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how long should i hold a travel bug?


jj5326

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found a travel bug this week. anxios to send it one its journey. i am on the california coast and there are mant caches locally where i could place it. but, i will be traveling to the mid-west in september. is it ok to hold onto the bug for 6-7 weeks to take it some distance?i am ne

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6 or 7 weeks is a long time. I'd suggest e-mailing the bug owner to ask if it's OK to wait, or would the owner prefer that you just place it in another local cache. Depending on the bug's goal, the owner may not mind the wait, especially since you communicated. But if its goal is to move as fast as possible, a week or two is a good "maximum holding time."

 

x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-x-

"Next time, instead of getting married, I think I'll just find a woman I don't like and buy her a house."

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Holding a bug that long makes it so that other people don't have a chance to move that bug. Even if the bug owner said it was OK, I wouldn't hold the bug that long. A month is too long in my opinion - even if you're going to the other side of the world.

 

Goals are just the end of the journey on bugs. The journey is the interesting part. Think of it with this hypothetical situations:

 

Situation 1:

I release a bug from home and want to send it to a specific cache in California. Someone picks it up from the first cache and holds on to it for 120 days because they're going to that specific area of California and they'll place the bug there.

 

Situation 2:

I release a bug from home and want to send it to a specific cache in California. It travels from cache to cache toward California and takes a full year to get there because no hop is more than 100 miles. It visits a whole lot of caches.

 

Which bug is having a better experience?

 

Markwell

Chicago Geocachers

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The main point is -- always email the owner. Personally, I feel that if the owner doesn't mind you keeping it 6-7 weeks, then go ahead.

 

However, Markwell makes a good point in that the bug has a "goal" but I would also think that the owner's goal is to see the bug move a lot, see a lot of posts, see a lot of pictures, etc. Moving is only a part of the bug's experience.

 

Edited to add: I know this was a poll question, but my answer wasn't listed as an option. My specific answer is: email the owner and ask what they prefer.

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I actually agree more with the current consensus as metioned in this forum, but the return to circulation probably matches better. I speak from experience, because one of the bugs I recently found is trying to visit all 50 states. I wanted to move him to another state, but he's already been to Pennsylvania (I'm in NE Ohio, but I doubt I'll be able to get to another non-Ohio state before Columbus Day (Orienteering in Michigan) unless some weird travel sickness were to strike. So, knowing that another NE Ohio geocacher is going to NoCarolina in the next week, I'm arranging to get the TB to him, so he can move it along

 

"You will kneel before her in her altar in the trees" - Tara MacLean, Let Her Feel The Rain

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I think that if the caches where you could quickly drop off your bug are basically inactive and if the ones on your trip are very active then I think the bug should wait. Still that may weeks is a lot. 1-3 weeks I could see. If I was you I would contact the owner and follow their wishes... after all it IS there bug!

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