LAST LOCATION vs RELEASE LOCATION
My English caching friend has said that if trackables last long enough they will all go to Germany. From my Texas perspective, the same might be said of all of northern Europe. That statement is made slightly less authoritative because, unlike with Germany, some of my trackables have been released in the Netherlands and Belgium. Nevertheless, I have believed for some time that if my travel bugs get out of the United States, to almost anywhere in Europe, they will move more frequently and last longer than here.
I have been accumulating a much larger data set with which I may formally evaluate those two hypotheses (move more frequently, last longer), but there is enough information here to address some of the questions that might otherwise discourage the larger effort. One of the questions is about the influence of trackables released in Europe on the on the total number and distribution of all my trackables that have reached Europe.
Consult the table at right. To the left of the double lines are the respective last-log counts for all countries (excluding the US) having more than five last-logs. To the immediate right of the doubles lines are the counts for the originating country of those last logs. The totals for all the US states other than Texas are to the left of the single line, while trackable total released in Texas is on the right. The last column is the percent a Texas origin contributes to each country’s total.
There are only three countries showing Texas-originating trackables at less than 75%, Australia, Spain and the UK. Spain has two of six from the UK and Australia has four of 13. The UK is the location of a cacher with whom I regularly exchange travel bugs.
The respective Texas percentages for Belgium and the Netherlands (my past release locations) are 82 and 77. Or from another view, of the 17 trackables in Belgium, only one was released there, while 14 originated in Texas. Similarly, for the Netherlands, one was released there, whereas 17 were released in Texas. It seems clear to me that travel bugs released years ago in Belgium and the Netherlands have less influence on the distribution of trackable in Europe than a history of releases in Texas.
It is perhaps too early to assess the effects of the more recent and greater number releases in the UK. The Covid-19 pandemic has almost certainly reduced the dispersal of trackables from that nation.
My English caching friend has said that if trackables last long enough they will all go to Germany. From my Texas perspective, the same might be said of all of northern Europe. That statement is made slightly less authoritative because, unlike with Germany, some of my trackables have been released in the Netherlands and Belgium. Nevertheless, I have believed for some time that if my travel bugs get out of the United States, to almost anywhere in Europe, they will move more frequently and last longer than here.
I have been accumulating a much larger data set with which I may formally evaluate those two hypotheses (move more frequently, last longer), but there is enough information here to address some of the questions that might otherwise discourage the larger effort. One of the questions is about the influence of trackables released in Europe on the on the total number and distribution of all my trackables that have reached Europe.
Consult the table at right. To the left of the double lines are the respective last-log counts for all countries (excluding the US) having more than five last-logs. To the immediate right of the doubles lines are the counts for the originating country of those last logs. The totals for all the US states other than Texas are to the left of the single line, while trackable total released in Texas is on the right. The last column is the percent a Texas origin contributes to each country’s total.
There are only three countries showing Texas-originating trackables at less than 75%, Australia, Spain and the UK. Spain has two of six from the UK and Australia has four of 13. The UK is the location of a cacher with whom I regularly exchange travel bugs.
The respective Texas percentages for Belgium and the Netherlands (my past release locations) are 82 and 77. Or from another view, of the 17 trackables in Belgium, only one was released there, while 14 originated in Texas. Similarly, for the Netherlands, one was released there, whereas 17 were released in Texas. It seems clear to me that travel bugs released years ago in Belgium and the Netherlands have less influence on the distribution of trackable in Europe than a history of releases in Texas.
It is perhaps too early to assess the effects of the more recent and greater number releases in the UK. The Covid-19 pandemic has almost certainly reduced the dispersal of trackables from that nation.