "We don't deserve it." "We didn't read the whole thing AGAIN?" The prospect of me taking the entire blame for our defeat was heavy on my head.
We head BACK to the Photo Shop. The card is not there. Another blow. We had to go all the way back to the Village Haus.
On our way there, GD misses a curb and lands badly, hurting his leg.
I was ready for lightning to strike us. I was ready to quit. I thought we were totally screwed and that we might as well slow down. There was no way that we were still in it. One screw up after another! But we went, bought the postcard, went back to Carnation (MA Central) and handed our stuff in.
I believe it was Adrienne Krock that said to us, "You're in third place."
We actually said "What?" We couldn't believe it. We found out later that the postcard leg turned out to be the worst for most teams and that it really slowed everyone down. The idea that we walked all over the damn place twice, three times, and still were in it was absolutely mind-boggling.
If it weren't for this tiny boost of confidence, we may very well have given up any thought of placing and slowed our pace.