I Like Travel Bugs!

One of my favorite things to find in a cache is a travel bug.  No, they are not real bugs.  The object of travel bugs is to move them from cache to cache.  Many of them travel literally thousands of miles all over the world.  If you find a travel bug in a cache you can either leave it there for someone else to move along or you can take it and move it to another cache, hopefully in a timely manner.  The only thing you do NOT do, is keep it.  Although some rotten and unscrupulous people will take them and keep them.  They certainly will not win any brownie points for being a jerk!

There are basically 2 different types of travel bugs.  One type is a dog tag with a GC number on it that you attach to any item you like.  Here are a few examples....

Each TB (travel bug) gets its own web page on the GC site.  You can name your TB and assign a specific mission for it that you hope people will follow.  Things like visit specific states or different countries, maybe go to a special event, or a golf course, or trade shows.  The missions are all different and some are quite creative.  Each time you move a TB, you also have to go to it's web page and register which cache you picked it up in and which cache you dropped it into.  Plus, you can leave a note for the TB owner and even upload a picture if you want.  I usually try to take a picture of the TB near something historic and upload that to its page.  People seem to appreciate the effort and I've gotten notes from people all over the world thanking me for the photos.  It gives them a good opportunity to see a picture from a part of the world they may never get to visit themselves.

Travel bug coins are usually pretty nice.  They cost a little more money (usually between $ 10.00 and
$ 20.00 each) and you definitely take a little more of a risk sending them out, because people do steal them.  How rude is that?  Here are some of the nicer coins that I've found in caches and moved along....

Currently I have moved along 236 different TB's and coins.  I always like to find ones that have come from a foreign country.  It's really interesting to go to their pages and read about where they have been.

Right now I personally own 26 different TB's and coins of my own.  My 11 coins I keep in my possession and are part of my personal collection.  I have 15 TB's.  1 is in my possession because he's my Travelling Snoopy who goes everywhere with me, attached to my backpack.  My 14 other TB's are  travelling around the world.  Out of those 14, 3 are missing - either lost or stolen.  :-(  

Here are some of my TB's.  This was the first one to go missing....

This one travelled over 11,000 miles and was in Australia where the cache it was in got destroyed and the TB was lost.

This TB travelled around for a year and then ended up back in a cache near our house, so we went and got him back, attached him to a snoopy doll and he travels with us....

This one is in Ohio with a cacher and has travelled 1730 miles so far.....

This one has only logged 570 miles so far despite being one of my first TB's.  He is in a cache in Wisconsin.

This is my favorite TB story:  I sent this one out to Hawaii with a cacher friend, who dropped it into a cache out there.  Cacher Kailua Al picked it up and asked me if I'd like him to hold onto it for awhile and dip it in and out of caches and put up pictures.  Of course I said YES!!  Kailua Al has had it for over a year and this TB has logged over 22 THOUSAND miles!  Al puts up beautiful pictures on my TB page for me.  Now of course I want to go to Hawaii.

These are some of my coins....(Hey, my husband is Italian!)

We got this coin at the annual geocachers picnic last year.  The cool thing about this one is that the pig on the spit actually spins!

 The Sanibel Island one was my first coin and a gift from my husband....

May 2010 was the 10 year anniversary of geocaching and we picked this coin up at one of the local events.

And here is Travelling Snoopy.  He was a gift from my good caching friend, Mary.  We attached my Snoopy TB to him and he's on my backpack....

Now you know what a TB is and how they work.  If you find one in a cache, please be sure to send it on it's way.  And take the time to shoot a picture if you can - we sure appreciate it!