I've actually started playing Gowalla differently. I've been meaning to update my post for some time. I am now a scavenger hunter and discoverer at the same time. I am always on the hunt for items but now enjoy completing trips and going for featured stamps.

Just recently I completed all the items so now I am waiting for new items to come on board.

Using an iPhone app called Gowalla Swag, and other tools on the web, we keep an eye on what items are lying around at spots about town. Every couple of weeks or so we will do a “Gowalla Run” grabbing items we want, earning extra items, and really stocking up our vault. To keep it fun we get dinner and coffee–or a movie–and make a night out of it.

Rinse and repeat.

Doing it this way gives us a bit of wiggle room so that we can have it both ways. We can be social on Gowalla but make sure our friends don't hate us for being bugged by a whirlwind of check in notifications.

Also, great post. I found the links to be very helpful and I am also pretty interested about how people use Gowalla.

Thanks!