Lee's Memorial Travel Bug Journey. - The Start.

If there is one thing in life that must cause more stress than anything else it's the loss of a child, taken when they have so much more life and  potential ahead of them. That day happen in January 2007 when young Lee had his terrible accident which left his parents, Shaun and Carol with nothing more that total devastation and the rest of the family completely shocked.

As a Grandparent I knew that I wanted to do something to keep his memory alive, not that he would have been forgotten anyway, so the idea of a memorial TB seemed a great idea for me to send off, therefore giving and all the family a chance to watch Lee's journey around the world.

I think that my Son's comment on Lee's Memorial TB page is the very best way to understand Lee, his hobbies his loves and what a really lovely boy he was.

Link: http://www.geocaching.com/track/details.aspx?id=2173266

On the 2nd July 2009 my Son joined me at St. Swithun's Church in Leonard Stanley where I had placed a cache a few feet from Lee resting place, this was just on the outer side of the churchyard hedge. The TB was placed inside the box and we retired to our homes to watch what happens, yes with some trepidation.

Within days it was on it's way via a few local caches when an incredible fate took over his travels. A cacher called Little White Collie found it and the lady was in fact Lee's Cub Scout Mistress, she wrote,

"I knew Lee, we just had to retrieve and move on this TB. He was a smashing lad and a great loss. Will find a cache in a place that he would have liked for the TB's next stop."

 I came to meet Louise & Graham soon after and we became good geocaching friends.

His bigger journey had started as they took the TB down to the South Wales coast and a place called Swanlake Bay, Lee had been here camping in his cub scout days so LWC had made this special journey for him.

Within 24 hours Lee was to make a move across the Atlantic landing in New York State and rested in a Quaker House, well it was a leap of 3,300 miles.

Connecticut came next where he had to wait patiently for 5 months in one cache, giving all of us back home the worry that he had been lost.

January 2010 and someone took pity on him by picking him up and moved it to her own cache whilst making the comment, 

"Handsome boy and I love curry to, will placed him in my cache called Treasures of Love since it appears he was very very much loved."

Another nice person in Connecticut picked the TB up and again added such a wonderful comment,

"How touching a memorial, how often God recalls his best children early, thank you for sharing."

It is so heartening that cachers make an effort and I decided to send each person a quick message of thanks from then onwards.

New Hampshire and Vermont followed where cacher Al81 was running "The Harpoon Brewery Octoberfest Road Race for The Norris Cotton Cancer Centre", a distance of 3.6 miles with Lee also tagging along, not sure if that was a lot of exercise for him, but after the fest he was dropped off in a lovely quiet park to rest a while.

I'm sorry to report that the next person, who again I appreciate took the time to pick up the TB, commented that they were going home to Colorado and will drop it off ASAP. Obviously I don,t know the circumstances, but they didn't place Lee Memorial TB in a cache for 9 months (19/10/10 to 11/7/11). We had given up hope and believed he had gone for good. How wrong we were!!(To be continued)

Lee's incredable Journey continues in the next episode, and oh! boy did some great geocachers give him a good time with lots of travelling, especially for his birthday and Christmas during 2011.