Balloon Guy

I've received basically the same article from at least two people (thanks Peabo and Maria!).

The basic gist of the article is that a guy filled 100-odd helium balloons, tied them to his lawn chair and floated 193 miles.

There is a word for that, Leaguers: Totally awesome.

Also: Balls.

In this era of "pioneers" being defined by which CEO of a company which happened to build a nifty piece of software, give me a dude who straps 105 balloons to a lawn chair, packs a brown bag lunch and cruises 193 miles. Humanity has more or less lost its taste for adventure, so every once in a while it's up to a guy with a half-baked plan and a love of colorful balloons to really break the mold.

I swear, back in the 1920's this guy would have been a national hero and had a sandwich or something named after him. Even today we'd be like "Why do they call it a Couch Sandwich?" and your trivia-spouting friend would say "Oh, it's named after Kent Couch." And you would totally know what that means.

Mr. Balloon Jockey, I salute thee! It would take three or four times that many balloons to lift my XXXL-sized carcass (plus the thermos of coffee) across the sky, and I don't even know where to get big ballons, anyway. But I'm a lot jealous.

I suppose I'd also need a fairly durable lawn chair...

Anyhow, Thanks for accomplishing what they said probably shouldn't be done. And I think was a topic once on Mythbusters. So go figure.