What a success!

Wow! Saturday was fantastic. Both balloons, the girls and the boys, were filled up with helium and were launched around 9:30am and 9:50am at Hudson Mills Metropark in Dexter, MI. We watched them float up until we couldn't see them anymore. The girls team then searched for a signal from their GPS, and it reported accurately every 10 minutes. Unfortunately, the boys team's GPS lost signal, and it has still not been found. On the girls GPS signal, it looked like it was heading where we expected, toward Ypsilanti, going East. The recovery team then all decided to drive to Ypsilanti for lunch. The girls signal then kept reporting in the same spot, so we knew the balloon had landed. The map said it landed in Belville, Michigan, about 15 minutes from Ypsilanti. We then all got in our cars and used the map to find where the balloon landed. It took us a few tries, but we finally found the right spot. It landed in a man's backyard, so we had to knock on the door to see if we could search his property. The man came out, and said we were welcome to search his property. He was very nice, and he had actually been a teacher himself, and he graduated from the University of Michigan! Almost right away, we spotted our balloon, just to the side of a riverbank. We were so happy to find it! The man then showed a couple of us around his property, and told us it had been in his family since the Huron Native Americans. Very cool! He also showed us a baby turtle that recently hatched in his backyard. We then all got pictures with the man, and headed home. It was an incredible day and we are all so happy we found one of the balloons! Huge thank you to the man who's property it landed on.

However, we are still looking for the boys balloon, and we are hoping to find it soon!

Be sure to check out the "Photos and Videos tab, as well as the "Launch photos and videos". It has photos from the GoPro attached to the gondola on the balloon, as well as photos from the launch and photos from the process.