Thanks to all who played!  Here are the prize winners from the Where's MINI Contest.  Sorry, but there are no prize substitutions available.

1st Place:  Herb Wilson - Official Mini Polo shirt, MINI Press Kit CD-ROM

2nd Place:  Raymond Kwan - Official OTC Video, the little MINI book of Motoring

3rd Place:  Jamie Zartman - Official MINI hat, the little MINI book of Motoring

4th Place:  Bill Koff - Official VIR hat, the little MINI book of Motoring

5th Place:  Kendall Gelner - Official MINI Press Kit CD-ROM, NAPA tire gauge

6th Place:  Aimee Asher - Official MINI Press Kit CD-ROM, NAPA tire gauge

7th Place:  Joe Nichols - official MINI shirt/lapel pin

8th Place:  Dianne Keck - official MINI shirt/lapel pin

9th Place:  Paul Ngai - official MINI shirt/lapel pin

There were no prizes awarded beyond 9th place.  But thank you for playing!

There were some particularly notable efforts - Herb, Raymond, and Jamie got all 7 answers correct, and it came down to the tie-breakers to decide the winner.  In the end, Herb had guessed closest to the final mileage, and that was the deciding point.  Bill and Kendall each got 6 answers correct, and I also had to resort to the tie breaker for them as well.

Now here are the official answers.  If you haven't played the contest yet, then don't read further. Instead go to the Where's MINI?  Contest page, and have at it.   But if you are ready for the answers, scroll down...

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OFFICIAL CONTEST ANSWERS

In order to get the most correct answers,  you had to carefully read the first paragraph on the contest picture page.  You also had to carefully read the Epilogue as well, as that documented our journey home.

The official answers are:

#1 - Indiana

The president was Lincoln, and while he was born elsewhere, he spent his boyhood years growing up in Indiana.  If you are passing through on I-70, its worth a stop to see his home and the museum constructed on the site.

#2 - Virginia 

This is Virginia International Raceway's own clubhouse.  It was restored from the original farmhouse.  This was one of the easier ones for you to figure out, as I laid on the clues pretty heavy. 

#3 - Colorado

This was a tough one, as there are a couple of places that claim to be the worlds first rodeo, but many of you got this one right.   While Texas also lays claim to this, Colorado was the only place that was on our route home.

#4 - Kansas

There are a couple of Prairie Dog Towns, one is in Texas, and one in Kansas, and maybe some others.  But the only one that I know of that was on our return route,  was the one in Kansas.  Here is a link to it:  http://www.roadsideamerica.com/map/ks.html

#5 - Missouri

We were wondering why there was a memorial to Churchill in the middle of Missouri, and couldn't pass up an opportunity to let MINI get a glimpse of its proud English heritage.  There were enough clues in this one so that many folks correctly figured it out.

#6 - West Virginia

This one fooled many people because there are several states that have gold domes on their capitol buildings, such as Colorado.   Plus, we don't show you much of the actual building in the picture.   But if you paid attention to some of the other clues about the journey, you had a pretty good chance of figuring it out.

#7 - Utah

This one wasn't very fair, I admit.  It could have been Utah or Nevada, or maybe even Colorado.  There were other states as well, except they weren't on our route home, so that ruled them out.  And Colorado was a state that was a previous answer, so if you had gotten that one right, you could rule that out.  So it came down to a guess between Utah and Nevada.  The final clue was that I had referred to the varied scenery in Utah during the journey, and I had hinted along those lines in the question itself. 

Tie Breaker #1 - Mark grew up in West Virginia.   It was actually mentioned that we stopped at Mark's parents' house on the return.  

Tie Breaker #2 - This speech was most commonly referred to as "The Iron Curtain Speech", as well as the "Sinews of Peace" Speech, so both answers were accepted.

Tie Breaker #3 - 11,949 miles.   You never really know the exact number, which is exactly why it was used as the final tie-breaker.  But you did know that somewhere in California, the truck had on it 8749.5 miles (from the picture taken of the speedometer), and then we had some 3000+ miles (or so) to get home.   Several of you were able to guess quite close to the final number!

Thanks for playing!  I hope you enjoyed it as much as we did putting it together...

Mark (and Pat)