Missions?

[+MREAGLEWO1]

Does anyone have any good mission ideas for a new tb? Im trying to release my tb this weekend but not sure of a good mission yet. So if you can help, thanks

[+Zilvervloot]

Just say it wants to travel a lot and wants to visit as much as possible caches. And ask the finders to post a picture.

I would advice not to make the mission to difficult; otherwise people won’t pick up your bug.

 

Zilvervloot.

[+BlueDeuce]

Well, missions of "just travel" are okay but you run the risk of emails with nothing but retrieved bug, dropped bug, retrieved bug, dropped bug. Now I had two "just travel" bugs, ones is actually doing pretty well and gets picked up two or three times a month, but that's the only return I get on that bug. The other was being picked up once every couple of months, even I was getting bored just hearing from it. I finally asked a cacher who had grabbed it if he would mail it back to me so I could re-release it with a new mission.

 

It is my opinion that you need to engage the cacher in some way, have the cacher do something, take the bug somewhere, or post information. Then you are going to see logs that just might be worth reading. Zilvervloot is correct, on the flip side you don't want to ask for too much. A too detailed of a request and the bug sits waiting for someone with the time and the inclination to fulfill it's goal.

 

Just think of something that might be fun, have people post pictures of lakes and rivers, or photos from a high location. I've picked up bugs that wanted to visit zoos, breweries, historical locations or to only be dropped into caches that the title refers to water. Ask people how they liked their eggs cooked. It doesn't have to be the ultimate goal to be fun. (or course you might want the attached traveler to have some sort of semblance to the goal. A tiger for zoos, an eggman for egg questions)

 

My son has a bug that asks people to post their school mascot. At least the logs are more than, 'will move along soon'.

[+MREAGLEWO1]

Would this be a considerably a good mission?

 

Name my tb something....send it out say it should be back to me by a certain date with traveling the maximum miles it can with in that time period?

 

I figured if I ''ship it out'' saturday, say I would like to recieve it back for January something....would that workout?

 

Thanks for the advice !

[+BlueDeuce]

Tricky, TB's aren't too good at staying on schedule.

 

I picked up a bug that went from Nevada to a town in Iowa and is attempting to get back to Nevada. Released in March of 2003, I picked it up in Feb of 2005 and it hasn't made it back yet.

[+MREAGLEWO1]

Tricky, TB's aren't too good at staying on schedule.

 

I picked up a bug that went from Nevada to a town in Iowa and is attempting to get back to Nevada. Released in March of 2003, I picked it up in Feb of 2005 and it hasn't made it back yet.

 

What you mean it hasnt made it back yet?

[+BlueDeuce]

Nope, it was supposed to go to Nevada and kept ending up on the East coast.

 

A bug that just goes places and does things is easier to manage than expecting it to arrive somewhere at a given time.

[+ibycus]

I try to give my new bugs specific long term goals, and then a short term goal they can accomplish on the way. Makes for some interesting log entries.

 

Try to give your bug a personality.

 

My most successful bug as far as miles goes is "Grover the Rover" short term goal - go places that teach physics. Long term goal - go to my old university physics building.

[+wingnut16]

I am currently trying an idea out. Here it goes, I give a TB (TBQAEP) to a friend, family member, or geocaching friend who is going on vacation to someplace fun or exotic. This person then drops my TB in a cache and I wait for it to return to a cache here in Northern Nevada. Once it return I will give it to someone else and wait for it to return. I plan to update the bug web page on its travel and how many times it goes out and make it back. All in all it should be fun to see the places it visits. I am not trying to steal your thread, just sharing an idea. Good luck with your travel bug.

Edited August 25, 2006 by wingnut16

[+BlueDeuce]

I am currently trying an idea out. Here it goes, I give a TB (TBQAEP) to a friend, family member, or geocaching friend who is going on vacation to someplace fun or exotic. This person then drops my TB in a cache and I wait for it to return to a cache here in Northern Nevada. Once it return I will give it to someone else and wait for it to return. I plan to update the bug web page on its travel and how many times it goes out and make it back. All in all it should be fun to see the places it visits. I am not trying to steal your thread, just sharing an idea. Good luck with your travel bug.

 

That's a great idea, especially if they post details of their vacation. I have a couple 'Homeward Bound' bugs that I drop off when I taken a long trip. (Neither one has made it home yet, but I don't have any long distance trips planned at the moment, otherwise I'd have to make another!)

[+LZ33]

Have your TB come to me in Georgia so I can log it.

[BRTango]

Just say it wants to travel a lot and wants to visit as much as possible caches. And ask the finders to post a picture.

I would advice not to make the mission to difficult; otherwise people won’t pick up your bug.

 

Zilvervloot.

 

Although I completely agree with Zilvervloot, I did create a series of travel bugs with generally specific missions in mind (does that make sense?).

 

As a matter of fact... Zilvervloot, you may be able to help me with this. I'm looking to the mision on one of my travel bugs translated into Dutch... can you help?

[+Bundyrumandcoke]

I released 2 TB's last weekend. Their names are "Happy" and "Rock" They are, quite literally, these words, hand cut out of aluminium checkerplate. They were released in Gladstone, Queensland, Australia, with the mission of travelling to Gladstone, Missouri, USA, then returning via Gladstone New South Wales, Gladstone Tasmania, and Gladstone South Australia, with appropriate pictures taken.

In preparation for the mission, I Googled for other cities of Gladstone in the world, used the GC database to find the appropriate zip code for Gladstone Missouri, then searched for caches in that area, then contacted a cache owner in the area, listing the primary goal of the bugs, namely a certain photo. When they confirmed the ability to fulfill the primary goal, the mission was confirmed.

 

Just a bit of forethought and planning went into it.

 

Oh, and in case your wondering whats so specific about Gladstone.

 

Glad stone

Happy Rock

 

 

Cheers

Bundy

[+swizzle]

I have 5 TB's so far. Me and my wife are TB's that just wants to meet other geocachers. I have a lure that's a TB that I want to send to distant lakes and ponds to catch fish and a walking stick that I'm trying to send down the northville/lake placid trail and the last one is just collecting keychains from all 50 states. Swizzle

[+ar_kayaker]

I have one I haven't activated yet that will be attached to a National Parks Passport (those little books you can buy at many National Parks) It's goal is to get stamped at as many NP's as possible.

 

Since you can't geocache in NP's, I thought it'd be a useful way to "invade" the parks with geocaching anyway. I plan to put a link on the TB page to the Waymarking page that lists the coordinates of the stamping stations.

 

AR_kayaker

[+BlueDeuce]

I have one I haven't activated yet that will be attached to a National Parks Passport (those little books you can buy at many National Parks) It's goal is to get stamped at as many NP's as possible.

 

Since you can't geocache in NP's, I thought it'd be a useful way to "invade" the parks with geocaching anyway. I plan to put a link on the TB page to the Waymarking page that lists the coordinates of the stamping stations.

 

AR_kayaker

 

Great idea.

[+MoxieMan]

I have 3 TB's out there right now. The first, Jimmy Neutron: Boy Genius, wants to travel and see every state in the US. The second, Red Sox Magic 8 Ball, wants to be photographed in as many different baseball parks as possible. And the third, Mini Blood and Fire, is a miniature version of The Salvation Army flag and wants to travel to visit different Sal. Army locations around the world.

 

I think TB's are one of the best parts of Geocaching...other than the hunt of course.