Hodgepodge 246/365 - PEZ FROG

One of the things I enjoy about geocaching, a frivolous sport that I've written about numerous times in these posts, is travelbugs, or trackables: small items with ID numbers (that allow you to track them) that you move from cache to cache. Often they have a mission. The first bug I found was a key ring of the Danish flag, and its goal was to travel back to Denmark. Usually these travelers just want to see the world. When you log on to their pages, you can call up a map and see how well they've done. Some bugs I've found have traveled many tens of thousands of miles.

I have sent ten trackables into the world during my ten years of geocaching. One I launched in Scotland for a friend—and it pretty much immediately went missing, in England. It was a stuffed Tigger, and probably got taken home as a toy by someone who didn't understand the concept of trackables. There are too many such folk, sadly. Three others have also gone missing, one of them immediately: it didn't even make it onto the map.

But the other six? They seem to be knocking around the world, and every so often I get an email message saying so. This last week I heard about three of my bugs: ¡Ay, Ay, Corona! (a bottle opener disguised as a blue plastic sombrero), presently in Colorado; PEZ Kitty, now in Germany fairly near Luxembourg; and PEZ FROG.

Today I'll feature PEZ FROG, launched on August 26, 2011, in Monterey, California. His mission: "I would like to visit watery places: rivers, ponds, oceans, lakes, waterfalls, desert oases—parks with sprinklers, in a pinch. However, I am a plush  frog and would just as soon not get wet. Take pictures of me as I travel the world!" Here is the map of his travels:

 
Most of those travels are courtesy of just a few geocachers, who carry PEZ FROG around with them and post his "visits" to individual caches they find. One cacher, "leafotwind," had him visit well over a hundred caches in the state of Victoria between October 16 and November 18, 2016.

I frankly don't understand this "visiting" thing, but some people get into it. And it does fill in the map. As witness Exhibit B:

Unfortunately, people don't post many pictures of him. But I've taken a few! Here they are:

PEZ FROG's geocaching.com passport photo.
Pretty much immediately, he was whisked
to New Jersey, and I followed his travels
from afar.

But then I had reason to head out to the mid-Atlantic states,
and I caught up with PEZ FROG in Pennsylvania.
I then packed him for a little tour up to Niagara Falls,
the prospect of which delighted him immensely.

Here he is on Brandywine Creek, outside the
Andrew Wyeth Studio and Museum.

Horseshoe Falls, part of Niagara Falls. Big hit!

American Falls, ditto!

PEZ FROG helped us find a tricky cache in Ithaca, NY.
And then we traveled home to California.

We took a little trip to the east side of the Sierra.
He loved Mt. Whitney from a distance.
And then: it was time to hit a new continent.
If you agree that New Zealand belongs to Pangaea.
Which PEZ FROG is happy to do.

Here he is in Picton Harbour, South Island of New Zealand.
Everywhere water down here!

In Havelock, South Island: home of mussels.

At St. Anne Lagoon, Canterbury (South Island).

At Unity Park, Dunedin (South Island).
I decided to leave PEZ FROG here, at one of
the oldest caches not just in New Zealand,
but in the world: GCB1, planted on November 12, 2000.
I figured he would appreciate being part of history.
We parted company on December 8, 2014.

Since leaving New Zealand, PEZ FROG went to Sweden, Singapore, and finally Victoria, Australia, where he's been bouncing around since late October of 2015. He's covered 45,140.7 miles. Not bad for a very small plush frog! I'm glad to know he's still pursuing his dream.

Update 9/10/19: Apparently PEZ Frog is still in Victoria, currently at a 4*-terrain site, since June. I may need to mount a rescue mission. Australia anyone? 

Update 7/18/22: As of a few days ago, PEZ FROG was still in Victoria. He must have Australian citizenship by now. Definitely time for a trip down under.