Girl's 'Good Luck' Balloon Travels 1,000 Miles to Texas
A family in Ohio found a balloon that a Texas eight-grader had released.
— -- Up, up and away!
Last week, Avery Lewis, an 8th grader from Cisco, Texas, got balloons as a good luck token from her friends and family, during her varsity cheerleader tryouts. Those balloons made an epic journey.
“We send our kids candy, balloons and things for good luck for their tryouts,” Avery’s mom, Lynsey Lewis, told ABC News.
On Friday night, she released one into the sky with a handwritten message that said, “Hello, all the way from Cisco, TX.”
“She said, ‘Mama, I want to write on the balloon and let it go,’” Lewis recalled.
“It still had plenty of helium in it. She wrote the message in Sharpie marker and she let it go," she continued. "It got stuck on the tree in our front yard right away, on its journey up, but it finally made it out of the tree and it went on its way.”
It took a weekend until the balloon touched down, much further away than anyone had anticipated -- about 1,000 miles.
“She couldn’t believe it,” Lewis said of her daughter’s reaction when they heard where the balloon had been found. “She was like, ‘No way.’ It was just wild.”
On Sunday morning, April Pope, of Eaton, Ohio, was taking an annual Easter morning walk around her boyfriend’s family farm when they stumbled upon the balloon. It had landed in their old family cemetery on the sprawling property.
“The kids always do an egg hunt and then we go walking around. We always look for arrowheads and stuff on the creek,” Pope said. “I said, ‘Oh there’s a balloon over there. We went back and got it and, sure enough, it said Cisco, Texas."
She posted the picture to Facebook, on the Cisco Chamber of Commerce page. Twenty minutes later, she was in touch with the senders.
The mystery had been solved and the families from different states connected.
“For it to go that far in two days is just amazing,” said Pope. "We couldn’t believe the writing was so legible.”
Avery’s mom thinks the balloon’s journey is symbolic of something more meaningful.
“She let it go on Good Friday," Lewis said. "We are Christians, so for it to be found in a cemetery on Resurrection Sunday is just really special."
The balloon did turn out to be lucky; Avery made the varsity cheerleading team.
“It brought us luck in so many ways,” said Lewis.
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