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Hi
My parents(masscityfin) are new to geocaching and we just introduced this new and fun hobby to them in november,2004. They have spent money to buy bug tags and have had alot of time consumed into getting travel bugs ready and we released one of them into our cache and someone by the name of FUN4ME has taken Their “FinHummer” travel bug and has been holding it Over 3 months and we have emailed her many times and she has not even had the courtecy to even reply back. She had been geocaching since November when she took my parents travel bg and and has picked up and dropped off other travel bug. Guess we need to know what we can do next???? My parenst are upset as this was their first travel bug and it is being held and not getting anywhere.
Sweetlife
I cant say what to do after the loss of your bug
I lost 2 right out of the first cache
so I wont be putting any more money into bugsBummer.
That’s the risk you take with buying TBs.
I’ve bought about 20 or so and have only lost 1 so far.
So don’t give up, maybe things will get better for you in the future.
It appears that the cache is “active” from their profile, maybe you should try again.I’m sure a lot of us can feel your pain about losing your first bug right off the bat. I’m not sure what else you can do that you haven’t already done. Perhaps the cacher lost it or placed it in a rarely visited cache and forgot to log it in. If they don’t respond to emails, you may never know. I can only give you advice for the future. Don’t send anything out as a travel bug that you aren’t prepared to lose. If you expect it to go missing, you will be only be happy if it doesn’t! I think the best way to forget about your first loss is to put more out there and watch them move around. Just keep them simple – don’t invest a lot into them. All of mine have been either theme key chains or something I had lying around the house. I can still be creative with their names and missions. If they go missing – oh well, I’m only out the few bucks for the tags. Good luck.
Team LightningBugs
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“I have loved the stars too fondly to be fearful of the night.”
~ Sarah WilliamsWe know how you feel as when we released our first TB it felt like sending our oldest child off to college, or our youngest to his first day of kindergarten where your wish them a safety, happy journey but must let go. However 3 months is not a long time, it may still reappear. One of our TB’s (Oreo) went on a hike with a Webelo den and was left in a cache that flooded and got washed away. Geocaching.com archived the cache and almost 1 year later a cacher found the remains of the cache and started our TB back on his journey. Another of our TB’s went missing and was found in a cache about 100 miles away from where he was last dropped off about 1 yr later. The most interesting of our TB’s (Larry Ladybug) was taken to the Netherlands by CanyonRose and has been sending back interesting pictures and is now in Finland. It is interesting to read the cache pages (althought many need to be run through a translator) and learn about caches in other countries. Best wishes for the successful return of your TB, otherwise the best advise is as LightningBugs Mum said, sent out another TB.
KarenI’ve been guilty of holding onto bugs longer then I’d like. Subsequently I try to avoid them now.
This is somewhat of the “off season” for geocaching. It’s quite possible that due to weather conditions, the geocacher who has your bug may be somewhat dormant. Hopefully they will move the bug along once it get’s nice out again.
I don’t know what else you can do besides give them a few gentle reminders. You might email them and suggest they help move the bug asap. If they can’t help it on it’s mission, perhaps they can put in the nearest cache so someone else can grab it.
If they don’t answer your emails, you could try posting “note” entry in one of their cache pages. Maybe they are reading logs for caches they own and will see your note.
In general, I think a good rule of thumb is not to take a bug unless you can move it within a week or two.
I just sent Fun4Me a brief note “We are talking about you” and a link to this thread.
Fun4Me is an active cache seeker in the Green Bay area. He (she) regularly visits gc.com but is not a member of the WGA; may not even know of our organization. He has almost 200 finds, no hides and no TBs. Without having any TB’s, it is difficult to understand the hopes and attachment one might have in a TB. It is a lot like those who don’t have a dog not understanding the attachment one might have to the family pet.
There are dozens of reasons why your TB may be delayed. I am sure that Fun4Me has no malicious intent. It is most probably an oversight that requires no more than a gentle reminder.
Beast
If you do make contact, a gentle nudge about not double logging a cache, just posting a note would be helpful. I have not met them but have followed them to caches in the GreenBay area and saw that on several. I am not sure they know how to properly log travel bugs either since I picked up bugs they noted in the log book but not online. My emails to them have come back.Fun4Me moved my travel bug 51.5 miles away from the cache I was to retrieve it from after it’s long journey. Hence a 125 mile round trip to Sheboygan.
e-mails to Fun4Me bounce and it doesn’t seem like they read anything. On the bright side, your parents travel bug WILL resume it’s journey.
Mine was stranded on a Colorado mountain top for nearly a year, and after a trip to Hawaii, it sat for the longest time in limbo before making it to New York. This is a bad time of year for Wisconsin Geocaching.
i have a tb stuck out in oregon. it looks like it is in a cache that not many people go to. i am really hoping when spring comes, that it will again get moving.
on a side note- we are going to hawaii soon and i have emailed the owners of tbs that i have in my possession to see if they want them to go there. one does, one doesn’t. i’m glad i asked first.It is nice when people ask before hauling your TB off a distance. Someone in Canada has asked permission to take one of my daughter’s custom-made-creature TBs to England! We are of course very excited to see that kind of milage.
At times we find our expectations are too great. Just to give an idea of what may become of your TB, here is the story of 28 travel bugs released from Manitowoc on Oct 10, 2004. That’s now about 105 days ago.
http://www.geocaching.com/track/search.aspx?o=1&uid=7d8ed898-fbf8-4c59-93ac-4c89dd7ee924I’ve had a lot of mine turn up MIA. It’s too bad and everything, but not that big of a deal. A little perspective- wars, tsunamis, or a missing piece of metal? I’ll take the missing TB any day. I re-released two of mine that went missing using their copy tag.
Anyway, I’m very guilty of holding them too long right now. I picked up a few in November and haven’t gotten around to dropping them off because it’s just too cold, too snowy, and I’m too busy. With all the snow, I don’t want to make a trail going to caches. And I don’t want to have to dig them up. So I feel bad about it, but I still have them sitting on my shelf and I do have every intention of getting them back out there. Fun4Me had a bad, bad record with logging bugs in and out- but they do tend to get moved and logged eventually.
Interesting discussion… Some who have posted on this thread have not responded to emails I’ve sent them at various times… It’s good to read all the different perspectives so we all can improve in this fun sport. Grandpa
quote:
Originally posted by Trudy & the beast:
At times we find our expectations are too great. Just to give an idea of what may become of your TB, here is the story of 28 travel bugs released from Manitowoc on Oct 10, 2004. That’s now about 105 days ago.
http://www.geocaching.com/track/search.aspx?o=1&uid=7d8ed898-fbf8-4c59-93ac-4c89dd7ee9 24Great News.. The USS KETE, which has been rather inactive in NY State was just placed in Italy.
sometimes a bit of patience is all we need.
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