The NYC Finds

As you know, this Monday was my 30th Birthday. So to mark the date, I took the week off work, and Marti and I traveled to NYC for a vacation. Marti has never been, and since I used to live here (Which is why I'm a Mets fan), I had to come say goodbye to Shea Stadium. (Plus Marti had to come say Hello/Goodbye).

So far I have been doing great with finds in New York. Here is what I have found since my last post;

• 1 Dollar Bill at STL TSA
• 1 dime & 2 pennies at Airport Starbucks
• 1 dollar on ground at Newark AirTrain station
• It is worth noting that I used airline miles and hotel points for this trip. The coffee we got at Starbucks cost us $6. Since we found 2 bucks and change, we were at a point where it was possible that found money was paying for the trip. That ended when we paid $30 for the train tickets from Newark to Penn Station!
• 1 penny near escalator at Penn Station, NYC
• 1 penny at NBA Store on 5th Ave
• 3 pennies on 34th Street in front of my old apartment
• 4 pennies around NYC
• 1 dime at Shea Subway Station
• 2 pennies at Shea
• 1 penny at Times Square Subway Station
  

I was so excited that I was able to find change on the street of my old apartment (34th & Lex, if you are interested) AND Shea Stadium. Very solid day.

I leave you with pictures of Grover in front of my old Apartment, at Shea Stadium for the Mets game (We beat the Phillies, sorry Brian!) and a photography picture that I am proud of.

Hopefully, if things keep up, more finds to come, as we are here until Saturday.



Total since last post - $2.34
Total for the Race - $273.65

The 30th Birthday

Since my last post, I traveled to Boston for work. It was nice because Marti was able to join me for this trip. I was also able to meet up with Chris for a night, so that was nice.

I am not sure why Chris is having such a hard time finding change in Boston, while I was there, I had NO troubles! Here are the finds that I made while in Boston;

• 1 quarter, 2 dimes and 1 nickel all at a pizza place I went for lunch while I was in West Concord
• 1 penny in our hotel lobby
• 1 dime & 1 penny at Logan Airport TSA
  
• 2 quarters, 1 dime and 3 pennies at various T stops in Boston
• 1 penny on the street while Chris and I were walking to dinner

I was very excited about that last find, because Chris didn't get to it, and I had the lead for the night. He ended up finding a quarter at the restaurant and a dime at the T stop. So while he might have won the war, he lost the first battle!

When I got back home, I went to Schunck's and found 3 dimes, 5 pennies and a 1 cent Euro coin.

Finally, last night, Marti and I went out with some friends to the new Batman Dark Knight movie. Very good, and Heath Ledger as the Joker is just as good as advertised. On the way to the theater I found 1 penny in the parking lot. Then after the movie, Marti and I stopped off at McDonald's for some shakes (Sonic was out of ice cream!) and I found 2 dimes and 3 pennies. One of the dimes is pictured below, check it out;

Might not mean much to you, besides being a super dark dime. But it was minted in 1978, the same year I was born, and I found it a day before my birthday! I found that cool.

Finally, today, on my 30th Birthday, I found 1 penny in the apartment complex parking lot. While I don't mind getting a bit older, I am not a huge fan of being 30, because now when someone is talking about me, they can't say, "He did all this BEFORE he was 30", like they do in the movies. Unless of course they are talking about a Change Race blog, and then yes, I did that before I was 30! :-)

Total since last post - $1.86
Total for the Race - $271.31

The Turtle

NPR Update - Story has still not aired. Sally the reporter says that it is still going to run, just not sure when. So that is that.

Since my last post I found 3 pennies while Marti and I visited family in Ft. Wayne. I also found 3 pennies at Schnuck's near the self checkout counter and 1 quarter & 1 dime in the Coinstar.

Now onto the fun part. While we were in Ft. Wayne, we went on a family trip to the Children's Zoo, and it turned into Showtime After Hours. Let's just say that I enjoyed feeding the ducks, and watching the turtles go at it. Yes, we got to witness the always fun time of animals doing it in front of tons of people. I not only took some pictures, but shot a video for you, as the noises were too good to pass up. And yes, I am about to turn 30!

Hope you enjoyed, I know the turtles did! :-)

Total since last post - $0.41
Total for the Race - $269.45

The Field of Dreams

NPR Update - If you forgot to listen, then you haven't missed much. The story was bumped on Wednesday. I was told it was supposed to run on Friday, but it appears it was bumped again.
I have no more info, so we'll keep our ears open and more details to follow. Onto the finds.

Since my last post, I traveled to San Antonio for work. While I was there I found 1 quarter, 1 dime & 2 pennies.

Now as promised, some Grover travel pictures. This new set is from our latest trip to Iowa. You can see Grover in Hannibal at the Mark Twain statue that was never built, in Iowa at the future home of Star Trek commander James Kirk, near the Mississippi flooding and at the world's largest truck stop.




Did I ever make a mistake, but it wasn't until I was leaving the Field of Dreams, that I realized that I never got a Grover picture there. No excuse, a blunder on my part! But I did get some very solid pictures from the outfield. I was very proud of them, and hopefully you enjoy them.


Finally, I leave you with two more pictures. One is the sign outside of Riverside, Iowa. The other one is mainly for Chris. I know that he enjoys collecting wheat pennies. I found this thrift store in Hannibal that was selling wheat pennies for $0.25 EACH! Chris, take all your wheat pennies and move to Hannibal, and you could be a millionaire!


Total since last post - $0.37
Total for the Race - $269.04

The Upcoming NPR Story

Since my last post I found 1 nickel and 2 pennies at Schnuck's. The nickel was about 3 feet from the check-out area. The pennies were under one of the self check-out machines. It seems like the last few times I have gone there, I have found change. They are turning into my change finding ATM!

Enough about change finds, I have some important news to pass along. Tomorrow there is going to be a story about The Change Race on NPR Marketplace PM. (For times/radio stations go to Marketplace.org)

Quick back story on how this came to pass. A few weeks ago, I got a comment from a reporter with NPR who was interested in doing a story on people who search for change. I am not 100% sure how she found the blog, but very happy that she did. One thing led to another, and two weeks ago, I found myself alone in the St. Louis NPR studio talking with Sally, the reporter. NPR would not accept phone interviews, so I had to go into a studio to conduct the interview. As always, I brought my camera with me.


In the first picture, you can see the studio that I was in. I brought my computer with me so I could have the change race excel sheet open during the interview.

You can also see in the second picture the head of the radio engineer in the other room. It was tough looking at her and her facial reactions while I was talking to someone else. It also didn't help that once she realized what I was talking about, she gave me some pretty funky looks. When I mentioned that I found change during my wedding, she looked up and shot me a look as if she just ate a spoiled turkey sandwich. I even stopped the interview for a moment to tell Sally, that the engineer was looking at me like I was crazy. This was after I mentioned that I found 1 dime and 2 pennies on the way over to the studio.

Sally also interviewed Chris, but tonight we learned that he did not make the cut. I don't know much about producing radio segments, but I would have thought that our story of The Change Race would have been an interesting story, and that if one of us made the story, we both would. I personally think that given some of the questions, it is going to be more of a personal finance/frugality story and less about change searching. But it is going to be interesting to hear how it turns out. I will post a reaction tomorrow night.

I end on this note, if we get any new readers who heard about this blog on NPR, I must say that it is impossible to understand this blog without also reading Chris's Blog - Race of the Century. I really feel bad that he did not make the NPR segment, as we came up with the idea of the Change Race and blogging about it together. And many times over the last couple of years, when my interest in The Change Race and the blog were waning, he talked me back in. Plus, he is the Change Race Champion, and no one can take that away. So if you just found this blog and you dig it, please go check out his site also.

Total since last post - $0.07
Total for the Race - $268.67

The Becky Thatcher Quarter

Last week Marti joined me for a business trip to Iowa. On the way to Quad Cities, we stopped at Hannibal, Missouri, which was the childhood home of Mark Twain. As we went through all the building where he lived (Which by the way is one of the worst attractions we have EVER been to) I made one of my best finds of the year. One of the attractions was the house of girl that inspired Becky Thatcher. Upstairs there was a box where you could put in a quarter and hear the story of Becky Thatcher. As you can see from the picture below (click to make it larger), there was a quarter already half-way in the machine. Let's just say that this whole place was not worth even close to the $8 a head that it cost us, and they surely didn't deserve another quarter.

It wasn't easy getting the quarter out, as there was a lip around the place where the quarter is placed, so I couldn't pop it out. There was a small hole in the back on the coin slot, so I had to take a pen out of Marti's purse, break it apart, and use the tip to push the quarter out. In the end Marti was happy with the find, but I have to say that she was ready to give up half-way through. Shows that I have the true heart of the change searching champion!

Throughout the rest of the trip I found 1 penny at the World's Largest Truck Stop in Iowa, 1 penny at a gas station in Missouri and 1 dime in our apartment complex parking lot.

While in Hannibal, I did use one of their penny squishing machines. I know that some of you collect these, so first one to comment and ask for it, I will gladly send it out. I don't collect them, so I got it for you!


Finally, I leave you with some pictures of the flooding in Northern Missouri. Coming in the next days will be pictures of Grover, Field of Dreams, and some GREAT video from the Zoo.


Total since last post - $0.37
Total for the Race - $268.60

The Rascals Game

Since my last post I found 1 dime and 2 pennies at McDonald's. I really didn't want to eat there, but I had an appointment in the afternoon that I was running late for, and didn't have time to make the standard PB&J for myself.

Last weekend Marti and I went to a River City Rascals game. We had planning on driving over to KC to go to a Royals game, but just didn't want to make the boring 4 hour drive to KC, so decided to hop over a few miles to the Independent Minor League team in O'Fallon, Missouri.

It was a good time, and of course one of the best parts of the game were the constant between innings minor league promotions. One of the promotions was a race between a egg roll, hot dog or burrito. But check out the game piece we got as we walked into the stadium for this race;

We ended up calling #1 - "Ethnic Egg Roll", because it looked a bit stereotypical, like something you would have seen in the 1940's. On a side note, the Egg Roll finished a distant 3rd.

One other note from the game, one of the Rascals is A.J. Van Slyke, son of former Pittsburgh Pirate Andy Van Slyke. A.J. looked pretty good, and even hit a home run over that huge wall in right field. I think I might go back later in the year and get his autograph, just for fun. Maybe look around the ballpark and see if Andy is around.

I leave you with some pictures from the game.





Total since last post - $0.12
Total for the Race - $268.23

(Just an FYI, Marti and I took a road trip to Iowa, and we have some very solid stories, pictures and change finds to report. Be on the look out for that later this weekend. Also, for those who remember our trip to Paris, Super Grover makes a return!!)

The Lost Dollar

Since my last post I found 3 pennies. 1 was found at the TSA Check-Point in the Minneapolis airport. I can't remember where the other 2 were found. Guess my memory is slipping.

This Friday, after playing some pick-up hoops, I swung by Mr. Goodcents to pick up a small sub for lunch. (In my effort to shed 10-15 more pounds, I am only getting the kids meal when I go there for subs. A nice little 4 inch sub, not to bad, and pretty filling) As I walked out with my sub, I looked through my change, and saw 2 five dollar bills and 1 one dollar bill. I looked around and went back into the store looking for the dollar that was missing (The change was $12.65). After a short search, I figured that maybe the lady at the counter gave me the wrong amount and decided to move on with my day. As I was able to drive out, and employee came out holding a dollar and asked if that was what I was looking for. He said when I grabbed all my stuff, I guess it was left on the counter.

A very nice gesture and very ironic, since had the positions been reversed, that nice young kid would be a dollar short, and I would have an extra dollar added to my totals.

Total since last post - $0.03
Total for the Race - $268.11

The No Cash Value Coins

Since my last post I have found;

• 1 nickel & 1 penny at Schnuck's
• While in Minnesota I found 1 quarter, 3 dimes and 4 pennies at the Mall of America. The quarter was in the return slot of a baby strollers rental machine. The dime was found in the parking lot. The rest of the coins were found near various check-out counters at the MOA.
• With some time to kill on Wednesday night, I searched for Car Washes in my Garmin and found Doug's Car Wash. I went there and found 3 pennies.

The the parking lot of the MOA I thought that I had hit pay dirt, as I found a bunch of coins scattered near my car. But when I got closer, this is what I found.

As you can tell they do not count toward the totals, as they do not even count for cash value.

As promised I brought my camera, and snapped up some pictures around the Mall. I would be interested to know your thoughts, and which one you liked best.




Finally tonight I will leave you with a picture I took from the plane as I was leaving St. Louis. You can see the flooding around the Missouri River! Tomorrow on the flight back home, I will try to take some pictures while over Iowa.


Total since last post - $0.68
Total for the Race - $268.08

The Laundry Room Penny

I found 1 penny in the complex laundry room, as I walked through this morning to go work-out.

I had planned on going out this afternoon to take some pictures, but did not get around to it. Hopefully I will have pictures/stories/change finds to post here tomorrow.

Total since last post - $0.01
Total for the Race - $267.40