Travel Bug Race Through America 2004 Status
The race is finished. Berti
won with 29 states!
Haulin Cache and Lowracing Land Luge were
tied for second with 21.
The rankings of all the racers can be found on the
state ranking page.
Twenty racers made it to the starting line by the deadline, but the total
number of racers is currently 27.
Entries are closed.
The Racers
The list of the racers and their individual state-visiting status
can be found on the
racer page, or the
no pictures racer page
if the other takes too long to load.
The rankings of the racers can be found on the
state ranking page.
The Race
This is the web page for the Travel Bug Race Through America 2004
(http://users.rcn.com/brad.32/raceamerica/rta.htm).
A large number of travel bugs have the goal of traveling the 48 or 50 states
of the United States of America, so this is a race to see who can do it
fastest, etc., well, get closest, in about a year. The District of Columbia
counts as Maryland. The racers in this race are
travel bugs that started from where ever they are at the beginning of the race
(1 May 2004) and are moving from geocache to geocache visiting each of the
50 United States. The race will end 4 July 2005. It is very unlikely that
any racer will be able to visit all 50 states in the year, but they are
setting out to try.
The bugs can be in action before the beginning of the race, but the progress
tracking will be from where ever the racers are at the beginning of the
race.
This means that if a racer is in a cache at the beginning of the race, 1 May,
then it will "immediately" get credit for that state and its race mileage
will start from that cache. If a racer is not in a cache, then it will
start accumulating states, distance, and caches when it is placed.
There is no fee to enter, but donations (funds or items)
for the prizes will be accepted :-)
Background
Back in Apr 2003 cacher regoarrarr brought up the idea of a tracking system
or race for travel bugs with the goal of traveling the fifty United States
of America in a groundspeak.com TB forum thread. About a year later the
system hadn't started, so when the thread was bumped, here we are, but
the original idea was regoarrarr's and Egnix's.
For more information about geocaching, please see
www.geocaching.com.
For more information about travel bugs, please see
http://www.geocaching.com/track/.
The latter part of that page is a FAQ.
Race Rules
Because this is a REALLY long race, the rules are simple:
-
Racers can be placed by any cacher (including any racer bug
owner), can be placed multiple times by the same cacher, and placements can
include in-out placements.
Racers should be carried from cache to cache by cachers, but grabs sometimes
happen when cachers meet.
-
Racers may only be placed in regular (including micro-sized) and event
caches, no virtual or locationless caches. Some micros are pretty big,
so they can't be ruled out, but hopefully the racer could actually fit
in the cache, even if the drop is an in-out.
-
Cache owners will be asked to check the physical log books in the case of
questionable placements, i.e., did Transam really travel through 5 Western
states in one day?
-
The race started 1 May 2004 with the race-registered bugs where ever they
were. It will be over 4 July 2005, or when all the racers visit the 50
states, which ever comes first. The bugs can be in action before the
beginning of the race, but the progress tracking will be from where ever
the racers are at the beginning of the race.
-
Disputes will be discussed in
geocaching
the race thread
in the geocaching.com Travel Bug Forum.
-
The racers may attach information tags, cinder blocks, etc. to their
bugs. Instruction tags are encouraged.
-
Racers are entered into the race by sending an email to RaceAmerica through
the RaceAmerica profile on the geocaching web site or by posting to
the forum thread.
The email must have the reference number (TBxxxx)
of the bug or a link to it, so it can be identified. Bugs with the
tracking number visible on their web pages will be disqualified if the
content is not modified.
Awards
When the race starts, each racer will receive a
Bumble Buttons
button with a variation of the race logo on it.
In my hand they are about
this big.
Late entries may not get a button.
Each racer that is still active (in an active cache or in the hands of an
active cacher [responds to email]) will receive a
certificate of completion. The first place
certificate will look something like this and
the others will be similar.
The other awards, based on activity between the beginning and ending
of the race, are the following, plus a certificate for the award type. If
anyone sends money or other donations for the awards before the race starts,
then these will be added below:
The most creative or unique racer was determined by
an online vote during the first two weeks of the race.
More Information on This Race
See the
geocaching
forum thread, contact RaceAmerica through
the profile on the geocaching web site, or
send an email
Other TB Races
Information about other travel bug races can be found on Eric's
Travel Bug
Races page.
The Groundspeak Geocaching Logo is a trademark of Groundspeak, Inc. Used
with permission. The race and these web pages are not sponsored by, endorsed
by, or otherwise affiliated with Groundspeak, Inc.
Last updated: 5 Jul 2005
