Save Your Pennies TB

My "Save Your Pennies" TB is charging across Europe and it's really fun to watch it move from country to country.

This TB has an interesting history so far.  We initially released this TB on Jan. 14, 2010 in cache GC22W1P. A week later, on Jan. 22, 2010, we were caching and found GC15CW9.  Imagine our surprise when we opened the cache and found our own TB?  We snatched it up, travelled around with it and then dropped it into another cache on Feb. 17, 2010.   From there, it got passed from cacher to cache until August 11, 2010 when it got dropped into GC1FAQE in Wisconsin.

Then it disappeared.  We didn't hear another thing about this TB for over 5 months.  On Jan. 15, 2011 we were at a Geocaching breakfast event  GC2FJGY which was back in Illinois.  I was picking through the TB's on the TB table and I almost fell off my chair when I saw my "Save Your Pennies" TB.  How the heck did it get there?  We took a picture with it and then placed it back on the TB table for it to continue on its journey.

It got picked up by another cacher and traveled around Illinois again until June 6, 2011, when it was placed into another event cache, GC2QDDM.  There it was picked up by cacher Dutchlandian, who was headed to the Netherlands.  On June 15, 2011, my TB landed at GC2NQH0 in The Netherlands.

Since then, it's traveled with various geocachers to Belgium, Germany, Luxembourg, France, back to Belgium, and Hungary.  For over a month now a caching team by the name of Paleoteam has been caching in Belgium, Germany, France, and now Hungary.  They have been kindly dipping it into many caches along the way.  The latest was GC3C873 and Paleoteam was the FTF (first to find) on the cache.  I bet they loved that!

So far my TB has traveled over 7700 miles and is getting a wild tour of Europe.  I love going to some of the cache pages that it's visited and reading about places I'll probably never get to see in person.  It's kind of fun to think about all these great geocachers who are taking the time to move my little TB all over the place.

Here's a couple of the pictures that have been posted for my TB...

I hope this little TB keeps travelling around and visiting all kinds of neat places.  What a fun journey.

Our Cachemobile is a TB

Travel Bugs come in several different forms.  They are usually a numbered dog tag that is attached to another object, like a stuffed animal, a car, a plastic figurine, or maybe even  a coin.   If you remember, I told you about them here.

We have a window cling TB that is attached to our car, and it makes our cachemobile a roving TB.

If any geocachers see our car and TB, they can go online and log in that they've seen it.  So if anyone who reads my blog is a registered geocacher, please go online and log it in.  Be sure to say that you saw it on my blog!

Moving Maurie the TB

Last week I picked up a TB (travel bug) named "Superdawg Maurie" at a geocaching event.  According to Maurie's TB page  My mission is to travel the US (and abroad) from cache to cache, visiting your FAVORITE Hot Dog Joynts. Please take a picture of me in front of the sign or in the restaurant. PLEASE don't keep me - my secondary goal is to meet up again someday with my longtime love & partner, Flaurie!!


Superdawg is a world famous hot dog stand in Chicago.  I grew up not far from Superdawg and have eaten there more times than I can count or care to admit.  They have GREAT hot dogs.   Maurie and Flaurie were the original owners, so somebody made a pair of TB's out of their official softee figures in their honor.  Cute idea, huh?  Here's what the Maurie and Flaurie TB's look like....

In keeping with the mission of Maurie, we took him to Paradise Pup in Des Plaines, IL.  Paradise Pup has great hot dogs, and was actually featured on the Food Network TV show "Diners, Drive Ins and Dives."

And since we were so close to the original McDonald's, also in Des Plaines, we stopped by for a photo there as well.  I know they don't sell sell hot dogs, but hey,  it's the original McDonalds.  There is also a multi stage geocache there, but we've already done it.  GCR2YT

We have several geocaching events coming up in the next few weeks, so Maurie will be passed along some time soon.

Festivus 2

Sunday morning Louie and I got up early and headed out to grab a few caches before football started at noon.   We wanted to get the 2 remaining caches that had been released for the Festivus party because I hadn't gotten them on Friday night.  While we were out we grabbed 6 additional caches that were in the area.  So we got 8 caches in about an hour and a half and made it back home in time to thrown a pot roast in the oven to eat during the first football game.  Not bad, huh?

My favorite cache of the morning was called "Festivus 2 I Got a Problem With You People.  GC38HNB  This cache was placed in a nice little wooded area that runs right through the middle of a neighborhood.  We took a short hike down a trail that was lightly dusted with snow.......

There were actually 2 caches placed along this trail, but the one I really liked was placed way at the back end of the woods.  We had to cross a partially frozen stream and scramble up an embankment.....

Once on the other side of the stream it didn't take us too long to find the cache.  The cache itself was a nice size lock and lock container.  I dropped off a TB (travel bug) that I had picked up at the Festivus party...

On our way back to the cachemobile, we stopped to check out 2 man made shelters that we saw off the trails.....

Fortunately, nobody was home - I'm sure glad I'm not living back there!

Geocaching Friday Lunch Club

A couple of local geocachers, who also happen to be good friends of mine, host a monthly "Friday Lunch Club" event.  They pick a restaurant, release an event page and any geocachers are welcome to come join in the fun.  You can stay for 10 minutes, long enough to sign the log sheet, or you can stay the entire 1 1/2 hours.  It's a great way to have some lunch, visit with your friends and meet new geocachers.  At the last event I went to, we had cachers visiting from Germany.  You never know who you may meet.

This month's Lunch Club took place on a Saturday, to sort of allow for cachers who work during the week to get a chance to attend. 

This is Tom, host of the event.......

And his wife, Mary.....

Now you're probably wondering why in the world Tom is posing next to a speed limit sign.  Well , that's because one of the cachers made a TB (travel bug) out of that sign.   Hehehe.  I thought that was pretty good.  We all signed the back of it and another cacher took it to move it along at another event.

There was a box to drop and retrieve TB's.....

About 45 people showed up, which was a pretty good turnout for a lunch crowd.  The food at Jasons Deli is really good.  I had a yummy bowl of cauliflower/cheese soup and a corned beef sandwich.  They even have an ice cream bar for FREE ice cream sundaes.  You can't beat that!

During the lunch a couple of new caches were released in the area, so a bunch of us ran out to do them....

Believe it or not, my dad is inside this tree, grabbing the cache....

Which was, coincidentally, my 1700th cache!!  Yeah Milestones!

So the next time you see an area event, you might want to stop by.  They're a wonderful way to spend the day and get to know your fellow geocachers.

CacheCrazy has all kinds of scary stuff going on over there for Fright Week.  Why don't you stop by and say Happy Halloween???

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!