What is a Travel Bug?
Once upon a time, an old man pulled out wrinkled dollar bill out of his pocket and asked his grandkids to offer explanations about where it had been and what it had been used to buy. Travel bugs were developed to help answer that question in a geocaching world. Geocachers purchased travel bug tags, added a cute little item (called a hitchhiker) and dropped them in caches. Then, the owner can use their computer to watch all the places the travel bug visits. Some travel bugs had goals (visit the top of the Eiffel Tower) while other just wanted to visit new places.
We have a problem
Recently, a fellow geocacher had come into possession of over 100 travel bug tags. They had all been stripped of their hitchhikers. You can see them in the picture below. I am currently in possession of them, and they are officially located at this event.
If we work together, we can rehabilitate these travel bugs and release them in the wild again. Here is my first feeble attempt at rehabilitation. I think the collective capabilities of the geocaching community can do a better job.
What Can You Do?
Before the event: Go through your swag bags and junk drawers and look for things that would make good hitchhikers. Two of the things that I know we will need are chains and small Matchbox type cars and trucks. (Please leave you bowling balls and cinder blocks at home). There is not enough room to produce a list of all the hitchhikers needed, so bring everything.
How Will This Look?
At the event, pick out a travel bug tag and look it up on your phone. Look at what the original hitchhiker was and try to find a similar item to attach to the tag. Take a picture of the new tag and hitchhiker and load them in the log.
If you want to take the travel bug with you, create a ‘retrieved from’ log for the tag and take it with you and find a good place to release it. If you do not want to take it with you, I will have a shoe box of ‘Ready to Go’ travel bugs.
Repeat over 100 times. (A big crowd will make this go fast).
At the end of the event, take as many of the travel bugs from the ‘Ready to Go’ box that you would like. Do not be shy – there will be over 100 to choose from.
There will also be about eight travel bugs that want to visit every state. If you plan to travel soon, please take at least one of these. They are in a baggie with a list of states for you mark off.
Everyone who attends the event will receive a list of all the travel bugs so they can log them.