Nascent Drama

[The Dork Lord]

"She called and said, 'The balloon guy in the lawn chair just flew by the market, and if you look out the door you can see him.

 

[The Dork Lord]

"We go outside to look, and lo and behold, there he is.

 

[The Dork Lord]

He's flying by probably 100 to 200 feet off the ground.

 

[The Dork Lord]

"He takes his BB gun and shoots some balloons to lower himself to the ground. When he hit the ground he released all the little tiny balloons.

 

[The Dork Lord]

People were racing down the road with cameras. They were all talking and laughing."

 

[The Dork Lord]

Couch covered about 235 miles in about nine hours after lifting off at dawn from his gas station

 

[The Dork Lord]

riding in a green lawn chair rigged with an array of more than 150 giant party balloons.

 

[The Dork Lord]

Sandi Barton, 58, who has lived her whole life in this town of about 300,

 

[The Dork Lord]

said she and her brother-in-law were the first ones to reach Couch and shook his hand.

 

[The Dork Lord]

"Not much happens in Cambridge," she said,

 

[The Dork Lord]

adding that about half the town turned out.

 

[The Dork Lord]

"He came right over our pea field,"

 

[The Dork Lord]

she said. "He was coming down pretty fast."

 

[The Dork Lord]

She said Couch gave some of

 

[The Dork Lord]

his balloons to local children.

 

[The Dork Lord]

It was not clear where

 

[The Dork Lord]

Couch went after he landed.

 

[The Dork Lord]

It began after Couch, clutching a big mug of coffee, kissed his wife and kids goodbye,

 

[The Dork Lord]

then patted their shivering Chihuahua, Isabella, on the head.

 

[The Dork Lord]

After spilling off some cherry-flavored Kool-Aid that served as ballast, Couch got a push from the ground crew so he could clear light poles