After 8 years, reunited with Joe, the Quote Bug

[+Egnix]

A little over 8 years ago when I was living in Ohio, I got an instant message from a friend of mine from Seattle, WA which said "check out my new hobby" and the text was a link to geocaching.com. I read what it was about and plugged in my address. I saw the closest cache was about a half hour away. I replied to my friend: "brb", wrote some notes down to get me to the right street for parking, grabbed my yellow Etrex and was off.

 

The coords took me to Damm Hike, a cache (as you may have guessed) which was near a dam at the Nimisila Reservoir in NE Ohio. After a short, but scenic hike I found my first geocache.

 

I was hooked and upon returning home I ordered my first set of travel bugs.

 

The TBs arrived quickly and I sent the first two off with goals to reach my other geocaching friends (the one in Seattle and a mutual friend in WI who was also introduced to caching by the Seattle friend).

 

For my third travel bug I thought I'd send out a small notebook for people to share their favorite quotes. I named him 'Joe'.

 

On my sixth day of caching, I took Joe to Brecksville Reservation Cache and wished him well on his travels.

 

Over the years I got to read about its travels around the country. I met people and received emails from people saying how much the liked Joe. I even heard Joe inspired a least a couple cachers to send out similar travel bug books.

 

As time went on I would be continually amazed that Joe was still out going from cache to cache. For some reason he didn't meet the same fate of most of my trackables: going 'missing''.

 

Then a week ago I got a "posted a note" log saying that Joe was being brought to Colorado. I thought, "Wow! I'd really love to see Joe again" and emailed the current holder if I might be able to see him again. I didn't receive a reply.*

 

So yesterday when I was browsing through some old emails I came across the "posted a note" email again and thought I'd ask the holder again if Joe might still be in town. I went to Joe's tracking page and saw that he had just visited Tarryall (lucky bug! I haven't even been there yet!). But Joe had just visited; he wasn't still there for me to run out and grab. So I emailed the holder again and she replied quickly saying that she was still in town but packing to leave. I jumped in the car and was off.

 

Fifteen minutes later I was at her hotel and she reunited me with Joe. 8 years, 18,160.2 miles, 16 states, 49+ caches, and 60+ cachers later, Joe's book is almost completely full of quotes and writings from people all over the country. Way to go, Joe! Job well done!

 

I think it is time to retire Joe...

...and time to send out his successor...

 

 

link: Joe, the Quote Bug

 

(* Note: Apparently a reply was sent and I just missed it somehow along with the email that Joe had visited Tarryall.)

[+Egnix]

Thanks to all the cachers how helped Joe on his way, keeping him safe, providing him with new adventures, and adding your favorite quotes to his book!

[craftmomma]

How cool! TFS your story!

[+mesillywoohoo]

Congrats on Joe's LONG and successful journey!!!! I recently let go of a bug that I hope will be successful too

[+Mole60]

That's great, Egnix! What a neat idea. I love TBs and maybe one day, I'll carry on your idea.

[+jeepdelfuego]

This is an awesome story!