MinnesotaBen

My prize has arrived. Thanks again for hosting the cointest!

Actually, most Vikings wounds were healed watching the Packers lose to NY Giants!

I believe I won the 2-strike contest. I'll send my info to rickctroop13 Thanks for organizing the contest!!

If you get into this situation and have waited sufficient time, you can contact Eartha with the link to the TB page and she will mark it missing for you. Kudos in advance to Eartha, as she has done this many times for me and does provide a great service for those of us who enjoy this type of cache CITO.

I thought I won for being the longest to survive, as my game was the late one!

I am signed up in all four leagues as MinnesotaBen. Good luck to all! (and to my Minnesota Vikings! )

If you are interested in this, be sure to click here to vote.

Next cache I find will be find #175...

Message sent. Thank you again for your generosity. Update on the last two to start... MinnesotaBen: 2385 Miles and still traveling (currently 24th of 75) EyeD10T: 427 Miles and appears to be missing. I hope it shows up soon!!

As someone who is still in first year of caching, the TB/geocoins are one of the more enjoyable parts for me. If I'm heading out of town, I enjoy having some trackables that I can take along with me. Gives me extra motivation for making sure I get out to cache while out of town too. So yes, when picking caches to search for on vacation or in a new area, among other criteria such as favorites, terrain, size, I do look at whether or not a trackable is supposed to be there. Sometimes it is not, sometimes it is. Either way, I enjoy doing my part to clean up that listing to make the experience more enjoyable for the next person to come along. From this process, I can indirectly account for 30+ trackables being marked as missing which is my form of cache CITO. I also have started searching for caches around my house and slowly expanding the radius, trying to update cache listings as I go. This makes it more enjoyable when I see a new trackable appear within the radius, knowing that I can use that cache to introduce someone to geocaching, pickup a trackable for an upcoming trip, or just watch what comes through my area. I will admit it is frustrating that a geocacher can't update the missing inventory themselves, or there is no automatic way yet for them to be marked missing. Yet, my hope is my little part will help, at least until this improvement gets built for geocaching.com

Do we get bonus mileage for helping out a fellow competitor who is beating us? Or do I just start a train collection for 2012 of all the trains in front of me?

Well I'm not sure what kind of railroad tracks they have in Texas, but GaryM53 sure found me a good station to get started as the last coin in the race! I had been stockpiling coal all winter once the cointest started, but my train wasn't built until March 13th. But once it was placed, I headed out of town on quite the scenic tour. I had no idea that tracks from Texas run to Florida... then to the Bahamas... then to Mississippi... and finally ending in Alabama some 2000+ miles later! That was quite the scenic tour! (and took me from last to 18th place! ) Looks like I'll rest for a bit and restock my coal supply. But hopefully not too long... it was no fun being the caboose! You don't have to wait anymore!

Thanks again for your generosity as well as organizing the race, and getting my coin started on the right track!

And mine is moving too... 25 miles and counting! Let the race begin - finally!

Thank you yanagi for the cointest and please thank your beautiful daughter for selecting my name. I feel very lucky to have won the spirit cointest and look forward to using this to inspire the spirit in me as well. Thanks again and my address has been mailed.

Yay! Better late than never! Plus, I must catch up to EyeD10T...

EYED1OT - you're one week in and we're still tied!

Just adding a quick story... As a newbie to geocaching and just obtaining my first geocoin as a Christmas gift, I'm still new to the hobby. So I was excited to dabble by becoming a volunteer to drop coins from a race, while also getting one entry myself. 74 entries were mailed out around December and as of last week, 73 of the coins have started the race, some as far as 9,000+ miles. Just one was lost in the mail or has an unexplained disappearance before reaching its volunteer. Yes, that's right... my coin I still had fun volunteering and look forward to following the coin I dropped. However, to complete the story, the organizer of the race has minted a new coin (20 copies) to give away as prizes along the race and offered to send me one for being the last coin. This generosity goes above and beyond anything I ever expected. I was content just to volunteer and have a coin entered in my name.

Very beautiful coin! I am pretty new to 'the list' but maybe one day will be so lucky as to see one of these in person. Either way, congrats to those that have received one!

Antique Gold - 4th pick Thanks for the cointest!

Antique Bronze - 3rd pick

Black Nickel - 2nd pick

Antique Silver - 1st pick

So of 74 coins, 73 have been grabbed. Mine is the only one that hasn't been grabbed yet. So ya, I guess I "won" the bet Haha! Well best of luck to everyone in the race. I'm coming after each and every coin to see how far up the list I can move from last place!

Whoever it is, I find it interesting we started our fun side-bet when there were 7 coins missing, and now it has come down to just two coins missing...you and I. Best of luck?!