Congratulations!!

[Stan4dSteph]

Thanks for sharing those pics Chris! I had no idea you were taking those spy cam shots all day. Also your team photo at the train station came out better than the one on my camera, so I'm stealing it.

[Gemini Cricket]

Congrats, CP & GD!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

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.

[Ponine]

You know what I find amusing? As a side note...
Last MA I gave Disneyphile a pen I had on my desk for .... well over a year.. and her team wins.

This year, I wish CP good luck, because I've worked with her, know what she and her sweetheart are like, and had every confidence in them. Yes, I went back and gave luck to all the teams, I wasnt truly rooting for any one team.

But still.... <insert Twilight Zone theme>

In spite on injury, you kept going. I applaud the two of you. Great job.

[wendybeth]

Hey, Ponine!
I'm going out and picking up a lotto ticket- wish me luck, okay?

[Kels]

Congratulations Happy Haunts!! CP, I'm really enjoying reading your play-by-play.

[Cadaverous Pallor]

We bumped into Spaceballs: The Team at the next leg, where I was chosen as the person that could match lyrics to a song. I did indeed know it (the crappy added on song for Jasmine at the Aladdin show in DCA) and we moved on, ahead of Spaceballs, who didn't know it.

Aside: Playing alongside other teams in a real race made this the most exciting MA ever, I thought. Although about 3 times I squinted into the distance and said "Hey look, it's Fellowship, they're ahead of us!" But it'd be 4 tourists in white t-shirts with backpacks. I swear, since Fellowship's win last year, I've gotten paranoid delusions.

After our "3rd place" booster and the victory at the Grotto, we were back in the groove. GD's leg was fine, other than the standard cramping we were both having, thank goodness! The Star Tours thing was a good puzzle, although I think there may have been a typo in the instructions. We went through that at a good pace, then decoded Atlantean. It may have taken a while, but just doing something correctly and as quickly as anyone would do it felt really good to me.

We went on to my favorite one, in Innoventions. We got lucky and got on just as Tom Morrow was beginning his spiel. As soon as we got in we took a right and hit the Google search. The site told us to find an envelope marked with coordinates, but we hadn't seen any coordinates before, huh? We pull them out and GD notices that the room is bathed in blacklight! We find an envelope with the latitude/longitude written in glowing ink and we did the happy hugging dance! The MA crew member nearby laughed at us. It was such a cool idea, using the blacklight like that! After writing down the numbers in normal ink and closing the window we were out of there.

We were standing on the balcony of Innoventions when a team brushed past us going in via the exit ramp. We said, "Excuse me? This is the exit." They said "Yeah, we're going in through the exit" with big grins on their faces. They knew very well that it can take much longer to go through the entrance what with the rotation and the spiel. We wrote down their team number, big tattletails that we are, but hey, this was a timed event, damn it.

Ok, so we need to get from Tomorrowland to the Disneyland Hotel. To Monorail or not to Monorail? The line always looks long but it's really not - it's just a matter of when the next train shows up. But we realized that it was not only the fast leg of the Monorail trip, but also that worst case scenario was that it took us about the same amount of time but we'd get to NOT WALK. Endurance was sooo vital to this.

So we got to stand in line, watch little birds take dirt baths in the planter and hop around, smile and breathe and talk and have a snack out of our backpack. It was anxious waiting, but still, what a break.

We felt a lot better when we got to the hotel. But that collage thing....wow. I'd never seen that collage before. In the time we were there tons of other teams showed up. I have no idea how long we stood in front of that case, straining to look at the higher items, trying not to give away the ones we'd found.

There was a bit of levity there though, a few jokes between competitors, and a bit of marveling at the collage itself. I'd like to go back and get some pictures of stuff I remember from my childhood. So many toys and books and junk, an amazing amount of memories.

Going home now, more after lunch

[mousepod]

Originally Posted by Cadaverous Pallor

So we got to stand in line, watch little birds take dirt baths in the planter and hop around, smile and breathe and talk and have a snack out of our backpack.

When I first read this, I thought that the birds were talking to you and snacking from your backpack.
Of course you won! You're Mary F-ing Poppins!

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Originally Posted by mousepod

When I first read this, I thought that the birds were talking to you and snacking from your backpack.
Of course you won! You're Mary F-ing Poppins!

Too damn funny. I'd mojo you if I could.

I'm glad GD got to finish the story for me. The Invitaitonal really lends itself to telling the whole story because it's very linear. The usual MA includes all kinds of sidegames and such to distract you, as well as choices in what to do in what order. I liked the way this was basically one goal only at any one time.

There are so many other things to tell! I'm working on getting our shirts uploaded...

[UvaGirl]

Well done guys! Sounds like it was a great day