I know people are still asking about what Im going to do with the extra money from my gofundme.
Quite honestly, I was hesitant to start a gofundme in the first place. It seemed to me like it would be taking advantage of my momentary spotlight to ask for money. I was just going to pay for the entire trip from my own pocket. I had a few people inquire about contributing, and it was only after I started really considering the costs, that I realized I didnt even have enough money to cover the costs of the full trip, once all the bills came in.
I created the gofundme, with what I had quickly estimated the trip might cost. And I tweeted it as a reply to one of the interested people, since I didnt want to make it a regular tweet.
I never used gofundme before this. I thought the campaign, if it DID manage to reach the goal, would close automatically. I also was Parascoping from my phone, and had no way to check emails for most of the weekend. It was not until someone lent me their phone Saturday evening that I was able to check emails, and realized that it had gone far over what I had expected. I mentioned it once or twice, and I think one other person may have, on streams, so I had not thought it really got much notice, and had not anticipated it would exceed its goal.
I also was not able to shut off donations until I got my phone back Saturday evening, once the group stopped using it for Parascoping.

I do not have the final tally of costs yet. My phone account entered its new billing cycle Sunday, so I cant look back on how much data I had purchased until the bill is processed and posted on my account. But I do know that my estimate had been way off. Admittedly, I had rushed the estimate since I was busy with preparations to leave, but there were factors I had not considered.
I hadnt considered that I was on a limited high-speed data plan, and that continuous streaming would be such a high cost. I never used Parascope, I only downloaded it on Friday during the hunt for the USB clue, so I had no experience with it.
I also had not properly calculated gas. I used the cheapest station in my city as a model of gas prices, and had not properly compensated for how much the difference was elsewhere. I also assumed I would be able to use a gas station price app I have to 'shop around' for the cheapest stations, which ended up not being an option due to the rush of delivering the key on time.
What I also did not consider was the possibility of having to stay more than a single night. My insurance charges by-the-mile, and caps at 300 miles a day, so a two day trip would have capped at 600 miles. However, an extra day of driving threw that off, especially since the final night, I stayed with a kind fan at her home, which was quite a ways away from the game store we had ended the night at. This also affected the cost of gas, I had not factored in so much extra driving, especially city driving.
There are a few other factors, such as my FasTrak account possibly being fined for being in a negative balance, and bank fees, since my bank account now has a negative balance as well, but I dont think I will include these in calculating costs, as those fees are my own fault for letting those accounts get negative from this trip.

I dont know if gofundme doesnt tell donators that the goal has been met, so Im not sure why donations did not stop when I reached the set goal... But I feel that the best solution for dealing with 'extra funds' is to simply refund it to donators, starting with the most recent. Especially since I had hoped to share yellow pieces of the puzzle with those who helped fund my trip, assuming the gofundme was either too obscure or would automatically stop accepting donations once finished... and I can no longer keep that promise. I did not realize that the fund, that I had only linked once in a reply tweet, would actually be big enough to get notice, and now that I see that it has, I feel that the latest donations may have been in hopes of recieveing a piece. As I cannot keep that promise, once I figure out what the data costs were, I will attempt to contact the most recent donors to refund them. I couldnt figure out how to do it through gofundme, so I closed the campaign and did the withdrawl request (Also because I am negative money and I have no food, I was supposed to food shop Thursday, not clue hunt. I have survived the past two days on chips I had been given for my car trip, but Im out of chips now.) So I will refund those people through paypal instead, most likely.

I know people had wanted me to donate extra, but I had not asked for extra, nor do I think it is my right to decide what cause to use anothers money for. If those I refund wish to donate, they can do so themselves. But I think this is the best solution, especially as I dont know who donated in hopes of recieving pieces, nor do I recall what time I made that announcement... nor do I want to look through twitter to try to find what time I had based on the fandoms response.

So yea, once I figure out the costs, I am just refunding donors. I dont know why the thing got popular, or why people would donate to a fund that already reached its goal, unless gofundme keeps its progress secret...? But I tried to clearly outline WHY I was asking for that amount, and while I had gone over the amount, I dont think its my right to keep extra and decide to use it for charity.

With my current standing as the new fandom villain, I expect people will find SOME problem with this solution, but I feel like at least its the best thing to do for the people who donated money in hopes of a piece.

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