Travel Bug Rescue (TB-Rescue.com)
Posted: Wed 2015-11-04, 05:14:36
I am happy. Let me tell you why. I released two TBs into the world, one 2&1/2 and one 2 years ago (both in Florida). The first was picked up a few days later by an infrequent, but still active cacher (<200 finds). That TB is still in his hands according to GC.com and I have sent a couple of emails to that cacher asking about the status of my TB and have not received any response. I am purposely not marking it as missing, so that it stays in his inventory as a reminder until I get a response. Six months after my first TB went nowhere, I released my second TB. It was picked up and move about 50 miles to another cache. That cache was found by two other cachers within the next month (neither of them picked up or discovered the TB). About a year after the TB was placed in the cache, the owner moved out of the area and archived all his caches (leaving them in place). That meant that my second TB was either taken by one of the two cachers and they never logged it, it got muggled, or it was now sitting in a cache that would never be found because it was archived. For the past year, I have emailed a couple of the owners of the geocaches that are near to where that cache used to be, asking them if they could check on the archived cache and see if my TB is there. Or, could they tell me the website (or facebook group) of any local cachers' association (like ours), where I might be able to post a note asking if someone would be willing to help. I have also searched the internet trying to find a caching group in that area. Again, I have not received any response. I guess Florida geocachers are... well, lets just say they don't like to respond to emails and avoid calling them bad names. Because of these bad experiences, I have not released any other TBs since then. So, why am I happy now? Well, I heard on one of the podcasts I listen to, about a website called "TB-Rescue.com". I thought it would not hurt to give it a try. On Oct 30th, I posted a rescue request and explained the situation. On October 31st, a Florida geocaching angel from about 60 miles away (as the crow flies), drove to the area, found the old cache, rescued my TB and removed the geotrash from this and another of the nearby caches abandoned by the same owner. He rightfully claimed them as finds. That wonderful geocacher took my TB to a few more caches that he visited while in the area and plans to drop it in a TB Hotel soon. So, I will hopefully be able to follow my TB for a while now and maybe I will finally release a few more. I wanted to post this story to let you know of that "TB-Rescue.com" site, in case you have a TB that is stuck in a cache for a long time.