Travel Tips

When I was a little girl, I used to dream of flying all the time. In one especially vivid dream, I had helium balloons tied to my legs and arms, and I was floating over the neighborhood houses, dodging trees and birds.

Larry Walters is the coolest, he actually brought my dream to life! Here's his story (it could only have happened in California!). Reading this article gave me one of the best laughs of my life, it is SO bizarre.

Sadly, he later committed suicide. I guess my hero had terrible bouts of depression...

In case you can't read it in the attached jpeg, here's the text:

"Larry Walters wend to the local Army-Navy surplus store and purchased 45 weather balloons and several tanks of helium. He securely strapped the balloons to his sturdy lawn chair and anchored the chair to the bumper of his jeep and inflated the balloons with the helium. Larry packed several sandwiches and a 6-pack of Miller Lite and loaded his pellet gun, figuring he could pop a few balloons when it was time to descend. Larry's plan was to lazily float up to a height of about 30 feet above his back yard and come back down in a few hours.

"Things didn't quite work out for Larry. When he cut the cord anchoring the lawn chair to his jeep, he streaked into the LA sky as if shot from a cannon. He didn't level off at 30 feet, but at 16,000 feet. At that height, he couldn't risk shooting any of the balloons. So he stayed there, drifting cold and frightened for more than 14 hours, when he found himself in the primary approach corridor of LAX.

"A Pan Am pilot first spotted Larry. He radioed the tower and described passing a guy in a lawn chair...with a gun! Radar confirmed the existence of an object floating 16,000 feet above the airport. LAX emergency procedures swung into full alert and a helicopter was dispatched to investigate.

"The offshore breeze began to flow and carried Larry out to sea. Right on Larry's heels was the rescue helicopter. The helicopter ascended to a position several hundred feet above Larry and lowered a rescue line. Larry snagged the line, with which he was hauled back to shore. As soon as Larry was hauled to earth, he was arrested by waiting members of the LAPD for violating LAX airspace."

I'm still doubled over, thinking about that Pan Am pilot's first glimpse of Larry!