The Final Coin Is placed In Our Geocoin Contest

Well, our geocacher Zodiac Coin Contest is winding down, so we had the drop-off of the last coin at a park near our house. Here are the pictures of our top-9 competitors, most of whom have participated in playing all 12 of the coins over the year. Since we are posting their pictures here, it wouldn't be right to be giving out their geo-names with getting permission first.

1st Place. He joined our Geo-Gem Contest last year and came in at 4th place. This time, he put some fire into his efforts and finished with 55 points (lowest score wins).

2nd Place at 72 points. This is the son and granddaughter of our first place winner. This was the first time they entered into one of our contests. For a while there, it was a toss-up between him and his father as to who would post the first find after we dropped a coin off.

3rd Place at 80 points. They are new to our contests too. It took some hard work on their part to finish where they did, even with flying to Nevada right in the middle of one of our coin drops.

4th Place at 88 points. You may have seen his picture in our weblogs. If he wasn't leading the race at some point in this contest, then he was stirring it up for his fellow competitors, sometimes as the Tampa Bay Mystery Monkey. This made for some real interesting episodes thoughout the year.

5th Place at 98 points. They definitely went above and beyond the 'call of the contest'. For their bravery in action, we are working on a special trophy for the lady on the left. It seems she was looking at a spot where one of the geocoins might be and disturbed a hornet's nest, which precipitated the need to go to the emergency room. Wow, that's dedication...

6th Place at 149 points. Our 3rd place winners from last year's contest. They spent more time chasing down the coins than finding them, mainly because the contest moves so quickly whenever a coin was dropped in the field of play and the coin didn't seem to stay in any one place for very long.

7th Place at 153 points. He didn't show up in time to pose for a picture with me for the final drop-off, so I used a picture somebody else took of him as he was taking his picture in order to fulfill the requirements of the contest. At one point in the middle of our contest, we stopped by a park on the way home from work to check on one of our coins and he showed up minutes afterwards, trying to claim his prize. I shouted to Luann that I found it as he was coming around the bend, as if I were one of his competitors. Ooooh, the look on his face was priceless...

8th Place at 168 points. A very dedicated team that worked hard to complete the contest. We were pleased that they finished the contest with finding almost every one of the 12 coins.

9th Place at 229 points. She came in a little late to the game, but seemed to be one of the craftier ones in where she would place a coin after she found it. Some of her drop-offs made her competitors have to stretch their 'geocaching wings', so to speak. It made for flurries of emails being sent to us, but they were legal moves.

After the 'meet-n-greet' was over, we did a little hunting for a couple of geocaches in the park, then I dropped the last zodiac contest coin in one of them in order to continue the game until it ends on December 21st. We'll post more about the awards ceremony on December 26th at Starkey Park.