So....whats The Point?

[+IGJoe]

There seems to be 2 schools of thought about travel bugs:

 

1) Once you release, accept it is no longer yours so you don't get bent when the (likely) invetiable happens and it disappears or gets 'collected'.

 

2) Do everything humanly possible to keep it going including watching, tracking, emailing and sometimes harassing those who don't move it to your standards.

 

I'm not attacking anyone, I'm seriously curious about TB owner's motivations because I recently purchased 4 tags. I'm honestly reconsidering if I want to launch them because the forums don't seem to support much middle ground between the above schools. If I adopt attitude 1 I have to question if I really care and why I'm doing it in the first place. Attitude 2 seems like it would suck all the fun out it and again make me wonder why I'm bothering.

 

So.... whats the point? Why do YOU do it? Is there a viable middle ground between 1 and 2 that makes travelbugging a worthwhile experience? Do you have a really good TB story you'd like to share to help a fence-sitter like myself?

[+BlueDeuce]

Of course there's middle ground. I think most advice that seems a bit 'extreme' like "Once you release it you have to accept what happens" is usually to temper a belief in the other extreme. e.g. "A cacher has been holding my bug for three weeks and won't respond to several emails!"

 

Here's the middle ground.

 

The majority of bugs only move maybe once a month. Sometimes more, sometimes less. My recommendation is to not even check on your bug unless you haven't heard from it in three months. Most stalled bug are still sitting in a cache or in a cacher's hand. Honestly, if you wait long enough things usually work out by themselves. You can certainly make contact offerring assistance or advice, but if you have to reach out every 4 weeks then TBs stop being fun.

 

Most 'lost forever' bug usually just disappear. No one logs they took it or the cache gets muggled, washed away, etc. In cases like this, there is very little to do than have someone go to the cache site and verify it's gone.

 

The best insurance is to release a bug that is tagged with clear instructions, it is sturdy enough to travel and it is something that people want to help move along.

 

 

(I can talk in detail on many of these points if you wish but I thought I would start out short and sweet)

Edited June 17, 2006 by BlueDeuce

[+jcar]

Because sometimes you get lucky, and it really does travel.

[+BlueDeuce]

Because sometimes you get lucky, and it really does travel.

 

More than sometimes.

 

Oh yes, You can also keep one of your bugs and log it through caches yourself. Little chance of losing it that way.

Edited June 17, 2006 by BlueDeuce

[+3AMT]

There seems to be 2 schools of thought about travel bugs:

 

1) Once you release, accept it is no longer yours so you don't get bent when the (likely) invetiable happens and it disappears or gets 'collected'.

 

2) Do everything humanly possible to keep it going including watching, tracking, emailing and sometimes harassing those who don't move it to your standards.

 

I'm not attacking anyone, I'm seriously curious about TB owner's motivations because I recently purchased 4 tags. I'm honestly reconsidering if I want to launch them because the forums don't seem to support much middle ground between the above schools. If I adopt attitude 1 I have to question if I really care and why I'm doing it in the first place. Attitude 2 seems like it would suck all the fun out it and again make me wonder why I'm bothering.

 

So.... whats the point? Why do YOU do it? Is there a viable middle ground between 1 and 2 that makes travelbugging a worthwhile experience? Do you have a really good TB story you'd like to share to help a fence-sitter like myself?

 

Well, I have experienced both in my short time of caching. I have released a few TBs and the first one went to a cache and sat. The second moved quickly from Iowa to Arizona and came up missing. The funny thing is, the one that sat, finally moved and we got some fun pics. The one that came up missing, I sent out the copy and someone contacted me today saying they think they found the original bug minus the tag. How cool is that. So if it is the original bug and I get it back, I will try to attach it to my copy and let if travel some more.

 

TB's are fun and yes, sometimes you have to ask someone to move one for you. Or maybe even find someone to rescue it from a cache that never gets visited. But when you get the picture of Eeyore watching a Disney Crusie ship (one if its goals) it is alot of fun.

 

I have a Geocoin I released that one person has had for a while. He logs it in and out of alot of caches and personally, I would like him to allow others to have it, but it is interesting watching it travel. He takes pictures and seems to have alot of his own, so I know he isn't trying to keep it, he is just having fun with it. So if he keeps if for another month, I might send him a nice note and ask that he release it so others can experience the coin.

 

You will come up with your own personality when it comes to your TBs and however you "rule" them, it is correct for you. The key is have fun. Right?

Edited June 20, 2006 by 3AMT

[+Snoogans]

Because sometimes you get lucky, and it really does travel.

 

Yep. It's all about luck.

 

I've seen some pretty lucky ones too.

[+AuntieWeasel]

Part of the trick is (Groundspeak is going to love me for this), you need to have a fair number in play before it's a lot of fun. They don't move as often as you'd think, and they don't do interesting things as often as you'd hope. If you've got one bug, the chances it'll die before it does anything too interesting are pretty high. And that's going to cheese you off.

 

One way to pad your list is to put other people's bugs on your watchlist. Ones you've spotted from the forums, or moved yourself and liked. The first time I visited a cache that didn't have a bug it was supposed to have, I put it on my watchlist. I was a newbie and I didn't realize it was surely long gone. Lo and behold, two years later it pops back up again. That kind of thing doesn't happen often, but it's intensely cool when it does.

 

I occasionally look at my own bug pages and sort them by last log. I try hard not to look at the bottom of the list when I do. I try not to think about the ones that haven't phoned home in a while, not because that's the way it should be, but because that's the way it is.

[+Harry Dolphin]

So.... whats the point? Why do YOU do it? Is there a viable middle ground between 1 and 2 that makes travelbugging a worthwhile experience? Do you have a really good TB story you'd like to share to help a fence-sitter like myself?

 

What makes it worthwhile? Following your bugs around, when they do travel. My geocaching partner and I have eight bugs, and three or four geocoins, out in the wild. One bug, and one coin are missing. (Okay, the coin got muggled from my own cache. ) We have sent out two agents to search for the bug missing in Minnesota. Agent Bear went to Florida, then Japan, and is now in Michigan. No luck finding Mommy Dearest yet. Agent Dolphin is in Pennsylvania. One of my brother's stuffed ducks sfell asleep in my sister's luggage, and woke up in Maine. She mailed it to me, and we sent it back to Seattle, via a travel bug dog tag. It made the journey in only three months. Furby for a Change. My brother attached the tag to a Furby change purse, and left it in the Czech Republic, with its goal to get to my sister in Maine. It seems to be spending a lot of time in the Netherlands. Oh, well.

I sent my sister in Maine a Furby. Florida. It detoured through Tennessee, but arrived safely in Maine. So she attached the tag to a camoflaged Pink Flamingo, and is sending it back to me. This is rather large, and is having a tough time travelling. We'll see what happens.

Someone took my California micro coin to California. Strange thing to do. Oh, well.

 

So, who says you can't have fun with travel bugs?!?

[+Miragee]

. . . I'm not attacking anyone, I'm seriously curious about TB owner's motivations because I recently purchased 4 tags. . . .

Because I didn't have very good luck with my first three T.B.s, I waited months from the time I bought four TB tags until the day I finally prepared the bugs and set them free.

 

Here they are partying before going in the ammo can.

 

 

So . . . I still have that fun picture to look at because one person, "occupation 'kid,'" picked all four of them up and they haven't moved yet . . .

[+Team JSAM]

I fall in the 2.5 section if it gets lost oh well if someone holds on to it to long I will email but not more than twice I figure if they wont move it after being asked nicely twice than oh well buy another one and send it free. To me its part of cost of geocaching, losing a coin or TB every now and then, alough I have not lost any yet I wont get all bent out of shape if one comes up missing I really enjoy coins so I set all that I own free for other to enjoy as payback for those whom I found.

 

-TJ

[+Team_Talisman]

I have 4 tbs out and 10 colorado geocoins activated and set out, knowing that their destiny might be short. It is not stopping me from placing them or buying more to set free.

 

So far I have not been to imaginanary with the description and goals, but that will change. I enjoy following some of the travels of others TBs like the Michelle TB and John TB love story...

 

I have one that called What is my Tempurature, it has a small wall thermometer on it, now it sets in the eastern plains of Colorado(being moved previously moved from the cool mountains. My fear with it is the thermomentor will break with heat... If a finder tells me that in a log I will send them a new one thermometer to replace.

 

Tbs add to our experience and the imagination that goes along with this sport/game/adventure