Interesting find while hunting...

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bang_bang

bang_bang

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Elk Creek, Virginia
A nice chilly day in Southwest Virginia, almost perfect for Doe-Day in muzzleloader. After having another hunter spook some does that were almost into my shooting lane, my friend and I decided to look elsewhere for a nice doe to make into some jerky. He took off up the road to another field, but I decided to stick around and walk a bit, hoping to jump one up.

Here is where it gets interesting. As I was walking through the rows of Christmas trees on top of the largest hill, I noticed something white on the ground. When I picked it up, it turned out to be an index card with a burst balloon still tied to the end of it. This had maybe been there for a night or two. After reading a nice message with the Teacher's and student's name on it ("Always try your best to be drug free!") I flipped the card over to read:

If found please return to: Marbut Theme School 5776 Marbut Road Lithonia, GA 30058

This by far made my day. After a quick look on mapquest, it came out to be over a 6 hour drive and 370 miles from my house. Lithonia is in the Atlanta area.
 
Nice! The other day I'm stalk hunting. I see something definitely unusual on the ground maybe 50 yards away. Purple and yellow is not often seen in the deep woods. A quick look through the binos verifies it's one of those silvery-and-colored balloons imprinted with stuff for special occasions. It came to rest there in the same way as yours, after the helium had lost its buoyancy (or it burst from lack of air pressure). 370 miles though - very cool.
 
Yes, I was very surprised when I found it. I am going to take a picture tomorrow with my camo gear on holding the card and send to them along with a letter.

Further researched proved the card is from a 2nd grade class, obviously showing their anti-drug awareness. I wonder how many other balloons have been found? 1 in a million shot for me to find this....
 
When I was in elementary school in the early 80s in NW Jersey, we used to release those all the time. They usually had some prize for the person who's ballon traveld the farthest, and a pizza party for the class who's ballons taveled the farthest on average.

Never foudn a card, though I understand its pretty popular ting to do.
 
That kind of find is always fun. I once found a bottle with a note in it, so I began to launch many of them myself. A year later a young woman found one of them and wrote me a letter saying it was the thrill of her life as she had always wanted to find a note in a bottle on the beach. Doesn't take much to make us happy sometimes, does it?
 
My grandaughter and I were horseback to set up a elk camp about 10 mles north of our home. She sees a purple party balloon hanging from a tree and explains "thats my balloon". It was from her party two years before.
 
Years ago my mother found one of those carded baloons in her front yard, I don't know the particulars but I do remember that it traveled far, and she responded with a letter and sent the baloon back with it.
 
isn't that awful close to littering?
Actually in CT it is illegal to launch balloons.
Click to expand...

It only took 10 posts for this to start...

This will make some little kids day. I launched a balloon when I was a kid and someone called me back after finding it about 2 weeks later. I can still remember the excitment I felt and that was over 30 years ago.
 
Exactly coyotehitman, I would really like to meet a person who would press charges over a group of second grader launching balloons. This has to of been a class project aimed at anti-drug awareness. Also, I was just as tickled as the little girl that is going to receive her postcard back with a picture of me holding it.

Littering...pffft. I kinda think that they wouldn't of launched them unless they checked their laws. I'll post pics in a few, have to set up another account at photbucket...
 
We were living in CT when they passed that law. But it wasn't for littering. They said the animals would eat the balloons and die. All I said was HUH?Before that the kids in school would send out all kinds of messages hoping someone would write back to them. And I'm sure there is a law against my sending bottled notes out to sea as well. But hey, they can't give me life in prison....... I think.
 
Litter!

I've come across those milar balloons in the back country. Deep in the Wilderness. Pasaytan, Noisey Diobsud, Chelan and Mount Baker, Southern Cascades and the Olympics. Just about anywhere in Washington there's litter that's flown through the air to land in our pristine hunting grounds.

-I've seen regular baloons too. But they seem to decay much faster. Those milar ones seem to withstand the elements for ions.

-Steve
 
I had a similar experience several years ago, finding a deflated balloon hangin' in a small tree in the middle of a 600 acre swamp. The address on the card showed it had come from a small town almost a 100 miles away and had been released a month earlier. I almost didn't send the card back, but only a few days after I mailed it I received a reply. It seemed I was the only response outta 40 balloons released as a 3rd grade science experiment and the class had almost given up hope of getting any responses.
 
We did that back when I was in second grade in 1970something. Never got any of ours back.

When I was a teenager I found one from a school about 50 miles away. Probably made the kid's day to get the card back. Would have for me back then.
 
I found one a few years ago while deer hunting, it had a ladys name and phone # i called her and told her where i found it, she said that her and her dad had been doing this for years, her dad had passed away but she was still doing it i think she said that it was a special day (b day maybe that that let them go) csa
 
I might be biased but I've seen too many FB surgeries in practice and obviously wild animals can't call the vet.
 
I was helping a friend trim the trees at his new house, and found a note like that. It had been sent aloft by a new floral shop three years earlier(!), and after I phoned them, I took home a free bouquet for my wife!
 
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