Checking out a flyer he found for Haunted Fountains on Maybee Road, Keith Sterry and his daughter thought it sounded like fun.
He didn’t think he could make it, though. A resident of Franklin, Conn., attending the Halloween-themed event would mean a 1,400-mile round trip.
Sterry’s flyer dropped in his field via helium balloon, one of about 600 given to children and their parents at Taste of Clarkston, Sept. 27.
A victim of a poor slip knot or handling, the balloon got loose and took to the sky, riding eastward wind currents perhaps across southern Ontario and New York to the east coast state of Connecticut, about 700 miles.
Sterry, who has never been to Michigan, was collecting firewood for his farm when he saw the balloon lying in a hayfield. He mailed it back with a note.
“My daughter and I would love to come but it is a little too far to drive,” he wrote.
“It’s too funny,” said Tammy Robak, bar manager for Fountains. “We couldn’t believe it.”
Taste of Clarkston attracted about 16,000 people this year, according to Clarkston Area Chamber of Commerce.
“It went very well ? we’re very happy,” Robak said. “We ran out of food twice.”
? Phil Custodio