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The Official Travel Bug Obituary....

Go JayBee

By Go JayBee
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Go JayBee

+Go JayBee

Posted
Posted (edited)

Allright.....calm down now, take a DEEEEEP breath.....the "Little Tommy Monkey TB" was your first, I know it's rough.

 

For anyone who's had the mis-fortune of sending out that "cute" little plushy with a tag around it's neck, and a note saying "DisneyLand or Bust".......we really feel for you.

 

Follw this link:The TravelBug Graveyard and give your bug a burial at sea.

 

Why did this happen?, What did I do wrong?....I should have listened to Snoogans. (But that's another thread)-------------->Snoogan's TB Longevity Clinic

 

May it Rest In Peace,

 

JayBee

Edited by jbhooker3
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Snoogans

+Snoogans

Posted
Posted

AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh! WHY GOD? WHYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYYY!?!? My Babel Fish was so, <sniff> so, <sniff> younnnnnnnnnnng! AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAhhhhhh! WHY HIM? WHYYYYYYYYYYY?

 

<SNIFF> ;) <SNIFF> ;)

 

Hey! He's moving again! HE'S ALIVE! ALIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIVE!

 

ummm, nevermind.............

 

Sn :(;) gans

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Go JayBee

+Go JayBee

Posted
  • Author
Posted

Saw this on another thread, and thought it was appropriate....

 

QUOTE (Renegade Knight @ Feb 13 2004, 03:20 PM)

Survival Tip for when it turns south.

 

It's just a dadgum bug. If it goes missing, its par for the course. It might turn up a year from now, or that might of been it and you will never really know. You will still need to go to work, eat, sleep, and otherwise get through life somehow. Your dog will still love you and birds will still drop presents on your car.

 

If when you realise your bug is gone you must go through a grieving process. Make it into a event cache and call it a wake. Serve lots of beer. It helps. If you are single and throw a wake you just might find a travel bug widow or widower that needs some consolation.

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Snoogans

+Snoogans

Posted
Posted
Saw this on another thread, and thought it was appropriate....

 

QUOTE (Renegade Knight @ Feb 13 2004, 03:20 PM)

Survival Tip for when it turns south.

 

It's just a dadgum bug. If it goes missing, its par for the course. It might turn up a year from now, or that might of been it and you will never really know. You will still need to go to work, eat, sleep, and otherwise get through life somehow. Your dog will still love you and birds will still drop presents on your car.

 

If when you realise your bug is gone you must go through a grieving process. Make it into a event cache and call it a wake. Serve lots of beer. It helps. If you are single and throw a wake you just might find a travel bug widow or widower that needs some consolation.

I like that idea for an event. I think I'll host one when the time comes.

 

Sn :lol::unsure: gans

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Go JayBee

+Go JayBee

Posted
  • Author
Posted (edited)

Took this from another thread: thought it would be useful....

 

I said it before, and I'll say it again: "If you want your bug to survive, make it ugly....... "

 

Seriously though, you could take an old chunk of wood, and write something funny on it, and call it a Travel Bug. It would probably go round the world faster than you could imagine.

 

There are some interesting "theme bugs" and "personal interest bugs" out there, that are not prone to be grabbed up by Little Johhny or Little Suzie so quickly. It's really hard for Mom or Dad to say: "Comon now, we have to let this one go" Especially if the bug is some cuddly, soft, Teddy Bear, or Dinasour.

Edited by jbhooker3
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The Gidzagubbagoos

+The Gidzagubbagoos

Posted
Posted
It's really hard for Mom or Dad to say: "Comon now, we have to let this one go" Especially if the bug is some cuddly, soft, Teddy Bear, or Dinasour.

 

That's pretty sad, really. My son has really loved some of the bugs but when it has been a little while bugs have to go back in a cache. I don't care if he had a tantrum. I would just put him in his room until he was done with the tantrum. Oh well, I guess not everyone deals with kids in the same way. Letting them keep a TB would be like looking the other way if they stuck a candybar in their pocket at the store IMHO.

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calvinrtvp

+calvinrtvp

Posted
Posted (edited)
It's really hard for Mom or Dad to say: "Comon now, we have to let this one go" Especially if the bug is some cuddly, soft, Teddy Bear, or Dinasour.

 

That's pretty sad, really. My son has really loved some of the bugs but when it has been a little while bugs have to go back in a cache. I don't care if he had a tantrum. I would just put him in his room until he was done with the tantrum. Oh well, I guess not everyone deals with kids in the same way. Letting them keep a TB would be like looking the other way if they stuck a candybar in their pocket at the store IMHO.

*sigh* I guess that's what happened to my Snickers TB...and my Hersheys TB...and my Milky Way TB...and my Butterfinger TB... B):rolleyes:

Edited by calvinrtvp
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Webfoot

+Webfoot

Posted
Posted (edited)
Took this from another thread: thought it would be useful....

 

I said it before, and I'll say it again: "If you want your bug to survive, make it ugly.......    "

Sorry, but I'm going to have to disagree with you. Being ugly, didn't help Rusty Spike. He just got unlucky enough to fall into the hands of a onetime wonder cacher. :D

 

I've definitely decided though, that if your bug is cute, drill a freaking hole right through the middle of it. That wil tend to discourage some from taking it as a free toy for their kids to play with. For the life of me, I can't imagine what that guy is doing with Rusty Spike now. No emails returned ever. I even offered to pay for postage to have it mailed back to me.

 

I'm thinking about getting another rusty spike and sending out the copy tag.

Edited by Webfoot
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Wing It

+Wing It

Posted
Posted

The first travel bug I picked up (just a few days ago) was Travel Dawg. A cute beenie baby type toy. He has traveled over 13000 miles so far mostly because he has flown overseas and back. Guess the owner has been lucky as people seem to keep moving him along though the travel tag is only on by the chain and I could see some small child wanting to keep him. Hope he does not end up MIA.

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victorjwood

victorjwood

Posted
Posted
The first travel bug I picked up (just a few days ago) was Travel Dawg. A cute beenie baby type toy. .....

One of the bugs we picked up last year was a rather rare Beanie, Jake the duck. He was brand new in very good condition. We kept him for about 3 weeks, during which time we toured Spain taking a lot of photos. Eventually we released him and posted most of the pictures on his TB page.

 

It was very tempting to keep him, but instead we bought our own via E-bay.

 

Of the 3 TBs I've released 1 is MIA (with the cache it was in), 1 is a hostage by a 1 cache wonder, and the other is sitting in Crete awaiting his first trip.

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scubagecko

scubagecko

Posted
Posted

I released one Travel Bug and it traveled a while and then someone started collecting Travel Bugs for some reason and they have kept mine so far (since August 2003). I saw a picture where the guy had 14 travel bugs he had found and had kept so far. And he had only recorded finding four. I hope he releases them all again now that the year is started. Or at least mine.

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Snoogans

+Snoogans

Posted
Posted
some one should make a map of where travel bugs have gone missing and that way we can identify areas to avoid

Ummmm, my remote control doesn't reach my TBs and I will not harass a TB holder. A bug has a destiny of its own.

 

You're right though. There are hot zones of TB MIAs.

 

There's always the dozen cache wonders too.....

 

Sn :D:D gans

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RV Paces

+RV Paces

Posted
Posted

I did all the "right" things with my first placed TB. But still it's missing after only 1 month and no moves. It's not in the cache I put it in, and it's not logged as being snatched and moved. BOO HOO, I was hoping Grandma Sue's TB would get to Arkansas from CA by May 17th, but I guess not. Oh, well it will be interesting to see if she ever does show up down the line. No use crying over lost bugs. :D

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Ed & Julie

+Ed & Julie

Posted
Posted
How about shortest distance before going MIA? A whopping 11 miles for one of my geocoins! Probably more vulnerable to being 'souvenired' than a regular TB.

My Big Boss Man made 1 hop, then was kept by the 2nd cacher to find him (insert swear, moan, groan, complaint. sob, whine, grumble here).

 

I hope the guy get poison oak in hard to reach places...

 

Ed

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schipperke

schipperke

Posted
Posted

We are new cachers and have our second bug here. The first one we took a picture of as requested at the Jefferson Memorial (neat picture)

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=36119

 

I'll place the bug we have in a couple days. Like many write, I can't understand why someone would ruin these hi-tech roaming gnomes, I think they are cool and hope to release ours in Alaska. Good ideas on how to make them non-collectables, specially the "the big friggin drill bit".

 

What really puzzles me is why do the people actually log them, then steal them? :blink:

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SeattleMossMan

SeattleMossMan

Posted
Posted

:blink:

Just a word of encouragement for all of you still hoping to reunite with your TB. I went to a cache the other day (LIEFE) that is in Seattle WA and found Harry Porter and the Golden Snitch TB and went to log it on the website. This originally came from Ohio and had been lost for over a year. I emailed the owner and let them know that I found it but will not be able to get it to Scotland at this time. They were very happy to hear that it was back in circulation and did not care where it went. The TB will be moving on this weekend. The point here is, that even when all hope of seeing your TB again is lost there is always chance that it may be found.

 

SEattlEMossMan

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SevenFortyOne

+SevenFortyOne

Posted
Posted

I recently took a trip to Salt Lake City. While there, a fellow cacher collected Three Bugs for to take back to Connecticut with me. I am not POSITIVE, but I am reasonably sure, that all three bugs and a "where's george" dollar were confiscated or lost during a routine luggage search by the TSA. I contacted all three bug owners and offered replacements. Two of the three declined, and the third sent me a copy of his original bug and tag to keep moving. It might be a good idea if transporting bugs to keep them in your carry-on luggage.

My wife and I remeber packing the bugs. When we arrived home, we noticed that th bag we had packed thm in contained a slip of paper notifying us the bag had been searched. After unpacking all of our bags, we never found the ziploc bag that contained the three bugs. My guess is that either the bugs looked suspicious to the TSA screeners and they kept them (unlikley since we weren't contacted), or they were removed and dropped or placed in someone else's luggage.

 

--N1NUG

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fly46

+fly46

Posted
Posted
It's really hard for Mom or Dad to say: "Comon now, we have to let this one go" Especially if the bug is some cuddly, soft, Teddy Bear, or Dinasour.

 

That's pretty sad, really. My son has really loved some of the bugs but when it has been a little while bugs have to go back in a cache. I don't care if he had a tantrum. I would just put him in his room until he was done with the tantrum. Oh well, I guess not everyone deals with kids in the same way. Letting them keep a TB would be like looking the other way if they stuck a candybar in their pocket at the store IMHO.

I know of someone who had that problem.. The person even had the balls to PM the bug owner in question and tell the person "My daughter really liked the bear, we're going to keep it".... Okay, if you're going to be that stupid, at least send back the travel bug tag. Big deal about the bear that came from the arcade machine, but those tags cost money.

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fly46

+fly46

Posted
Posted
Hi my name is Jes. Unfortunately, I'm not a TB Owner, let alone a cache owner. There so many MIA TB's and who's at the bottom of the list? Jeep 4x4 TB's. I haven't even had the opportunity to enhale the paint on one of these and they're droppen' like ants. :mad:

I think the problem - or at least a potential problem - with the Jeeps is that people want them as souveneers, so they take them and don't say anything...

 

Me on the other hand, am patiently awaiting another Jeep in the mail so that I can use it as a poker run prize at the cache event I'm hosting this month. (If anyone shows up)

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koz

koz

Posted
Posted

WHINE!...MY ONE AND ONLY TB WAS PICKED UP OVER A MONTH AGO (oops, i'm upset but didn't mean to shout) and last i've heard...i've e-mailed the noobie-retiever several times...politely asking to move my (did i say my one and only HOMEMADE albeit politically incorrect "ronnie") bug and have gotten one response saying another team member has it....i'm SOOOO SAD!!!! :anibad:

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YodaDoe

+YodaDoe

Posted
Posted

Anyone have particularly bad luck with Geocoins being lost? I released 6 of them a while back and four of them go lost. One of those four eventually showed up after several months, but the other three are still gone. I don't have this problem with regular TB's...

 

YodaDoe

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fly46

+fly46

Posted
Posted
Anyone have particularly bad luck with Geocoins being lost? I released 6 of them a while back and four of them go lost. One of those four eventually showed up after several months, but the other three are still gone. I don't have this problem with regular TB's...

 

YodaDoe

Umm... yeah.. Everyone.

 

Coins seem to have much smaller chances than bugs of ever returning home.

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nedbudge

nedbudge

Posted
Posted
WHINE!...MY ONE AND ONLY TB WAS PICKED UP OVER A MONTH AGO (oops, i'm upset but didn't mean to shout) and last i've heard...i've e-mailed the noobie-retiever several times...politely asking to move my (did i say my one and only HOMEMADE albeit politically incorrect "ronnie") bug and have gotten one response saying another team member has it....i'm SOOOO SAD!!!! :rolleyes:

My story is much sadder:

:o My one and only bug

:o MIA almost 3 months

:o 0 miles logged

;) 2 other notes were posted stating the my TB was not at the cache the same day the dead-beat grabbed it.

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koz

koz

Posted
Posted
WHINE!...MY ONE AND ONLY TB WAS PICKED UP OVER A MONTH AGO (oops, i'm upset but didn't mean to shout) and last i've heard...i've e-mailed the noobie-retiever several times...politely asking to move my (did i say my one and only HOMEMADE albeit politically incorrect "ronnie") bug and have gotten one response saying another team member has it....i'm SOOOO SAD!!!! :rolleyes:

not to quote myself, but persistence paid off...after promising person who picked up my bug that i'd stop bugging them IF they released it, they finally did! :o

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Eartha

+Eartha

Posted
Posted
we dropped off our fishy travel bug "Bob the largemouth Bass" at 'Here Fishy Fishy' cache in Michigan. It was the fist bug my children released and hes gone ! disappeared !!

 

:rolleyes: Team Neff

No, he came back. 3 days after you posted here. See? There's always hope and cachers need time sometimes.

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Eartha

+Eartha

Posted
Posted
WHINE!...MY ONE AND ONLY TB WAS PICKED UP OVER A MONTH AGO (oops, i'm upset but didn't mean to shout) and last i've heard...i've e-mailed the noobie-retiever several times...politely asking to move my (did i say my one and only HOMEMADE albeit politically incorrect "ronnie") bug and have gotten one response saying another team member has it....i'm SOOOO SAD!!!! :lol:

My story is much sadder:

:huh: My one and only bug

:rolleyes: MIA almost 3 months

:lol: 0 miles logged

;) 2 other notes were posted stating the my TB was not at the cache the same day the dead-beat grabbed it.

Sad to say, but the ones who picked up your travel bug haven't logged into the site since June 15th. This doesn't mean they aren't ever going caching again, but a nice and polite e-mail to them might prompt some action. Send one e-mail. And wait. It's best not to nag. And be civil. Just because a person hasn't found time for caching doen't give anyone the right to call them a dead beat. You don't know what their life is like. You have not walked a mile in their shoes. The other posts saying the bugs were not in the cache were probalby people who showed up after he logged them out of the cache and so, no, they wouldn't have seen them. His log says the bugs are on the move. He/they have found 10 caches and 2 bugs so far. They might just need a gentle reminder.

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Blue Blaze Irregulars

+Blue Blaze Irregulars

Posted
Posted (edited)

Here's a not so funny thing...my first TB was McTavishHe started inGCHYRX with expicitinstructions to be photographed with dogs and moved on. The two geniuses who handled him are "expert" Geocachers who paid NO attention to the instructions and then lost the poor thing at a Geo-gathering. I know, it's just a little metal tag, but one of these cachers is a real whiner when it comes to how other people set up & maintain their caches. Geocacher, heal thyself. Whining now officially over. ;)

Edited by Blue Blaze Irregulars
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Husker55

Husker55

Posted
Posted

Ladies and Gentlemen,

we have gathered together on this rainy, chilly morning on Nov. 1, 2004 to mourn the passing of Husker_Black_Bob travel bug.

 

He was born on Sept 19, 2004 with pride and great anticipation of having a great travel bug journey. He was a Husker bean bag bear, black in color with a red N logo.

 

He was released on Sept 27, 2004 at a cache location right next to where a lot of Husker tradition and history is made - Memorial Stadium in Lincoln NE.

 

He was reported missing by a cacher on Oct, 1, 2004. I sent out MIA flyers at cache location and on his travel bug page. But he was never found.

 

He was survived by his sister, Husker_White_Jenny (another Husker bean bag bear); four cousins, Kosch01, Kosch02, Kosch03, Kosch04 (all geocoins) and his grandfather, BHS_Class_Of_1972 (a broken down glasses from the 70's).

 

May the spirits of Husker_Black_Bob find his peace and eternal rest here. This we pray in our Lord's name. Amen.

 

A wake reception will be held at ljkosch55@yahoo.com. Sympathy and encouragement can be sent there. Thank You for coming.

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Sparrowhawk

+Sparrowhawk

Posted
Posted (edited)

Short summary version:

 

(whine!) Unresponsive-to-emails newbie cacher has my "In Search Of Uncredited Heros" TB all stalled and probably lost forever by now... (sob!)

 

Etc. etc. etc..

 

(Insert several-paragraph rant placed here..)

 

(Insert long whinnnnnnnnnnnne involving lots of holding dowwwwwn keys while typing.)

 

I HATE going "WAAH!" in public; that's very embarrassing to me. The rest of you are braver than I.

 

So I'm keeping this one real short, and thanks most graciously to everyone for listening. <_<

 

I'm off to find some hot chocolate now...

Edited by Sparrowhawk
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TrackerGirl

+TrackerGirl

Posted
Posted

Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance

 

They say there are 5 stages of grief.... Well, today I think I have finally gotten past the denial and anger and moved on to bargaining.

 

On a warm spring day in May 2003, my husband and I set 4 VW travelbugs free in the first cache we hid. Shortly after, the first cacher to find the cache, took ALL the bugs (which I had specifically asked not be done), and started them on a downward spiral. As of today, 2 are missing, and one is in the hands of a cacher (and has been since August 2003) who never returns any emails asking about the bug. The one remaining bug has had plenty of problems, which seem to have started when the first cacher dropped it off OUTSIDE a cache and left it hanging in a tree! It lost it's tag (not sure how that happened), but we were able to locate the tag in another part of the country!

 

The bargaining?? Well, my husband has been telling me for quite a while now to get someone to mail them home. That isn't quite the whole idea of the travelbugs! But bargain I am! I emailed the holder of the final bug, to ask their assistance in returning my last active bug. Hopefully my last bug will make it home... or I will be moving on to depression and acceptance.

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