Interest: Sisterhood of the Travelling Ponies

[Salli]

So, I'm working on my Vacation Swap pony and having a blast. And I'm thinking, "Wouldn't it be fun to have one of my ponies (my ponysona pony) visit places around the world and I could live vicariously through her?"
Of course it would. But I'd need some help.
So, my question is, would anyone be interested in doing a non-keeping pony swap thing (technical term ) kind of like a foreign-exchange student program for ponies?

******UPDATED:*******
3/20/12 3:30 PST


Ok, so the mods are worried (rightly so ) about lost ponies on this, so I have a new(ish) idea.


People trade ponies all the time, right? What if we started trading ponies temporarily? It would work just like a trade with the senders and sendees being responsible for their own transactions, just like if you were buying/selling or trading ponies for keeps.
This way, people could do multiple trades at once for a visit (like if Kiwisquirtbottle wants to 'host' a small herd of ponies during May 12th-May 19th if she were visiting the Alamo, then she can advertise). BUT she would be responsible for shipping all those ponies back, so she should think about how many ponies she wants (can afford) to 'host'. Then she could ship her pony one at a time to the people whose ponies she hosted.
OR if you want to handle 1 at a time, I could ship my pony to Wiccanpony in the UK while she ships hers to me and we could work out between us (PMing) where she would like her pony to visit. Maybe she wants more macabre locations, fansites (like Harry Potter world or Twilight film sites), waterfalls, or architecture, goverment buildings, etc. I could give her a list of places and say "pick 2 or 3".


This way you could do group temporary trades or single, you could send 'extras' like treats or memorabilia, you could have a 3-D journal or share electronically. You can send your pony out when you can afford it and hold back if you are busy. Maybe people could swap for the holidays or something. (I'd love my pony to visit Salem, MA for Halloween!) You could send your pony to places you are interested in (i.e. I love Canada, but maybe you couldn't care less about it). This would also mean that multiple people from the same region could host. They may offer different sites.


So, the nitty gritty. People would be responsible just like in a permanent trade. So, pay attention to feedback #'s etc. I'm going to ask the mods if this plan is 'ok' (I don't see why it wouldn't) and what the best way to advertise for 'temporary trades' would be. I would recommend though having a non-expensive pony to be your 'travel ambassador'. Think about customizing a g3, g4 or baby g1 t keep it small for shipping Basically, don't make it an irreplaceable pony.


Bottom Line: This is still on, we'll work it out somehow, please stay tuned and pipe up if you are interested.

My only problem is I want my pony to go EVERYWHERE She will finished and shipped out to SOMEONE on May 1st

moved to the corral - Jupi

[Varkolak]

this sounds fun!

or even if someone were worried about losing their pony, they could go get a $5 g4 one for the swap. or customize it, etc.. etc..
this sounds, like something i'd like to do.

[Salli]

Sweet! I call dibs on the Pacific Northwest. (Pacific ocean, Space Needle, Mount St. Helens, Forests, I also live close to a lot of filming sites from the Twilight movies if anyone wants that)


Varkolak has dibs on the US midwest.

[fiwen30]

This sounds excellent, though it'll take a lot of organising and trying to make sure noone flakes :/ I think there's been 'travelling' ponies before, either arranged here or over in the Corral although I can't remember who hosted them.

If this gets the go ahead, and can be properly arranged, I call dibs on Northern Ireland!

[Salli]

Oops, this should probably be moved to the Corral. Also, I have more feedback on the TP, and by the time this starts I'm sure I will have more one here


My idea for the packaging: Everypony is responsible for their original packaging. Each box should be re-packed as originally then wrapped in brown/white paper to re-ship. Does that make sense? I'm much better at organizing than explaining.

I will work up a plan to submit.

[KiwiSquirtBottle]

This sounds like lots of fun! Are we keeping a physical journal or digital journal (physical would add to the shipping.) I'm in Texas so It'd probably be best (if I can play, too) to not get a pony during end of July/August/beginning of September as it's super hot then and I'd worry about heat damage.

[Salli]

Yea! I was hoping someone from Texas would pipe up! You are right about the cost of the journal. What if we did it electronically on a thread here, and then if anyone (ME!) wants to send 3-D memorabilia, we could mail it straight to the pony's owner. I want to have the pix sent electronically for sure. That way the ponies' owners could print out her the journal entries in whatever font they wanted to make it look like 'their pony wrote it'? I was thinking summer because that's definitely the best time to get pix here, unless you want a pic of your pony in a downpour
We could also all ship our ponies to you in May/June and you could do your traveling all in one shot while your pony tours during all summer? It might be worked out, anyway, you officially have dibs on Texas/the US South. (p.s. US people, we can still use the East Coast, West (i.e. AZ, NM, CA) HI/AK.

I'm also hoping for someone from England/Scotland/Wales, France/Germany, Australia/NZ or all of the above Asia/ South America/ Scandinavia would rock too, if we have anyone on here willing Man, I wish we could do Egypt.


Post Merge: March 18, 2012, 12:02:05 PM

So, I feel like an idiot, but I hadn't thought of having all the ponies in one place at a time. (Duh) This would save on travel costs. It could work like this:


Example:
We all ship our ponies to Kiwisquirtbottle on May 1.
When she gets them all, she checks in.
Then she can take all the ponies to someplace like The Alamo (depending on where she is, that was the only Texas landmark I could think of) and takes individual pix of each pony in front of it. (She can do more sites, or restaraunts, etc... or even take a group photo)
Then she writes a journal entry from a pony's point of view (i.e. May 12th, 2012, Today I visited the Alamo in San Antonio. It was 90 degrees! So hot! It was fun though and I had a great time! Then we went out to get BBQ and it was amazing!...blah blah blah...you get the idea)
Then she posts the trip pix/entry to check in.
Then she packs them all up and ships them to the next person we have planned.


What do you think? Our city hosts could also have a checklist of sites of interest they could visit?

[wiccanpony1]

ME lol,I love this idea im in the uk:) i love the idea of my pony visiting places i have never been x x

[carlabarla]

This is a neat idea, I'm not any where interesting (middle of no where sask, Canada) but it will be neat to see if this takes off

[Salli]

You have dibbs, Wiccanpony Do you think you could get a pic of my pony by/in a red phone booth? Do they still have that?


Carlabarla, can you get pix with a canadian mountie? Or some cool Native American stuff? Even in a museum? I've only been to Victoria, BC, but Canada is cool If you would be willing to do what it takes, I think Canada would be great! Part of this is learning about other places, and I know almost nothing about Saskatchewan.

Here are some ideas about what I want to do with the ponies when I have them: Yo'd only have to do 1 place, but it should at least be a landmark/unique place. I am aiming to do 1 big place (the coast) and 2 easy local ones.
Coast (sunset/ Boating/ surfing/ volleyball game/kites)
Local forest (forest/waterfalls/hiking/camping/fishing- let me know if you have a problem with fake fishing)
Portland sign/ maybe some downtown sites
(Next time I want to do the space needle and Washington state stuff, or if you'd rather have that than the coast just say so

Also,do you think a week is long enough between when you first check in to do your photo op(s) and journal entry and post them? I'm thinking with shipping time I don't want our ponies to be gone forever.


Post Merge: March 18, 2012, 03:45:21 PM

Also, the last 'sister' to ship the ponies will be boxing and shipping them individually. Should we send this person money via paypal to help offset the cost?


The first person will be required to de-package them and re-box them together. What do y'all think?

[carlabarla]

I could always take it to the RCMP heritage museum we actually train pretty all the Mounties here in regina, and could take it to see mega munch our trex

[coinoperatedgirl]

I'm up for some New England/Providence/East Coast/beachy sort of stuff!

[hyenacub]

Well I'm from Nebraska.  Dunno if you'd want me but if so I'm in.  We have an awesome zoo. 

[wiccanpony1]

YAY im in woop woop:)
I will check around for the red phone booths,there are not many left but ill try(googleing it now).I live right by the sea which is home to a old naval ship so i could also take our ponies to be pirates for the day on the victory ship:) Salli I love the idea of my pony visiting the a filming location from Twilight x x

EDIT=think i found a red phone booth 5 mins from my house,i have never noticed it befor x

[Pythia]

I'd be in! New Zealand represent!
I was thinking maybe it would be best done one pony at a time rather than all together - like, I send my pony on to to Wiccanpony, who sends theirs to fiwen who sends theirs to Squirtbottle, etc. Then, once you've taken your pics with the pony you've recieved, you send it on to the next person again. That way it would also possibly save on shipping if they could kind of hop their way across the world and we could send to someone close-ish to us, rather than having to go from NZ to the US then back to Australia and over to the UK etc.