by Roy Exum
posted July 4, 2008
 Roy Exum |
Early this morning Ken will quite literally ride his lawn chair into the sunrise as he aspires to float in it all the way to Idaho from his Stop ‘N Go mini-market parking lot in Bend, Oregon. He’ll tie about 150 latex party balloons – red and blue and green and orange and yellow – filled with helium to his throne and – very quietly – off he’ll go
You might have seen him recently, be it on Jay Leno or “Good Morning America,” but here we have a man with a purpose and anyone who wants to hoist themselves on high in a lawn chair that doesn’t even have a seat belt is certainly all right by me.
The balloons, which literally obscure Ken and the aluminum lawn chair at first, will be tethered before takeoff, or liftoff as the case may be, but Ken’s got it all figured out. He’s got a 15-pound bucket of water, you see, and if he wants to go higher, he trickles out some of the water. If he wants to go lower, he shoots out a few balloons with his pellet gun.
The whole adventure started when Couch, now 48 and of reasonably sound mind, saw a TV documentary on a zany ex-Vietnam vet named Larry Walters, who did much the same thing in 1982 and was fined $1,500 when his prank zipped him up to 12,000 feet and he actually violated air space at Los Angeles International.
Ken has gotten into the rhythm of flying around every Independence Day. His first trip ended in something of a panic when he had to bail out and use a parachute to save his life (the descent got a little too quick), but last year he got 193 miles from his Shell gas station before he crashed into a cluster of sagebrush so his appetite as an aeronaut has never been stronger.
His deal is to ride the winds that come across the Pacific. Strapped to his lawn chair, other than a new parachute, is a blanket in case he gets too cold and a tank of oxygen in case he gets too high, and his in-flight meals consist of beef jerky like they sell at his Stop N Go, along with some hard-boiled eggs and candy bars. He’ll also carry along some water, but, as he is quick to mention, there is no restroom where his chair is going so you don’t drink much.
His toughest obstacle is the Wallowa Mountain range in northeastern Oregon, but he has done his research and figures he’ll still have plenty of helium to cross over into Idaho. He’s got duct tape and plastic ties in case the lawn chair gets a little … er, loose and he says the altimeter he uses is the real key.
“You can’t feel yourself go up and down – you’re floating! All the way you go it is like a seesaw – up and down, up and down ,” he told the Associated Press. He’ll also carry a hand-held GPS device and his journey will be carefully kept up to date on his website, www.couchballoons.com.
Oh, he knows it’s a little kooky, but that’s part of the lure. “I don’t mind if people think I’m nuts. I’ve done my research and I don’t care,” he told Jeff Barnard of the AP.
“The first time, nobody wanted to be involved at all. They thought I was a lunatic … or a balloon-atic. My friends shunned me. But this time it’s different. I’ve even got a corporate sponsor!”
For the record, the total expense of the flight, or float, is around $6,000 and most of that is for the helium gas. He claims the ride itself is a lot of fun. “There’s not much stress,” he said when you are just floating along “but there’s a little on the way down. You’ve got a few navigational issues you have to deal with, but there is nothing you can do except enjoy it.”
So this weekend, lie back and relax like Ken Couch plans to do. Enjoy it. Just be thankful you don’t have to pop a balloon every now and again.
royexum@aol.com
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