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Balloon bingo - Printable Version

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Balloon bingo - Brice - 2024-01-18

I've been kicking around an idea to make finding mylar balloons a little more fun.  Originally I thought to make a Balloon BINGO game, but I'm having a hard time coming up with 24 categories (5x5 with free center square) that aren't too specific as to be nearly impossible.  So, now I'm thinking it's better just to try to collect them all.  For the record, I have collected at least one of each of these in the past, so I know it's possible. Suggestions are welcome! 

  1. Real animal
  2. Foreign language
  3. Solid color
  4. Transparent
  5. Latex
  6. Get well
  7. Mother's day
  8. Father's day
  9. Happy Birthday
  10. Marvel
  11. Disney
  12. Fictional character (not disney or marvel)
  13. Valentines
  14. Other holiday (e.g. easter,  christmas)
  15. Bouquet (2 or more connected)
  16. Other celebration (e.g. graduation, retirement)
  17. Still holding gas
  18. More than 5 miles from pavement (straight line)
  19. Above 5000 feet elevation
  20. Dripping wet
  21. Glitter bomb (so badly decayed it leaves sparklies on your hands, pack, etc.)
  22. Non-round shape (e.g. star, heart)


I almost forgot to mention, if you find a balloon that coveres multiple categories, you can only count it once!

RE: Balloon bingo - MojaveGeek - 2024-01-18

LOL, that's a great idea, I'll have to take the list out next trip. We figure 3 balloons / day is our normal haul.

RE: Balloon bingo - Beardilocks - 2024-01-18

You gotta have an “unidentifiable” category. At least 20% of the ones I find are too faded.

Love the glitter bomb category. My least favorite. Other than maybe spider-filled.

I know it’s covered in others but I like the idea of “wildly vague” category. Like the “Celebrate!” one I got today.

RE: Balloon bingo - trailhound - 2024-01-19

We once came across a balloon that was still inflated.  I punched a hole in it and took a deep breath of the helium gas.  My voice went up several octaves.  Fran was aghast.  "What are you doing breathing that shit?"

RE: Balloon bingo - AlanMcR - 2024-01-24

Just added Valentines and Happy Birthday to my mylar balloon bingo card on this last trip.

And I found a 1902 Sears wheelbarrow in a canyon near the Amargosa Cutoff. It was in perfect condition because the last owner had propped it upside down against the canyon wall. The wheel even spun smoothly.

RE: Balloon bingo - Brice - 2024-01-24

(2024-01-24, 09:00 PM)AlanMcR Wrote: Just added Valentines and Happy Birthday to my mylar balloon bingo card on this last trip.

And I found a 1902 Sears wheelbarrow in a canyon near the Amargosa Cutoff.  It was in perfect condition because the last owner had propped it upside down against the canyon wall.  The wheel even spun smoothly.

Neat!  Where's the Amargosa cutoff?

RE: Balloon bingo - MojaveGeek - 2024-01-25

(2024-01-19, 11:14 AM)trailhound Wrote: We once came across a balloon that was still inflated.  I punched a hole in it and took a deep breath of the helium gas.  My voice went up several octaves.  Fran was aghast.  "What are you doing breathing that shit?"

That's great. I'll have to do that some day Smile

RE: Balloon bingo - wyethia - 2024-03-25

Reviving this older but always relevant thread:

I suggest 2 additional categories:

1. scientific (weather balloons etc)
2. balloons with return postcards attached.

and maybe a special category to call early bingo - a bouquet of 5 or more?

I am glad I am not the only one dragging the nasty things back to a trash can where they belong.

RE: Balloon bingo - Beardilocks - 2024-03-25

Huh. I’ve literally never found one with anything attached other than ribbon (which is always maddeningly tangled in the bush).

The closest we’ve come to weather balloons is debris in washes from weather stations placed on peaks. Which happens alarmingly regularly.

RE: Balloon bingo - wyethia - 2024-03-25

I've only found one postcard balloon, unfortunately too faded to read the address, but evidently sent out by some school kids.  

I've never picked up a weather balloon but I did release a few as the designated gofer for the NOAA employee assigned to a fire I was working on.  They were some sort of latex, not mylar, and not very big.  Payload was just a reflector so they could track its direction with a theodolite as it went up.  I doubt they got very far as downwind was the pyrocumulus with a big anvil on top. Needless to say this is a story from many years ago. I am sure they have much more high tech gear to track wind speed and direction now.