The fear of loss.

I can kind of understand why some people might be afraid to activate and release geocoins since they seem to be a high theft, but why does it seem Arkansans are lothe to put out ordinary travel bugs?

I've sent out 8 bugs and one coin so far and I was looking about for some to take on a trip recently when I noticed that there were only 177 caches in all of Arkansas that list as having bugs in them (some might have more than one bug.) Out of curiosity I ran the same search mor Misouri and came up with twice as many (344) caches that contained bugs.

Well, I thought...maybe they have more caches, after all Tennessee has some 6000 caches, but nope Misouri has less caches than Arkansas. (2083 to our 2096)

So what gives with Arkansans and TBs?

(edit to add: The poll question refers to TB's you have actived and released, not how many you may have horded.... :o )

[BACKPACKNJACK]

We as a state may have released more or less then other states, I’m not debating that at all but how many Tbs are resting in our States caches has nothing to do with how many we released, they are meant to travel.
I have released 3 and none of them are listed as being in this State and I just picked up one in Hot Springs that would have shown up on your radar but it was released at 08:14, 05-09-05 in Arizona.
I don’t have any coins except those I’m holding (no hoarding by me) for those cachers like you who may want them.
I have only one TB that I have not released into the wild and every one who makes a mouse hunt knows why.
It seems to me that there is a general, growing disenchantment with Tbs but I wouldn’t know for sure. Even if more bugs were being bought and even released there are more cachers today then there were yesterday.

I hadn't really considered in the light of the fact that the TB's Arkansans had launched would have likely left the state, but it still begs the question of why there is such a large dispairity between Arkansas and Misouri in the number of caches with TB's in them.

Do the folks from MO visit and take out TB's back with them? Should we implement a one for one TB rule for the state? (Tongue in cheek here.) Is Misouri a TB prison (they already have a statewide one-for-one rule?)

I haven't taken the time yet to run the numbers and see if ratio of caches to TB's is so wildly skewed elsewhere yet, but I may later...

AR_kayaker.

[BACKPACKNJACK]

Maybe our Tbs are faster then theirs and just “get out of Dodge” faster. :D

Maybe it is the constant sound of banjo music in our mountains and the out-o-towners hope to secure safe passage by latching onto a local bug tag, sort of like an Arkansas ID dog tag so they can cross the State safely. 8O

To see the true picture there is a lot of facts, or lack of them, that need to be looked at. I haven’t even looked at my own stats to see if most of my tag pickups were in-state origin or out but I think out would be safe bet.

If you do decide to except this mission and figure in the ratio of virtual, to micro, to ammo can sized caches for each State’s, still in-State, State origin tag, then figure in the ratio of in-State and out of State cache finds per each State, it would suprise me if New York City had the same ratio of ammo can caches that would easily hold a bug as we do. I would enjoy reading the results. Then we can look at the same stats in a year let’s say, and see if it’s just coincidental fluctuation or if those numbers are revealing a real and permanent pattern in the lack of in-State origin bugs. :?:
Ah but life and the pursuit of knowledge is fun, right?
BPNJ

[TheAlabamaRambler]

I have 55 TBs on http://www.geocaching.com and 32 Travel Tags http://www.travelertags.com/, and only one has been muggled, taken when a TB hotel dissappeared.

Several of my bugs have 7k+ miles on them and several have 2 or more countries. Even my son's 10k gold 2003 Birmingham Barons Southeastern Championship Baseball ring (Baron Bug), which we were convinced we'd never see again when we launched it as part of an MLB Stadium Race, traveled for 18 months and 8,000 miles through the US and Canada before coming back home!

Things aren't as bleak as one might imagine - it's like watching too much TV news - you don't hear about the good stuff, so you might be misled to think the whole world is haywire! In fact the nutters are a vast minority, but reporting 'everything is normal, most folks are happy, that's the news' isn't how they keep your eyeballs glued to the tube!

I am happy to report that I see TBs coming from and going to Arkansas pass through caches and events fairly often!

Ed

[TheAlabamaRambler]

Huh, this thread made me go check my bugs, seems one more is gone, Grosse Point Lighthouse made it to its destination, got some good pics, but won't be coming home. RIP!

On another note, does it mean that you attend too many events when your personal TB is approaching 18,000 miles, and that thing doesn't even get logged at about 30% of the events I attend?

I love this game!
Ed

[Gaddiel]

I have 55 TBs on http://www.geocaching.com and 32 Travel Tags http://www.travelertags.com/, and only one has been muggled, taken when a TB hotel dissappeared.

Wow. That's gotta be the best ratio I've seen for TBs. Any tips you would like to share?

Regarding Arkansas' TB numbers, I think Jack brought up a good point about the ratios of virts/micros to regular/large-sized caches. I'd be interested to see what percentage of Arkansas caches are virtuals and micros, then compare that to other states.

Wayne

[topkitty98]

We took 3 Bugs and 1 coin on a recent trip through TN, NC, and VA. I saw 1 Bug in all the caches we visited! I dropped each of the things we had brought along according to their goals, got them some good mileage, but I was disappointed to not bring home more than I did. OH well. We did visit several virtuals, since we were in Ntl Parks. But we also did several regular size at welcome centers.

[BACKPACKNJACK]

../.. and figure in the ratio of virtual, to micro, to ammo can sized caches for each State’s, still in-State, State origin tag, then figure in the ratio of in-State and out of State cache finds per each State,..../... and see if it’s just coincidental fluctuation or if those numbers are revealing a real and permanent pattern in the lack of in-State origin bugs. :?:
BPNJ
Now folks-who-hunt-parallel-sticks-in-the-woods, I don’t know if it was even a little bit of fun to read the above but it was just a whole lot of fun writing it.

I was working on another response with even less delineated concepts about this phenomenon but it must have had too many words like: undisputed, undeterminable, unmanifested, undiscernible, undecipherable, undiscredited, plus undisheartened because I wore the “U” off of my keyboard, can’t find it anymore, and I had to quit. :?
BPNJ

[Geezer_Veazey]

...I wore the “U” off of my keyboard... BPNJ
Very uncanny that you should lose the U and not the N. Extremely uncommon. Undoubtedly there is an underlying and under-rated cause and you should uncover it undauntedly. Understand???

[topkitty98]

Ya'll have unexpectedly cracked me undown.

[TheAlabamaRambler]

Well, my ratio seems to be slipping! Now another one bit the dust!

Northern Exposure made it to the Artic Circle and halfway back before becoming - a dog toy!

This thread made me check my bugs, Northern Exposure hadn't moved in a while, so I sent this question:


> To: <email address removed by moderator>
> Subject: [GEO] TheAlabamaRambler contacting S_Kaz from Geocaching.com
> Date: Tue, 1 Aug 2006 19:29:52 -0700
> --This message was sent through http://www.geocaching.com --

> Do you still have my Northern Exposure TB (a moose)? You logged picking him up on 2/25/06. If he's still with you would you please move him along to a nearby cache?
> Thanks,
> Ed


I get this email in response:

I posted a message asking about him and never heard anything so I assumed you didn't care about him and my dog has become attached to him.

That's so bizarre it just has to be funny!

In an interesting twist Hermit Crabs rode to the rescue with a replacement, http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index. ... try2387018 (http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=140120&st=0&gopid=2387018&#entry2387018)

Still, I have been extraordinarily lucky so far!

Ed

Edited to add: I lost the cap off this keyboard a year or so ago, had to type everythig without a util I made a pluger with a piece of paper ad leared to use it to hit .

[nonnipoppy]

We have 46 actual released travel bugs or geocoins. 12 of those are missing. Possibly a few others have disappeared but we haven't yet realized it.

Our most interesting travellers seem to be in Europe. Like Smilin' Red (http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=49583) or Ant In Search Of A Picnic (http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=81860). Ant was AWOL for a year in Idaho and suddenly showed up with logs I can't read.

I have no idea about the disparity of T/Bs in caches in Arkansas. I used to try to maintain two T/B hotels but they seem to have gone out of favor at least in the GC.com forums......poppy

[BACKPACKNJACK]

Ant was AWOL for a year in Idaho and suddenly showed up with logs I can't read.../....poppy

Your TB “Ant“.
My German is a little rusty (that much understatement should be illegal) and wasn’t all that good to begin with but more or less….to the best I recall of the language…The poster is saying that you (the owner) thought your TB was lost, it is resting/lays in that cache and they hope their posting is readable/understandable. And something about the last log being deleted or rewritten or something sort of like that.
You could go to GC forums and let the German cachers translate it for you. There are so many dialects over there it isn’t always easy to know exactly what is being said, even by Germans. When I was over there the Berlinders who spoke High Dutch were understood by almost everyone but they didn’t understand anyone else. I was over there for a few years but that was many years ago.
If I’m wrong (a whole bunch) or messed parts of it up (most of it) I will give you twice your money back but ya gotta catch me first.

You could also try the online babelfish, it's a long cry from perfect, but it should give you the gist of it.