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The Official Travel Bug Obituary....


Go JayBee

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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.

Sadly, mine only lasted for 15 miles! I moved it to my own cache and someone took ALL of the geocoins. Somehow mine never got logged like the others did and has gone MIA ever since. :laughing:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=106596

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Well, i think my first geocoin has bit the dust...before it even got started! i logged it in and out of my first hidden cache (one next to my home) and then gave it to a friend of mine in the army. A few days before he was to ship off to South Korea, where i wanted him to place it, some little kid stole it out of his house while visiting. Recovery efforts by the parents have been futile, and now he's off to Korea, sans Pork King Geoin. I hate little kids...they always steal things...and they smell.

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How do I get Travel Bugs that have disapeered back in my inventory to put them in the graveyard???? :blink:

If it's your travel bug and you have the tracking number from the metal tag, grab it back by posting a find. If it's not your travel bug, and you have it in your possession, follow the same procedure. If it's not your travel bug, and you do not have it in your possession, ignore all recommendations.

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<_< Recently heard the news about 3 TB'S and 2 coins coming up missing from

an airport travelbug cache in Albuquerque. The odd thing about it was the logs.

The cache was not being found by a few people for a week or so. (The cache was

probably not there). Then when some people find it again, they report to the

appropriate owners that their bugs aren't in the cache. You guessed it, one of the

bugs was mine. I wrote a note to another owner whose bug was lost also in this

cache. Since I am pretty new to the sport, I didn't know what to do, so I sought

out advice.

The fellow cacher advised me to do nothing, he mentioned that this sort of

thing has happened to him before, and that one time he had a bug missing for

eight months, and it showed up again. He told me a story about one cacher

that would go to different sights and pick up TBs and just keep them, this cacher

was later banned from the sport, and justifiably so.

I know that this will probably not make you feel any better about your

loss, (I don't feel better). But the email I got back from the other cacher gave me

a sense of hope. It was (or is) a neat bug-California Raisin playing a saxophone.

If you see it, please send me an e-mail. Thanks <_<

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I live in a retirement community. There seem to be quite a few geocachers here, and most of them are getting up in age. It's possible that someone could find a TB, then pass on, and whoever gets the estate would not know what to do with the TB.

 

I have a TB that I found today. I just read the bug sheet enclosed. It mentions geocaching.com, but that's it. Would someone who doesn't know much about computers (like my Mom) know what to do with it? At least she could send an email if she had an address. Just a thought.

 

If I died today, my mother or my sister would gain possession of this TB and they wouldn't know what to do with it.

 

Unfortunately, there are many unscrupulous people who would keep it just for fun, but this is always a possibility, especially if emails seem to be ignored. When I go, I won't be checking email or doing any more caching! :o

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Just got some great news. My TB "Sax" has been found. This was the bug that

was missing from the Albuquerque Travelbug Sunport Cache in November.

All that happened was the guy who retrieved it from the cache did not log it out.

It is now 9080 miles away in a cache in Chennai, India!

 

Real glad to find out that it was, indeed, not missing. I learned a hard lesson

here, never give up hope on missing Travel Bugs. Thanks for letting me vent

on this page

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I really feel bad about a newbie geocacher.

I was the FTF on their new cache. They had a new geocoin for the FTFer. I took it to my own cache. It then disappeared. Whoever grabbed it from my cache didn't log a single thing, not even in the cache paper log. It just flat out disappeared. The owner later reported their cache actually disappeared. What an example to these folks of what ugliness there can be among our family-friendly hobby culture. Truely sad.

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Newbies and Travel Bugs! Newbies and Travel Bugs! Newbies and Travel Bugs!

 

how many times I am gonna hafta explain that writing in your found it log, "left TB #1234567 in the cache" is NOT logging it into the cache. And putting #1234567 on the cache page is a bad idea?

 

No reply expected or required - just venting a little. Thanks

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Just an idea, I have floating around, and don't know if it would

be feasable: How about somehow designing a TB tag with an address on it so

the finder who didn't know what it was could just pop it into a mailbox, like some

keychains have, the Geocache headquarters would charge the owner, the amount

of postage, plus a finder's fee (say $5.00? just kidding) if he wanted it back. If

he didn't want it back, put it in the TB cemetary or up for adoption.

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A few days before he was to ship off to South Korea, where i wanted him to place it, some little kid stole it out of his house while visiting. [....] I hate little kids...they always steal things...and they smell.

Oh, man. I assume this little kid is known to him, right? I think some serious talking-to is needed.... to the parents!

 

Every time I stole something when I was a kid, I got caught, and reprimanded, and had to go back to the place I stole from and apologize and return the item, and was shamed.

 

Which is probably why I only stole twice.

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;) I have been steamed for a couple months, ever since my lovely bug, Triceratops Koosh Triceratops Koosh was left as an "offering" at a virtual cache, the tomb of Marie Laveau, New Orlean's famous Voodoo Queen. Marie Laveau, Voodoo Queen This was the bug's first move and I'm sure that whoever cares for this place considered him an inappropriate object and promptly removed him.

 

No one logging the cache after the bug was left there mentioned seeing it so I have sadly sent him off to the Travel Bug Graveyard today. There didn't seem to be any reason to just mark him missing.

 

But of course he could always turn up at a garage sale in New Orleans. ;) One of my other bugs who was sent to the graveyard showed up alive and well a bit later and has since traveled to Australia and back to the USA

 

Thanks for a place to vent one's frustrations.

 

NevaP, who has 16 other TB's, four of them missing.

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In March 2003 I released 6 Matchbox Xterras as Travel bugs with their goal being to make it to GOX (Gathering of Xterras) 2003.

 

28136_600.jpg

 

It had been a while since I had gotten any notifications on movements so I checked today see where they all were. Not good news…

 

#1 Traveled to 11 caches for a total of 2947 miles! Made it to Maricopa County Arizona Was removed from its last cache sometime between April 9 – June 25 2004 and never logged or placed in another cache.

 

#2 Traveled to 1 cache 38 miles from where I released it. Was in a cache near Athens GA and removed sometime between May – December 2003 and never logged or placed in another cache. Never even made it out of the State!

 

#3 Traveled to 1 cache 1085 miles away in Amarillo Texas. Cache was stolen a week later with the travel bug in it.

 

#4 Traveled to 10 caches for a grand total of 6170 miles! This one made it to GOX! Was given to Ian at the event!

 

#5 Traveled to 9 caches for a total of 1037 miles and ended up in Oxford Massachusetts in June 2004. Cache was stolen in less than a week as well.

 

#6 Traveled to 8 caches for total of 1599 miles. This one also made it to GOX and was given to Ian

 

Well I guess 2 out of 6 isn’t so bad… These all had printed on the tag “Do not pick me up unless you can place me in another cache!” Yet 2 cachers still felt the need to pick them up and keep them for themselves and never log that they removed them!

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My First and only TB:

 

- I placed it on Jan 20.

- It was picked up and moved one Cache17miles (27Km) on Jan 23.

- A cacher noted that my TB was missing from that cache on Jan 31.

 

11 days... :rolleyes:

 

I am hoping someone just forgot to log it, or is holding it until the go on vacation or something (since it's mission is to travel to a specific destination). Not sure if I want to send out the copy tag or not.

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I would like to add my sad story to the list too.

I still have hope it won't be an obituary!

 

Our first TB Mona's Last Laugh: The Da Vinci Code TB was supposed to travel to all the places in the book. We were really proud to have come up with a novel TB goal that hadn't already been tried! She got out of Utah and managed to get all the way to the east coast in a relatively short amount of time.

Then, unbelievably, someone moved her back to the west - to Arizona.

 

cue violins. :ph34r:

 

Granted, they moved her to a cache near the grand canyon and must have been thinking of all the international travelers. But, once there, someone (not getting the intent) moved her further into Arizona and she wandered into and out of a few caches before disappering last November. She was just a photo of Mona with instructions on the back. Why would someone take that?

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I would like to add my sad story to the list too.

I still have hope it won't be an obituary!

 

Our first TB Mona's Last Laugh: The Da Vinci Code TB was supposed to travel to all the places in the book. We were really proud to have come up with a novel TB goal that hadn't already been tried! She got out of Utah and managed to get all the way to the east coast in a relatively short amount of time.

Then, unbelievably, someone moved her back to the west - to Arizona.

 

I think "the goal" might have been a litttle optomistic.....most folks cannot think ahead in time till dinner, let alone moving a TB towards Italy or beyond. Just be glad when the bug goes in the general direction.

 

This is an interesting bug though, wish I would have touched it before it got all skewed up....

 

JayBee

Edited by Go-mad-Cow
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OK, how about this one?

 

I am mourning for a travel bug I didn't even own. I picked it up because it was in a cache that is not the easiest to reach in the winter. We made several attempts to move it, took some pictures with it and basically became really attached to it. We finally placed it in a cache and it was picked up the next day...and never heard from again. That was two months ago and the person who picked it up hasn't even logged into GC.com since.

 

I sent a note to the last known holder today hoping for some news and maybe a chance to save the little fella, but I have a feeling this one may be gone. I feel so responsible for it's demise, even though there is no way I could know the next person to retrieve it would be the last...

 

Godspeed little buddy!

 

Cricket

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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.

I flew my TB (the Emulsifier) all the way down to Texas (from Colorado), hoping to give my bug a boost. I put in Rockhound Bonanza and the very next log, my TB was posted as MIA

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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.

Sadly, mine only lasted for 15 miles! I moved it to my own cache and someone took ALL of the geocoins. Somehow mine never got logged like the others did and has gone MIA ever since. :unsure:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=106596

Try my Travel Vader TB!

It got a wopping 0 Miles!

Apparently "Skovar" decided he didnt want to geocache ever again.

Either that or the person kicked the bucket.

I'm going to wait exactly one year and lay him to rest.

Farewell Travel Vader! We hardly knew thee! ;)

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On a dejected note, I launched one at a local Geocaching dinner and it never got logged out of the event! All TB's were taken from the gathering spot, so it wasn't left there.

 

Whereas a lot of missing TB's can be attributed to muggles, or even total strangers that have no heart...this one seems to have been taken by a local Geocacher. Kinda sad. Even sadder when you consider it was my six-year old's toy. :laughing:

 

http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=90984

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Went to cache looking for a specific contest TB, place by owner of cache 5/5 , he made no entry in logbook, person who took TB made no notation in logbook, but both logged on the TB Page and there was me 5/6. Possible standard practice to note cache logbook when placing or taking a bug in addition to signing in, that way there is a paper trail other than the TB page. Just a suggestion.

Edited by Packanack
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I am a hostage taker. Not purposefully though. I picked up a few bugs before heading to TX for a trip at the end of Sept. last year. While in TX I was alot more crunched for time than I thought I'd be and only placed one bug (didn't want to put them all in one place but should have in hindsight). When I returned I took the ones I had placed them in a TB hotel and logged that I did. I some how some way missed that I still had a bug. I didn't visit GC.com any since it was getting cold (I'm a fair weather cacher, 10 finds in 3 years) and actually had my computer fry in late Oct. Didn't replace it untill recently and visited GC.com to find that I still had Skipping Stacey. I was confused and wondered why I didn't log this one. Before logging I checked the pack that I use when hiking and for the few times I've cached and found Stacey crammed in one of my pockets. I immediately emailed the owners and let them know what had happened and how stupid I felt. I appologized profusely and hopefully that was enough for them. I release Stacey back into the world and she has since been picked up and moved to another cache. Thought I'd share a different view of this. Sometimes it can be someone just being real bone headed like me. I am hoping to get in more caching this year since my daughter likes the nature hikes.

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:lol::laughing: Oh where oh where is my Disney Bound Travel Bug oh where oh where could it be?

 

It was dropped off at "I-70 Stop-n-Stretch" and hasn't been seen since. Help me find it please.....

 

Why does everything bad happen to my daughter Booger Bear? She seems to always have a dark cloud overhead. She will be totally dissappointed when I tell her.... :yikes:

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Don't give up hope. It hasn't been missing for too long and I've read some stories here about things that pop up sometimes months afterwards. You might have someone check the log book to see if someone logged taking it but didn't log their visit on gc.com. I hope you find it that's a good one and it's so close to making it home with those autographs. I'll keep an extra eye out for it even though it was last seen a long ways from me.

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Don't give up hope. It hasn't been missing for too long and I've read some stories here about things that pop up sometimes months afterwards. You might have someone check the log book to see if someone logged taking it but didn't log their visit on gc.com. I hope you find it that's a good one and it's so close to making it home with those autographs. I'll keep an extra eye out for it even though it was last seen a long ways from me.

Cacher Woodacorn, who dropped it off, drove 40 miles yesterday to check the cache and the log to see if he could see what happened. Talk about dedication to the hobby and concern for a TB.... :lol: True, it has only been a few days since it went MIA...but I am concerned because of my daughter. You don't know how this will crush her if it doesn't make it home. Everything that can go wrong with her usually does...but to her credit...she always has a smile on her face. :lol: She doesn't let the black cloud get her down. :laughing: So if you can hear me Disney Bound...please come home...we are looking for you.... :yikes:

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These all had printed on the tag “Do not pick me up unless you can place me in another cache!” Yet 2 cachers still felt the need to pick them up and keep them for themselves and never log that they removed them!

I always snicker when I see this instruction on a TB. That's the whole point of a TB! Pick it up and drop it off somewhere else. A TB without a tag is just more swag for a cache. If a cacher intended their Matchbox car or keychain to be kept by a visitor, they wouldn't have put the TB tag on!

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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.

Sounds like a "Thesis Burning Party" we had a while ago at Penn State when we had finished the first draft of our MS theses...

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Sent off Klatkanine Creek Clicky Frog and Big Digs Backhoe within a few weeks of each other, one in a "backwoods" area' and one in a "rural" area. They both came up missing within a month of setting them out on their journeys. I live at the the end of the Lewis and Clark trail(or nearly) and thought about doing some themed stuff, but neither of my original bugs made it more than 70 miles, went missing as soon as they neared the big city. Will try to wait out the whole year for the wake. (But will probably just cry in my drink every night in the meantime).Sidey

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Good old 50 State Bug Number 4 made it all the way from Nevada to Missouri. Then it rotted with several others for several weeks in the Highway 40 travel bug dungeon. The owner says he's no longer there. He must have went over the wall and out into the wall. 4 weeks in a steel can would make me kind of restless too.

 

50 State Bug #4

 

Highway 40 Travel Bug Dungeon

 

I hate travel bug prisons.

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:lol: I found a TB at the Four Corners cache (just sitting on it as it was very large) called Gloria Gorilla. It had been missing for well over a year and never posted into that cache (which I did to then log it out). It is now back in motion hopefully.

Weird but hopeful.

I have lost a couple of TBs (I am afraid) to caches--both in Grand Junction, CO, area. The same people have both of them and I counted 35 TBs that they have in their possession (that they logged anyway). One they had found the cache that TB was in in Feb but did not post it as found until March after the TB owner declared it lost. I don't understand this but guess it is a fairly common occurrence after reading these posts. I did write the finders for one of them was one of those fairly expensive National Park passport books, but I did not get a response. I still have hope that they will be dropped but will be careful dropping TBs in that area again. Anyway, I guess some people like to save the TBs or at least take them out of action apparently. If they are not moved on soon, I will just take them back virtually and put them in the TB graveyard.

Question: Can I then use the copy to initiate another TB? I am thinking probably not.

Thanks. :P

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:huh: I found a TB at the Four Corners cache (just sitting on it as it was very large) called Gloria Gorilla.  It had been missing for well over a year and never posted into that cache (which I did to then log it out).  It is now back in motion hopefully.

Weird but hopeful.

I have lost a couple of TBs (I am afraid) to caches--both in Grand Junction, CO, area.  The same people have both of them and I counted 35 TBs that they have in their possession (that they logged anyway).  One they had found the cache that TB was in in Feb but did not post it as found until March after the TB owner declared it lost.  I don't understand this but guess it is a fairly common occurrence after reading these posts.  I did write the finders for one of them was one of those fairly expensive National Park passport books, but I did not get a response.  I still have hope that they will be dropped but will be careful dropping TBs in that area again.  Anyway, I guess some people like to save the TBs or at least take them out of action apparently.  If they are not moved on soon, I will just take them back virtually and put them in the TB graveyard. 

Question: Can I then use the copy to initiate another TB?  I am thinking probably not.

Thanks. :lol:

You can certainly use the "COPY" tag any way you feel fit. If the original tag shows up you can always ask that the last finder mail it to you, and leave the "COPY" out there, or visa versa. your call...

JayBee (a.k.a. jbhooker3)

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