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Lacknothing 10 years, 10 months ago.
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SO earlier this year I bought four travel bugs thought it would be a fun thing to do. In June I found a great cache to place the first one in and within 10 days it was picked up and moving. It took about 5 weeks for it to reappear, 2 weeks later it was picked up again with a note saying it was going to be dropped in a couple of weeks. Here I am about s weeks and nothing. Is this typical for travel bugs to move this slowly, I don’t know if I want to bother with the other three if this is how it goes.
Sometimes, yes. If it has a particular goal someone may be holding on to it until they are able to complete it. Sometimes they get put into a caching bag and forgotten about. If a cacher is going on a vacation in a month or two they may collect them for a while and then put a bunch of miles on them on their vacation. You can try contacting the person holding on to them and ask nicely if they have plans for the bug. And sometimes they just go missing, I’m afraid.
Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien
In the USA…YES! Everyone that gets a Smartphone has to try out that geo-thingy app and Poof! Your TB is pocketed!
Now, in Europe, cachers tend to move at a slower pace and take the time to research the fun before beginning.
If you want your TBs to move, try to get them across the pond for a higher percentage of safety!
Our TB from the 1st WGA TB Race is still moving after 2 years. It’s in France right now. After 7 years of caching, most of our others are MIA.
Yea, you just never know. I have had many go missing but my first bug ever is still active and travels all over the world!
Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien
Don’t let this “bug” you too much!
The views expressed here are that of myself only and do not necessarily represent that of the WGA board.
tip: don’t invest too much in what you put on the tag. If you put a toy car or figurine or something else that may be desirable to someone, you can be running a serious risk of loosing the tagalong or the entire TB, tag and all. But… if you want it to move, what you put on it can make a difference. Ugly bugs don’t necessarily move well.
Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.
I don’t have any trackables in the wild for this reason. All my trackables are discover only at events. I only have 8 trackables in my inventory, including a travel bug tattoo 🙂
I wasn’t sure about investing in a trackable and release it into the wild only for it to go missing. That happens a lot. However, I won a geocoin as a door prize at an event some time ago. Since I didn’t invest any money in it, I may just release it into the wild and see where it goes and see what happens.
Most trackables do not have missions attached to it. Those seem to go missing more often. If a person attaches a mission for the trackable with it, I think it is more likely not to go missing and be able to complete its mission.
One time I picked up a trackable with me that didn’t have a mission with it. It was in Green Bay and I’m in Upper Michigan. Once I got home and logged the trackable number, I found out the trackable wanted to go south and I ended up taking it north. Had I known its mission, I would have left it. I did go back to Green Bay to drop it back off eventually and sent it on its way.
Good luck with whatever trackables you decide to release.
Travelbugs fare much better than geocoins. Geocoins seem to go missing before being moved twice. That’s been my experience, anyway. TB’s, unless you attach something shiny or valuable to them, seem to travel longer and farther. Keep putting them out there! That they end up missing and/or stolen is just part of the game.
One other thing to keep in mind is that regular sized caches are getting increasingly rare these days, so don’t attach anything too big to your tag. It can be tough to find a cache to drop a TB into even if it’s attached to something as common as a small stuffed toy.
Todd makes a good point. While there may be a mission for the travel bug, not having that mission stated on or with the traveler can seem to a new cacher or youngster that it is a trade item and not someone’s property. With coins, a copy of the mission in the coin flip or baggie can make a difference on the mission advancing or the coin ending up missing. Same with TBs, bagging them with a mission statement can help greatly that there is more to the item than being swag.
Disclaimer : Always answering to a higher power.
We stopped releasing TBs ourselves long ago, but then again, there are those stories of someone finding one that’s been “missing” for years. We picked up two in Brunet Island (different caches, too) that weren’t in the inventory, and hadn’t been logged for over two years. One of our coins resurfaced some time back, but seems to have gone underground….again.
We have 49 travel bugs and geocoins out in the wild; only 9 have been logged since the beginning of summer. It doesn’t bother us, we expect them to eventually disappear. For us it’s almost like “How far and how long can this one last before it goes missing?” Of those remaining nine, one each are from 2010, 2011, 2012, & 2014, and five are from 2013.
My advice to those putting out trackables is that if they expect them to last a long time, get ready for disappointment. You have to “let it go.” If they do happen to last a long time, it’s an unexpected blessing. However, if one places a trackable with the mindset that it is eventually going to disappear, you can have fun with each one while they last, plus it enriches the game for others when they find your trackable in a cache.
We always give the trackables a mission, always post a picture of them, 😉 and always check the box that they are NOT collectable. The mission for many of them concludes with “…and return to SW Wisconsin by 2016” or something like that. Many of ours have traveled in Europe, and some have made it to Africa & South America.
We release several every year and will continue to do so. Every once in a while, one that we considered “lost” will reappear after a year or two of being off the grid. It’s especially fun to receive those notices!
I knew that it would eventually disappear but I never thought to would happen within 2 months of being put out. Oh well guess I will put the other three out and see how long they last. 🙂
@pkarm wrote:
I knew that it would eventually disappear but I never thought to would happen within 2 months of being put out. Oh well guess I will put the other three out and see how long they last. 🙂
we placed a bug in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, a TB hotel, never logged once, but we’ve also done some with a specific mission, go from Wisconsin to Mund’s Park AZ, to be picked up by our daughter, with success, dropped one in Mexico, goal to come back to Wisconsin, got close but is now out in California, it’s basically expect them to disappear, but if they survive, it’s fun to watch their travels, also sending a thank you when someone moves your TB, sends positive thoughts to whomever dropped it. putting them in a hotel with a padlock is another good option, such as Rhinelander’s Ultimate TB Hotel. 🙄
Just make sure that your bug isn’t marked as being collectible. If you look on the official rules from groundspeak, it says that people can take bugs marked as collectible and add them to their own collection. I was pretty disappointed when Bad Robot, my bug that won last year’s travel bug race, was taken out of play by someone who decided to collect it. They won’t budge, it’s part of the rules and they say they have every right to do it.
Not all who wander are lost. -J.R.R. Tolkien
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