Sunday, May 8, 2005

Today I found $1.10 . . .1 nickel, 1 dime, 3 quarters and 20 pennies (the epic coin cycle).

Just as Bailey is fond of car washes on Sundays, I am fond of drive-thru windows. Bailey’s logic on car washes is that more people wash their cars on Saturday & Sunday so there are more people to drop coins. I feel the same way about drive-thrus. Lots of drunks go eat fast food after a night of drinking, making for a higher percentage of dropped coins. Likewise, the people that work at these establishments probably don’t want to clean up at the end of the night so the change is left.

Keeping this in mind I did a little walk around some Spring, TX parking lots and fast food restaurants this morning. In different parking lots I found a total of five cents (all pennies). I had to go to Randalls, a local grocery store, to use the ATM machine and I found 27 cents (one quarter & two pennies) in the change machine. A KFC drive-thru contributed 14 cents to my finds (one dime & four pennies).

My largest find of the day was at a Boston Market drive-thru where I found 61 cents (two quarters, one dime, & one penny). I like eating at Boston Market, even though their prices are a little high. Did you know that it is owned by the same corporation that owns McDonalds? I didn’t until recently.

Two different car washes contributed four cents (all pennies, obviously) to the finds for the day. At an Arby’s drive-thru I found seven cents (one nickel & two pennies). Many years back I was driving in Baltimore, MD and a homeless man came up to my car and asked for food. I had an extra Arby’s roast beef sandwich and a donut. I offered him both and he replied, “thanks for the donut, but I don’t eat Arby’s.” I can’t say I blame him much, it isn’t very good. My final find of the day was at Sonic, where I found two pennies in the parking lot.

Totals for the day: $1.10
Race Totals: $55.12