Earlier this week I suggested you stay tuned for the third Sidewalker short movie. I had planned to shoot footage of a very tricky coin recovery. I had located a coin that was barely visible and stuck fast between two slabs of concrete; I was to return with the necessary recovery equipment and camera (when did finding coins get so complicated?) at a later date. I guess I got a little complacent and waited too long, because when I returned to the scene this morning the coin had gone! It goes to show you that I should have seized the day, and made the recovery a.s.a.p. Maybe I’m inspiring a few too many new Sidewalkers around town?

So today I thought I would take this opportunity to reintroduce the main protagonists in this blog to any new readers I may have picked up recently. Read below for the Sidewalker roster. They are a colorful bunch of characters, liberally sprinkled through my past posts. Have fun locating them.

Mrs. Sidewalker – She is the glue that keeps Castle Sidewalker together. Whenever the rest of us go off on our flights of fancy she is always on hand to administer a large dose of reality. She also seems to be a bit of a coin magnet. Thanks Mrs. S.

Luke Sidewalker – Yours truly. Fearlessly striding around looking for change, I have never seen a sidewalk I don’t like. Trying to use this blog to teach our children the value of money. As the change piles up, so do the deficits. Castle Sidewalker is rapidly becoming a microcosm of America!

Sidewalker Jr. – A studious deep thinker for his three and half years, he is the natural heir to my quest. If you read my Month End Reports, you will see he may have his work cut out for many years to come.

Little Miss Sidewalker – The tenacious little sister, she can always be seen around the Castle and more often than not she will be eating (do not get too close to her). She will eat anything from fruit and yogurt to Sidewalker Jr.’s traveling magnetic checkers set. I fear the day I come home to find her eating out of the coin jar.

Cap’n Tinkerson – He comes from a highly distinguished family of salty old sea dogs. If you go to the Inner Harbor in Baltimore you may see him cruising around at the helm of the good ship Spiller. He once made a crew member walk the plank for not stealing an extra ration of grog!

Dr. Tinkerson – Pretty enough to play a doctor on TV, yet smart enough to be one in real life; she is the spouse of the Cap’n. This is one treasure the Captain will not be leaving behind on a desert island.

The Vulcanologist – A handy darts player with a passion for rocks. Try not to befriend him as he moves house quite frequently and his aforementioned rock collection is a back-breaker to shift. Trust me I know.

Mr. Andrew Gates – As himself.

I’m looking forward to meeting more characters as my quest continues. Is a Luke Sidewalker encounter in your future?

-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $14.78

No hanging chads, no pregnant chads, in fact no chads of any description were to be found. However 78 cents in various denominations have been added over the last week or so, all the locations have been diligently plotted on the cash trail map to the right. One of the highlights was Sidewalker Jr. finding 3 cents that an astronaut must have dropped out of his/her space wallet on the way to the shuttle at the Kennedy Space Center, I figure the astronaut in question had trouble dealing with this pesky gravity thing we have working here on Earth.

I had an interesting request on the trip. Someone knew of my quest and spotted a quarter on the floor. He then refused to pick it up and instead pointed it out to me on the understanding he would get an honorable mention in the blog. So Mr. Andrew Gates the Sidewalker’s salute you. I think this is the first recorded time that the excuse for not picking up loose change has been because of the presence of a Sidewalker. Just goes to show you that the force is strong!

There were some anomalies in my Floridian finds, namely the money that kept on appearing at the front door of my hotel room every morning accompanied with chuckles and retreating footsteps. I think I will leave that for the FBI to investigate…

So all in all it was a great trip. The wedding we went to was fantastic and managed to exceed all lofty expectations. Congratulations to the bride and groom (you know who you are). The 78 cents found on the trip has left us agonizingly 1 cent short of the magic $10 total, who knows perhaps that milestone will fall today…

-Luke Sidewalker
-Current balance $9.99