So, it’s been 464 days since Herbie went missing…

Who’s Herbie?   Ah, man – where ya been?   Find out about Herbie here…

Anyway, after getting the word out to the local news and still having no luck finding him I had given him up for lost.   Poor little guy!

Once I accepted he wasn’t coming back I had to decide what to do to fill the void he would be leaving on my next trip.

Luckily, at the time, my next trip wasn’t going to be for awhile but, now, as my next trip is just over a month away, it’s time to put some serious thought into what’s to be done with this “Herbie Void”…

Of course I tried to find his identical twin – that would have been the easiest solution.   I mean, come on, these stuffed animals are mass produced- surely I can just go over to the nearest department store and pick up another one…

Yeah, not so much…

I came close as a friend found his older (blue) brother in a store downtown but, alas, he was a foot tall (twice as tall as Herbie) – kinda hard to transport on my journeys

Next I turned to the internet – surely I would be able to find an online store and purchase a new one…

I actually found the manufacturer page and got, really, really excited only to see the “sorry this item is no longer available” text next to the price.

Sigh…

I soon had to come to the sad conclusion that Herbie was truly lost and gone forever!

Now, as my new trip quickly approaches, my thoughts have been racing as to what to do to fill this void.

Initially I was just going to get a new stuffed animal to travel with but that just seemed so wrong.   Was I really ready to just give up on Herbie?

And then as I was in one of my early morning “half awake/half asleep” dazes this week I thought of the perfect homage to Herbie…

Throughout USSR Trip 2015 I will be putting up “Missing” posters of Herbie everywhere I visit and, who knows, maybe just maybe, he’ll turn up…