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



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.

Map of travels
[img]http://www.geocaching.com/map/gen_travel...89831543&Pos=10[/img]

#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!

Map of travels
[img]http://www.geocaching.com/map/gen_travel...89831543&Pos=10[/img]

#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!

I just started some geocaching.

Does the theft thing happen often with the travel bugs? What about the traditional caches?

So far we've got 5 finds, none with travel bugs yet.

BTW: Those are some cool travel bugs!

Yeah caches are taken fairly regularly. Hide them good.

TBs not being logged also sucks.

Hey I just bought a couple of the Matchbox Xterras off eBay to use as riders on TravelBugs, and just saw this post today. You won't be pissed if someone else uses your idea, will you? I'm not trying to send them to GOX or Gone Moab or anything like that, just to see how many people I can get to take them to some out-of-the way places. I know what you mean about caches disappearing though...sucks that you can't trust people.

nope go ahead mine are all out of circulation far as i know

Alrighty...I'll start putting them out on trails next month. Thanks!

Two of the three travel bugs I released this year have been taken by fellow geocachers... and never put back into circulation. I've sent them e-mails, but neither responded, weasels!

FWIW, I wouldn't leave one of my travel bugs in cache that's easily spotted. But once it's picked up, you no longer have a choice of where it ends up.

Fun to watch them move though.

At least 2 of them made it. It sucks though that some people pick up bugs and never log them or replace them. I gave up on swag a long time ago too and usually just log that i've been there now.

I was wondering, since the last post was Feb. 2005, where are they all now? I am determined to get one. Are they all still in play?