Never Give Up On Your Bug

[+honeychile]

In October, 2002, DUDE-lebug was picked up and promptly stalled. I wrote to the cacher who picked it up a couple of times without response. Last week after a year, the bug was placed at last - in Germany (the bug started out in North Carolina). As it turns out, the fellow who had him was having his own problems:

My apologies to the bug owner for holding this so long. When I grabbed this in Florida, I didn't expect it to be well over a year until I set it free. But two moves and a war can change plans a bit. This bug travelled to New Mexcio, got lost, was found, went to California, got misplaced, got packed and shipped by the movers to England, got found and then ingnored when I went to Iraq and was finally put back into circulation today. I thought that taking it to Germany, the spiritual and physical home of the Bug was the least I could do. Farewell Dudlebug, it's been nice knowing you.

 

Anyway, I thought you might be interested that a bug can sometimes reappear even after a long time. I know that bugs are expensive and we hope they will move, but it's good to remember that other geocachers have good intentions foiled by foible and circumstance. Sometimes patience pays off. For me, it helps to have several bugs out there so that I'm not pinning all my hopes (so to speak) on one or two.

Edited December 4, 2003 by honeychile

[+joefrog]

I'm still hopeful for one of mine, as well. An infrequent cacher named "Howie's Trappers" grabbed it back in JULY. I've sent at least four notes, asking them to:

 

please keep the "Take My Wife, Please" travel bug moving.  As I have mentioned three times before, I will gladly pay to have it shipped back to me.  Otherwise, please place it in a cache or give it to someone who will move it along!

 

I mean, if you're not going to play the game, DON'T TAKE THE BUG! #$&*@#!! And the have the nice, infuriating message on their profile page that they "never check their email."

 

[+Webfoot]

I continue to hold out hope for Rusty Spike. He was taken by someone on their first geocaching experience and unfortunately, they haven't returned since.

 

Thanks joefrog. I used your quote above as part of a letter that I sent to the cachers again today.

[Eaglehounds]

I share joefrog and webfoot's pain. I have the depressing feeling that I sent my first travelbug into oblivion. It was picked up by a first-time, first-day cacher who apparently can't figure out how or can't be bothered to unlog it from the cache and report it to the tracking page. He or she also apparently can't read the two friendly emails I have sent asking them (and showing how) to do this. My only hope is that they put it back into a cache where someone else can pick it up and do the right thing.

 

I would like to see an automated mailing mail-bot from Groundspeak send an e-mail to new cachers that they would have to reply to, about a week after they signed up. If no reply was sent, their account shoud be locked until a valid email address is supplied.

 

Thanks, Honeychile, for providing perspective on this aggravation. I guess I have to wait a year before writing the bug off entirely. But to paraphrase Rick in Casablanca, "Of all the travelbugs in all the caches in all the world, why did THEY have to pick MINE??"

[ucmike]

my first tb, "packy the travel rat" was dropped in a cool cache in the florida keys while we were on vacation. he was picked up by someone before i even got home from vacation. no mention in the logs, nothing on the cache page. just gone. the cache "magic of the music" has a history of dissappearing tb's. i think the locals are collecting them. what really gets me is that after i dropped him several tb's came and went through the cache quickly with no problem.

 

if you see him, please send him to nj.

Edited December 8, 2003 by ucmike

[+Webfoot]

I share joefrog and webfoot's pain.

Well, after composing another letter to the person that took my travel bug, I sent it off, only to get an email back saying that person doesn't exist anymore with either the account or their email address, so in essense, they've dropped off the face of the earth and the likelihood of seeing that travel bug again is very slim.

[+MissJenn]

The AITP travel bug saw activity on 11/30/2003 after it had been inactive since 8/3/2002 !

[+Gargoyle]

SpongeBob101 was lost after 7/10/03 and reappeared 1/1/04. This was the first TB that I had found.