Papa November

Do you remember those balloon launches from when you were in elementary school? Well, I thought it would be fun to recreate that for my 2 year old son (fun for me). I'm sure it may also prove valuable to science.
It wasn't the spectacular experience I remembered. It seems that the little kid aeronautic knowledge that allowed my balloons to find there way 100's of miles from home is now lost to me. Actually, that last part is pure speculation; I don't think anyone found a single balloon launched by my hand, they could have landed on top of the school for all I know.
Either way, I now have no balloon launch skills.
I think my choice of balloon was a bad start. In my office when it is your birthday you come in to find several balloons tied to you desk. It was someone's birthday today. How spectacular could it be with used office birthday balloons? Not very.
I then looked around the house to find one of those little note cards we used to write our critical return info on. I couldn't find one so I settled on a piece of paper torn from my wife's planner. I had to tear it down very small because by this time the balloons were barely able to hold the tremendous weight of their strings, let alone a gum wrapper sized piece of paper with ink on it. That left me with room to write "Please tell me where my balloon was found, Grant (2yrs old)" with my email and "launched from 8th and Elm/Denver". I trimmed the string hanging off the balloon for greater lift and we headed to the backyard/launch site.
It took some convincing to get Grant to release the balloon, but he finally did and off soared the balloon with all of our info. It rose majestically and got stuck in the neighbors tree across the alley. They'll probably just yell over the fence instead of emailing us about it's journey.
We learned from the first launch which I explained to Grant had really only been a "test launch". You must launch from an open space.
The second balloon was released from the middle of 8th ave (I explained to Grant that you should never stand in the middle of the street as I stood in the middle of the street). Where will this one find it's way? Some farm town on the plains? Kansas? Utah maybe? We may never know, but it was last seen rolling across the lawn of the church across the street from my house. If you find it, email Grant and let him know.