Similar Bermuda Triangles Mystery Cache

I’m psyched! I bought a hot air balloon at a garage sale for $93. I thought it was a great deal, because I talked the lady down $16!! It just didn’t come with the basket part. I rigged up a cool lawn chair that our neighbor was throwing away in the dumpster, so I dove for it. FREEBIE! I bought some ropes, cables, connectors, fire extinguisher, parachute, digital camera, a new hat, Doritos and a 14 pack of Dr. Pepper, all on Craig’s List, and it only costs another $380. I’m going to take photos from the air and sell them to Google Earth! My million-dollar plan.

The plan is coming together! It did take me about 44 hours to build my “airworthy craft”, but time is nothing when it is a labor of love.
I traded my Pete Rose baseball card and had to fill my buddy Tom’s 1978 Ford 150 pick-up with gas, in order to get him to haul my gear and balloon to the launch site. That was another $45, even with my 5 cent off per gallon coupon! I only had 2 twenty’s and four ones, Note to self: “I owe Tom a dollar.”

Launch day! It was a bright and early Saturday morning the 15th of September. A cool, 46 degrees. We had a leggy audience of 3 kids with skateboards and a lady walking her 2 dogs, as we started to assemble the lawn chair, burners and balloon, in Heart of the City Park at the Nicollet Commons. It’s a perfect launch site, with a circular area with paths leading to it. Aliens would probably use it as well, if the crop circles were overgrown! I was all set up, had my Caribou Turtle Latte, double shot vanilla, no froth, I tied my 14 pack of Dr. Pepper to my lawn chair, stuffed the Doritos between my parachute and seat back, donned my new Chevy hat, and was ready to launch! Winds were calm, balloon inflated, the tether tied to Tom’s trailer hitch. Lift-Off!! Note to self: “Making history at 8:56am.” I gave Tom the thumbs up sign, and he cut the tether rope with his not so sharp, Swiss Army Knife. My first aerial photo was of plumber Tom, which I knew Google Earth wouldn’t buy! My launch pad looked like all magnets pointed there, thus attractive to aliens.

I was in heaven! A sunny morning, with no clouds and no breeze, it was a perfect day. At least Tom could stay there and wait for me to come back down. Quite the nice view from up here.

Suddenly, a stiff, northwest breeze picked up. Note to self: “Time 9:02am, I forgot to use the bathroom after my coffee.” Trusting the old faithful and pretty darn accurate “wet finger technique” I yelled down to Tom. He licked his finger and held it high as he checked the wind conditions. Tom yells back, “My finger says: winds at 34 mph, from 337.5 degrees NNW, better hang on tight. And don’t forget I work today at 4:15!” Accuracy is vital, I always say. To me the wind felt calm, I was just moving towards Lakeville. It would be a nice sight seeing trip. Tom would just have to follow me, and pick me up wherever I land. If I jumped from here, I’d probably just miss the Civic Center Ice Arena, assuming my parachute opened.

As fast as I started to move I stopped all progress and my ground speed was zero. Note to self: “Time 9:17am. I don’t see Tom following me, but he better see me as I’m a mile up from the ground!” (He must have stopped at Starbucks for a mocha frappaccino.) Looking straight down to see what field I may end up in and take another photo, a NWA commercial airbus roars underneath me, almost scaring me out of my lawn chair! I reeled back and crushed my bag of Doritos. I thought I better land, so I slowly let out air, and landed. Note to self: “Two bounce landing. Kiss the ground, 9:52am.” I must have drifted into the Bermuda Triangle…if there really is one.

You can check your triangular guesses for this bermudian puzzle on Geochecker.com.