la grande aventure des Mike Kane

Mike Kane in his youth, circa 1975.

Maybe it's a good thing Mike didn't have access to helium balloons around this time. Gawd knows where he might have ended up if he'd become airborne.

As luck would have it, though, a few weeks after this "maiden voyage" photo was shot, Mike was found languishing on this contraption, completely dehydrated and near starvation, floating down the Des Plaines River like some higher-tech Baby Moses drifting along the Nile.