On Saturday, March 21, 2009, another thundering herd of travel
bugs will embark on a grand journey from the
Big Texan Travel Bug Hotel Geocache - GC185YX in Amarillo,
Texas. Their primary mission is to accumulate as much mileage as
quickly as possible in a race expected to last at least one
year.
At 9:00AM on March 21, 2009 we will meet for breakfast and a time
to visit. Then launch the bugs.
| THE
RULES will be the same as last year and the year
before. |
|
*All the travel bug racers must start at the Big
Texan Travel Bug Hotel.
*No one who has a bug in the race can move one of the bugs in the
race.
*If you do pick up one of the bugs by mistake you must get it back
into the race at the cache you removed it from.
*If your bug gets muggled or lost some way once it leaves the Big
Texan Travel Bug Hotel you are out of the race at that point.
*If your bug needs repair once it has left the Big Texan Travel
Bug Hotel and you can arrange for repairs with a geocacher other
than a person with a bug in the race you may do so and keep your
bug in the race.
*Late entries will be accepted, but you must start your bug
from the Big Texan Travel Bug Hotel and notify one of the event
coordinators or other cachers with a bug in the race, however, you
will still finish at the same time as the other racers.
|
You should have your bug activated prior to the event on March
21st, but do not log your bug into the cache at the Big Texan until
March 21st or the evening of March 20th with a note that it will be
in the cache on the 21st.
During 2007 and 2008 we had several of the bugs go international.
Some have returned to the United States after going to a foreign
country.
The total mileage for all of the bugs for each year of the race are
listed below:
2007 racers totaled 104496.9 miles at the end of the
race.
The bug with the most mileage for the year 2007 race was
The Red Raider-Amarillo TB Racer driven by GeeO$$$ with a total
mileage of 20106.1 miles. In 2007 there was a total of 30
racers.
2008 racers totaled 110374.6 miles at the end of the
race.
The bug with the most mileage for the year 2008 race was
The
Duty and Honor Racer driven by Goldtiger with a total mileage
of 21444.9 miles. In 2008 there was a total of 20 racers.
These winning bugs traveled a lot of miles. Some of the others have
been lost in muggled caches and some have just traveled a lot of
miles.
The bugs will be tracked with a monthly status posted on the
Amarillo
Geocachers Yahoo site
(visit
link) under files.
More details will be added as the beginning of the race
nears.
A suggestion on preparing a Travel Bug for this race is don't use
something large. You want it to fit in a lot of caches. Use
something simple so that it will not get taken during the
race. We had some lost this past years because they were
pretty and nice and stuff that someone might just keep. Try to keep
it small and simple, attach a note to your bug explaining that it
is part of "The Great Amarillo International Bug Race" and ask in
the note for help in keeping it moving.
Example
Note:
"I am an entry in "THE GREAT AMARILLO
INTERNATIONAL BUG RACE". My mission is to add mileage as soon
as possible and to beat other Amarillo Travel Bug Racers.
PLEASE KEEP ME MOVING !!!"
You can log your bug into this event once you have it ready for
the race, however, you are not allowed to place it into the cache
until the day of the event when all the bugs will be placed into
the cache simultaneously. This will not add any distance to
you racer since the coordinates for the event is the same as the
coordinates for The Big Texan Travel Bug Hotel. If you do that then
the listing will have everyone's racer listed on the history page
for trackables on the events home page.
The owner of the travel bug with the most total miles at the
beginning of each month shall receive all the bragging rights and
due respect for bestowing upon themselves such an honor for a
month. Likewise for the owners of the travel bug located farthest
from Amarillo and the one logging the most mileage in the past
month. The winners will be announced in the first weekend of each
month.
At the end of the race, the owner of the travel bug with the most
total miles for the year shall be deemed the champion and also
shall receive all the bragging rights and due respect for bestowing
upon themselves such an honor for a full year to come.
A big thanks goes out to
KGBAN for tracking all the mileage and stats for the
racers!
Feel free to post a picture of your travel bug
here
when it is ready to go.
Good Luck - Start Your
Engines!